CN114023783A - Display panel, manufacturing method and mobile terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

The application provides a display panel, a manufacturing method and a mobile terminal; the display panel comprises a substrate and a light emitting driving layer positioned on the substrate; wherein the light emission driving layer includes: the light-emitting device is arranged on the substrate and comprises a light-emitting layer made of a semiconductor material and a source electrode and a drain electrode which are positioned on two sides of the light-emitting layer; and a gate electrode positioned at least one side of the light emitting device, the gate electrode being insulated from the light emitting device; the thin film transistor used for controlling the switch and the light emitting structure of the light emitting diode are integrated to form the light emitting thin film transistor with the switch function, so that the step of chip transfer can be omitted, and the problem of limitation of the chip transfer technology to the MiniLED/Micro-LED display panel in the current stage is solved or relieved to a greater extent.

Description

Display panel, manufacturing method and mobile terminal

Technical Field

The application relates to the field of display technologies, in particular to a display panel, a manufacturing method and a mobile terminal.

Background

With the higher demand of the high-level TV market for image quality, the improvement of display image quality becomes a new demand of the high-level TV. At present, the Mini LED/Micro-LED has advantages in brightness and power consumption compared with OLED as a brand-new display technology, and becomes a hot direction in the display field.

However, as the Mini LED/Micro-LED is made smaller and smaller in size, the difficulty of the LED chip transfer process is greater and greater, and at the level of Micro-LED, the conventional die bonding process cannot meet the chip transfer requirement, and the massive transfer technology is not mature, so that the chip transfer technology becomes a key factor limiting the development of Micro-LEDs.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a display panel, a manufacturing method and a mobile terminal, which aim to solve the technical problem that the development of the current Mini LED/Micro-LED display panel is limited due to a chip transfer technology.

In order to solve the technical problem, the technical scheme provided by the application is as follows:

the application provides a display panel, comprising a substrate and a light-emitting driving layer positioned on the substrate; wherein the light emission driving layer includes:

the light-emitting device is arranged on the substrate and comprises a light-emitting layer made of a semiconductor material and a source electrode and a drain electrode which are positioned on two sides of the light-emitting layer; and

and the grid electrode is positioned on at least one side of the light-emitting device and is insulated from the light-emitting device.

In the display panel of the present application, the gate electrode is disposed opposite to the light emitting layer in a first direction;

wherein the first direction is perpendicular to a stacking direction of the source electrode, the light emitting layer and the drain electrode.

In the display panel of the present application, in the first direction, an orthographic projection of the light emitting layer on the gate electrode is located within the gate electrode.

In the display panel of the present application, the display panel further includes a common voltage terminal and an alternating voltage terminal, the source electrode is electrically connected to the common voltage terminal, and the drain electrode is electrically connected to the alternating voltage terminal.

In the display panel of the present application, the display panel further includes a gate insulating layer between the gate electrode and the light emitting layer;

wherein the gate insulating layer includes a first gate insulating portion disposed on a stacked structure formed by the source electrode, the light emitting layer, and the drain electrode, and a second gate insulating portion disposed on a region of the substrate other than the stacked structure.

In the display panel of the present application, the light emitting layer includes at least a first semiconductor layer and a second semiconductor layer, and the materials of the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer are different.

In the display panel of the present application, the material of the first semiconductor layer includes GaAs, and the material of the second semiconductor layer includes AlGaAs.

In the display panel of the present application, in the light-emitting layer, the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer are alternately stacked.

The application also provides a manufacturing method of the display panel, which comprises the following steps:

forming a light emitting device on a substrate, wherein the light emitting device comprises a light emitting layer made of a semiconductor material and a source electrode and a drain electrode which are positioned on two sides of the light emitting layer;

and forming a grid electrode on at least one side of the light-emitting device, wherein the grid electrode is insulated from the light-emitting device.

The application also provides a mobile terminal, which comprises a terminal main body and the display panel, wherein the terminal main body and the display panel are combined into a whole.

Has the advantages that: the thin film transistor used for controlling the switch is integrated with the light emitting structure of the light emitting diode to form the light emitting thin film transistor with the switch function, so that the step of chip transfer can be omitted, the problem of limitation of the chip transfer technology to the Mini LED/Micro-LED display panel in the current stage is solved or relieved to a greater extent, the occupied space of the thin film transistor can be omitted, and the integration level of the LED is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments are briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a first overall structure of a display panel according to the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a second overall structure of a display panel according to the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a third overall structure of a display panel according to the present application;

fig. 4 to 9 are flow charts of the forming process of the display panel according to the present application.

Description of reference numerals:

the light emitting device includes a substrate 100, a light emitting device 200, a light emitting layer 210, a source electrode 220, a drain electrode 230, a gate electrode 240, a gate insulating layer 300, a first gate insulating part 310, and a second gate insulating part 320.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application. Furthermore, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating exemplary embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration and explanation only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. In the present application, unless indicated to the contrary, the use of the directional terms "upper" and "lower" generally refer to the upper and lower positions of the device in actual use or operation, and more particularly to the orientation of the figures of the drawings; while "inner" and "outer" are with respect to the outline of the device.

With the higher demand of the high-level TV market for image quality, the improvement of display image quality becomes a new demand of the high-level TV. At present, the Mini LED/Micro-LED has advantages in brightness and power consumption compared with OLED as a brand-new display technology, and becomes a hot direction in the display field. However, as the Mini LED/Micro-LED is made smaller and smaller in size, the difficulty of the LED chip transfer process is greater and greater, and at the level of Micro-LED, the conventional die bonding process cannot meet the chip transfer requirement, and the massive transfer technology is not mature, so that the chip transfer technology becomes a key factor limiting the development of Micro-LEDs. The present application proposes the following solutions based on the above technical problems.

Referring to fig. 1 and fig. 2, the present application provides a display panel, which includes a substrate 100 and a light emitting driving layer disposed on the substrate 100; wherein the light emission driving layer includes:

a light emitting device 200 disposed on the substrate 100, the light emitting device 200 including a light emitting layer 210 made of a semiconductor material, and a source electrode 220 and a drain electrode 230 located at both sides of the light emitting layer 210; and a gate electrode 240 positioned at least one side of the light emitting device 200, the gate electrode 240 being disposed to be insulated from the light emitting device 200.

In the embodiment of the present application, a light emitting driving layer including the light emitting device 200 and the gate electrode 240 is disposed on the substrate 100, and the light emitting driving layer has both "light emitting" and "driving" functions, so that integration of a Thin Film Transistor (TFT) and a Light Emitting Diode (LED) is achieved. The gate 240 controls whether the drain 230 and the source 220 are turned on or off, and the drain 230 and the source 220 also serve as a positive electrode and a negative electrode of a Light Emitting Diode (LED) light emitting structure, respectively. When the gate 240 is at a positive potential, the drain 230 and the source 220 are turned on, and at this time, a voltage difference is generated between the drain 230 and the source 220 on both sides of the light emitting layer 210 made of a semiconductor material, and carriers (electrons and holes) are injected into the light emitting layer 210, and the electrons and the holes are collected and combined in the light emitting layer 210 to emit light; when the gate 240 is applied with a negative potential, the drain 230 and the source 220 are not turned on, and due to the unidirectional conduction characteristic of the light emitting diode, there are no carriers in the light emitting layer 210, and the Thin Film Transistor (TFT) is turned off and does not emit light.

Through the arrangement, the Thin Film Transistor (TFT) with the switching function and the Light Emitting Diode (LED) with the light emitting function can be combined to realize high integration, the light emitting thin film transistor with the switching function is formed, the step of chip transfer in the Micro-LED is omitted, the current technical difficulty is ingeniously avoided, and the positive electrode and the negative electrode of the Light Emitting Diode (LED) are formed through the source electrode and the drain electrode of the Thin Film Transistor (TFT), so that the space occupied by the TFT can be omitted or reduced, and the high integration is realized.

The technical solution of the present application will now be described with reference to specific embodiments. It should be noted that the following description of the embodiments is not intended to limit the preferred order of the embodiments.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic view of a first overall structure of a display panel according to the present application, in which the source 220 is disposed on the substrate 100, the light emitting layer 210 is disposed on a side of the source 220 away from the substrate 100, and the drain 230 is disposed on a side of the light emitting layer 210 away from the source 220. The orthographic projections of the source 220, the light-emitting layer 210 and the drain 230 on the substrate 100 are completely overlapped, and the gate 240 is disposed at the periphery of the laminated structure formed by the source 220, the light-emitting layer 210 and the drain 230.

In this embodiment, the gate electrode 240 is disposed opposite to the light emitting layer 210 in a first direction X, which is perpendicular to the stacking direction of the source electrode 220, the light emitting layer 210 and the drain electrode 230.

In this embodiment, the drain electrode 230 and the source electrode 220 are components of a thin film transistor and need to be turned on through an active layer, and the light emitting layer 210 made of a semiconductor material and located between the drain electrode 230 and the source electrode 220 also serves as an active layer of the thin film transistor in addition to performing a light emitting function. Therefore, in this embodiment, the gate electrode 240 is disposed opposite to the light emitting layer 210 in the first direction X, so that the gate electrode 240 can control conduction of the source electrode 220 and the drain electrode 230, and switching performance of the thin film transistor is more stable.

In addition, in this embodiment, the gate electrode 240 is disposed on one side of the light emitting layer 210, the drain electrode 230, and the source electrode 220 along the first direction X, and the gate electrode 240 is not stacked with the source electrode layer in a direction perpendicular to the display panel, so that the thickness of the display panel can be reduced to a certain extent, and the display panel can be made thinner.

Referring to fig. 1, in the display panel of the present application, in the first direction X, an orthogonal projection of the light emitting layer 210 on the gate electrode 240 is located in the gate electrode 240. In this embodiment, the light emitting layer 210 serving as the active layer of the thin film transistor can be completely opposite to the gate electrode 240, so as to ensure the gate electrode 240 to accurately control whether the drain electrode 230 and the source electrode 220 are turned on or off, which is helpful to further improve the stability of the switching function of the "light emitting TFT".

In the display panel of the present application, the display panel further includes a common voltage terminal (not shown) and an ac voltage terminal (not shown), the source electrode 220 is electrically connected to the common voltage terminal, and the drain electrode 230 is electrically connected to the ac voltage terminal.

In the present embodiment, the source electrode 220 is electrically connected to a common voltage terminal, so that the source electrode 220 serves as a negative electrode in the light emitting diode structure and is used for injecting electrons into the light emitting layer 210; similarly, the drain 230 is electrically connected to the ac voltage terminal, so that the drain 230 serves as an anode of the led structure and is used for injecting holes into the light emitting layer 210, when a positive voltage is applied to the gate 240, the source 220 and the drain 230 are conducted, and electrons and holes are aggregated in the light emitting layer 210 to emit light.

Through the above arrangement, the electrons and holes gathered and combined in the light emitting layer 210 can be provided by the common voltage terminal and the alternating voltage terminal, so that the sustainability and controllability of the injection and combined light emission of the electrons and the holes are realized, and the light emission controllability is stronger.

Referring to fig. 1, in the display panel of the present application, the display panel further includes a gate insulating layer 300, and the gate insulating layer 300 is located between the gate electrode 240 and the light emitting layer 210. In this embodiment, the gate insulating layer 300 is disposed between the gate electrode 240 and the light emitting layer 210, so that the insulating effect between the gate electrode 240 and the light emitting layer 210 as an active layer is achieved, and the basic switching effect of the "light emitting TFT" is further achieved.

In the present embodiment, the gate insulating layer 300 includes a first gate insulating portion 310 and a second gate insulating portion 320, the first gate insulating portion 310 is disposed on a stacked structure formed by the source electrode 220, the light emitting layer 210, and the drain electrode 230, and the second gate insulating portion 320 is disposed on a region of the substrate 100 except for the stacked structure.

In this embodiment, the first gate insulating part 310 isolates the drain electrode 230, the source electrode 220 and the light emitting layer 210 of the light emitting device 200 from other layers on the display panel, so that the basic "switching" function is achieved, and a good insulating protection function is provided for the light emitting structure formed by the drain electrode 230, the source electrode 220 and the light emitting layer 210. In addition, in this embodiment, the second gate insulating portion 320 is disposed on a region of the substrate 100 except for the stacked structure, so that a good insulating protection effect can be achieved for various traces disposed on the substrate 100, and the circuit stability is improved.

In this embodiment, the gate electrode 240 is located on the second gate insulating portion 320 and disposed on at least one side of the first gate insulating portion 310 away from the stacked structure.

In the present embodiment, referring to fig. 1 to fig. 3, in a light emitting direction perpendicular to the display panel and facing the display panel, a side of the gate electrode 240 away from the substrate 100 is not lower than a side of the light emitting layer 210 away from the substrate 100.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic view of a second overall structure of the display panel of the present application, in this embodiment, a side of the gate 240 away from the substrate 100 is flush with a side of the light emitting layer 210 away from the substrate 100, so that the light emitting layer 210 can correspond to the gate 240, and stable switching performance of the thin film transistor is ensured.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a schematic view of a third overall structure of the display panel according to the present application, in this embodiment, a side of the gate 240 away from the substrate 100 is flush with a side of the drain 230 away from the substrate 100, so that the gate 240 has a remaining portion corresponding to the light emitting layer 210, thereby reducing a risk of unstable switching performance of the thin film transistor due to a process error.

Referring to fig. 1, in the present embodiment, a side of the gate 240 away from the substrate 100 is flush with a side of the second gate insulating portion 320 away from the substrate 100. In this embodiment, by the above arrangement, the stacked structure formed by the gate electrode 240 and the source electrode 220, the light emitting layer 210 and the drain electrode 230 can be arranged at the same height in the direction perpendicular to the display panel, so as to improve the surface flatness of the light emitting driving layer, which is beneficial to continuously forming other film layers on the light emitting driving layer.

In the display panel of the present application, the light emitting layer 210 at least includes a first semiconductor layer and a second semiconductor layer, and the materials of the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer are different. In this embodiment, the material of the first semiconductor layer may include GaAs, and the material of the second semiconductor layer may include AlGaAs.

In this embodiment, the first semiconductor layers and the second semiconductor layers are alternately stacked.

In this embodiment, the light emitting layer 210 is formed by alternately stacking the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer made of different materials, so that the light emitting layer 210 can form a space charge region, i.e., a "PN junction" structure, at an interface of the different semiconductor material layers, and further has a "one-way conduction" characteristic of the light emitting diode, i.e., the "PN junction" is turned on only when the gate electrode 240 is at a positive potential and the drain electrode 230 is at a high potential, and the light emitting layer 210 emits light. When the gate electrode 240 is at a negative potential or the drain electrode 230 is at a low potential (the potential of the drain electrode 230 is lower than that of the source electrode 220), the "PN junction" is not turned on, and the light-emitting layer 210 does not emit light. Through the above arrangement, the light emitting layer 210 can be controlled to emit light or not and has better adjustability, so that a good matching degree is formed with the thin film transistor structure in the light emitting driving layer, and high integration is realized.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a manufacturing method of a display panel, which is used for manufacturing the display panel, and the manufacturing method of the display panel includes:

s100, referring to fig. 4 to 8, a light emitting device 200 is formed on a substrate 100, where the light emitting device 200 includes a light emitting layer 210 made of a semiconductor material, and a source 220 and a drain 230 located at two sides of the light emitting layer 210;

s200, referring to fig. 9, a gate electrode 240 is formed on at least one side of the light emitting device 200, and the gate electrode 240 is insulated from the light emitting device 200.

In the embodiment, the display panel is manufactured through the steps, so that a Thin Film Transistor (TFT) structure and a Light Emitting Diode (LED) in the light emitting driving layer can be formed simultaneously, the space required by the TFT is saved, the whole manufacturing steps are simple, the operation is easy, and the manufacturing difficulty and the cost are lower.

In this embodiment, the step S100 includes:

s110, referring to fig. 4, forming a source electrode layer on the substrate 100 by a chemical deposition method, performing a first patterning process, and forming a source electrode 220 by wet etching;

s120, referring to fig. 5 and 6, forming a semiconductor material layer on the source electrode 220 by a chemical deposition method, and performing a second patterning process, dry etching or wet etching to form the light emitting layer 210;

s130, referring to fig. 7, forming a drain electrode layer on the light emitting layer 210 by a chemical deposition method, performing a third patterning process, and forming a drain electrode 230 by wet etching;

s140, referring to fig. 8, a gate insulating layer 300 is formed on the drain 230 by a chemical deposition method.

In this embodiment, the step S100 is divided into four steps including the steps S110, S120, S130 and S140, so that the source 220, the light emitting layer 210, the drain 230 and the gate insulating layer 300 can be formed on the substrate 100 step by step, and since orthographic projections of the source 220, the light emitting layer 210 and the drain 230 on the substrate 100 are completely overlapped, the same photomask can be adopted in the patterning steps in the steps S110, S120 and S130, so that the number of photomasks can be reduced, and the manufacturing difficulty and cost can be effectively reduced.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, when the semiconductor material layer in the step S120 is also wet etched, the patterning process in the steps S110, S120, and S130 may be performed in the last step, that is, only one etching is performed, and specific steps are as follows:

the step of S100 comprises:

s110, forming a source electrode layer on the substrate 100 by adopting a chemical deposition method;

s120, forming a semiconductor material layer on the source electrode 220 by adopting a chemical deposition method;

s130, forming a drain electrode layer on the light-emitting layer 210 by adopting a chemical deposition method, carrying out patterning treatment, and simultaneously forming a source electrode 220, the light-emitting layer 210 and a drain electrode 230 by adopting wet etching;

and S140, forming a gate insulating layer 300 on the drain electrode 230 by using a chemical deposition method.

In this embodiment, the source electrode 220, the light emitting layer 210, and the drain electrode 230 can be formed by etching only once through the above steps, which not only saves the mask, but also reduces the number of etching times, thereby reducing the manufacturing processes and the manufacturing cost.

In this embodiment, the step S200 includes:

s210, referring to fig. 7, a gate electrode layer is formed on the gate insulating layer 300 by a chemical deposition method, and a fourth patterning process is performed to form a gate electrode 240 by wet etching.

In the embodiment of the application, the light-emitting driving layer comprising the light-emitting device 200 and the grid electrode 240 is arranged on the substrate 100, the light-emitting driving layer combines a Thin Film Transistor (TFT) with a switching function and a light-emitting diode (LED) with a light-emitting function and realizes high integration, and has the functions of light emission and driving, and the light-emitting thin film transistor with the switching function is formed, so that the step of chip transfer in Micro-LEDs is omitted, the difficulty of the current technology is ingeniously avoided, and the positive electrode and the negative electrode of the light-emitting diode (LED) are formed by the source electrode and the drain electrode of the Thin Film Transistor (TFT), so that the space occupied by the TFT can be omitted or reduced, and the high integration is realized.

The display panel, the manufacturing method thereof and the mobile terminal provided by the embodiment of the present application are described in detail above, a specific example is applied in the description to explain the principle and the embodiment of the present application, and the description of the above embodiment is only used to help understanding the method and the core idea of the present application; meanwhile, for those skilled in the art, according to the idea of the present application, there may be variations in the specific embodiments and the application scope, and in summary, the content of the present specification should not be construed as a limitation to the present application.

Claims (10)

1. A display panel includes a substrate and a light emission driving layer on the substrate; wherein the light emission driving layer includes:

the light-emitting device is arranged on the substrate and comprises a light-emitting layer made of a semiconductor material and a source electrode and a drain electrode which are positioned on two sides of the light-emitting layer; and

and the grid electrode is positioned on at least one side of the light-emitting device and is insulated from the light-emitting device.

2. The display panel according to claim 1, wherein the gate electrode is disposed opposite to the light emitting layer in a first direction;

wherein the first direction is perpendicular to a stacking direction of the source electrode, the light emitting layer and the drain electrode.

3. The display panel according to claim 2, wherein an orthogonal projection of the light-emitting layer on the gate electrode in the first direction is located within the gate electrode.

4. The display panel according to claim 1, wherein the display panel further comprises a common voltage terminal and an ac voltage terminal, the source is electrically connected to the common voltage terminal, and the drain is electrically connected to the ac voltage terminal.

5. The display panel according to claim 1, further comprising a gate insulating layer between the gate electrode and the light emitting layer;

wherein the gate insulating layer includes a first gate insulating portion disposed on a stacked structure formed by the source electrode, the light emitting layer, and the drain electrode, and a second gate insulating portion disposed on a region of the substrate other than the stacked structure.

6. The display panel according to claim 1, wherein the light-emitting layer comprises at least a first semiconductor layer and a second semiconductor layer, and wherein the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer are made of different materials.

7. The display panel according to claim 6, wherein the material of the first semiconductor layer comprises GaAs, and the material of the second semiconductor layer comprises AlGaAs.

8. The display panel according to claim 7, wherein the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer are alternately stacked in the light-emitting layer.

9. A method for manufacturing a display panel is characterized by comprising the following steps:

forming a light emitting device on a substrate, wherein the light emitting device comprises a light emitting layer made of a semiconductor material and a source electrode and a drain electrode which are positioned on two sides of the light emitting layer;

and forming a grid electrode on at least one side of the light-emitting device, wherein the grid electrode is insulated from the light-emitting device.

10. A mobile terminal comprising a terminal body and the display panel according to any one of claims 1 to 8, the terminal body and the display panel being combined as one body.

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