Google Inc.

Qualcomm Mems Technologies, Inc.

Apple Inc.

Yi Tao

Fan Zhong

Paul Stephen Drzaic

Zhen Zhang

Qi Qi

Joshua G Wurzel

Hojin Lee

John W Kaehler

William Riis Hamburgen

Wonjae Choi

Taesung Kim

Ken Foo

Kiarash Vakhshouri

Bruce M Schena

Shih Chang Chang

Lawrence K Lam

Jean-Pierre Simon Guillou

Jeffrey Y Hayashida

Michael J Lombardi

Ion Bita

Jason C Sauers

Andreas Georg Nowatzyk

Marc Mignard

Young Bae Park

Sangmoo Choi

John Stuart Fitch

Teruo Sasagawa

Kelvin Kwong

Jae Won Choi

Peter J Kardassakis

James Cooper

Wilhelmus Adrianus De Groot

Adrian Gheorghe Manea

Avi Hecht

MinKyu Kim

Shaowei Qin

Jonathan Nivet

Adrian Gheorghe Menea

Nai-Hsuan Liu

Hao-Yuan Hou

Yiting Liu

Sarah S M Cabreros

The present disclosure provides an electronic device utilizing a flexible display panel with multiple relief features formed in a periphery bending portion of the flexible display panel. The multiple relief features may facilitate lamination of the flexible display to a curved cover layer. The flexible display panel may have a circular shape utilized in a wearable device. An active area for displaying images may extend to the periphery bending portion of the flexible display panel, thus provided a wide viewing range for a user as well as enhancing an overall aesthetic appearance of the electronic device.

Flexible OLED display with reliefs

A method of assembling a display panel includes laminating a back plate to a display layer to form an untrimmed display panel, the back plate including a metal layer that includes a trimming path defined by one or more line segments having reduced metal content compared to other portions of the metal layer. The method further includes trimming the untrimmed display panel along the one or more line segments to define one or more edges of the display panel. For one or more locations along each of the one or more edges defined by the line segments, the metal layer is flush with the corresponding edge of the display panel.

Metal plate design for electronic display panels

An example display assembly includes: a continuous display including: a first rigid segment attached to and substantially coplanar with an inner surface of a first assembly of the folding device; a second rigid segment attached to and substantially coplanar with an inner surface of a second assembly of the folding device; a primary flexible segment; a third rigid segment disposed between the second rigid segment and the primary flexible segment; and a fourth rigid segment disposed between the first rigid segment and the primary flexible segment; a primary supporting plate attached to the continuous display; a first supplemental supporting plate attached to the primary supporting plate adjacent to the third rigid segment; and a second supplemental supporting plate attached to the primary supporting plate adjacent to the fourth rigid segment.

Folding portable display device

A mobile communication device includes a frame; a three-dimensional cover glass that includes a perimeter portion and an interior portion, the perimeter portion including a bended portion that extends under at least a portion of the frame; a housing positioned adjacent the frame and the cover glass; and a patch member positioned in a gap between the bended portion of the cover glass and the housing.

Mobile communication device cover glass

Computing devices are described that can reduce a hole-in-active-area (HIAA) size for flexible displays. The computing device may reduce an HIAA size for a camera without using a circular opening, which is often used on smartphones. In particular, the computing device may utilize a non-circular opening (e.g., a pill-shaped HIAA) and include a camera positioned eccentrically within the non-circular opening. In this way, the HIAA size is minimized to increase a size of an active area (e.g., comprising emissive regions) of the flexible display. Furthermore, the reduced HIAA size can reduce electrical circuitry needed within the active area. The flexible displays can include both bendable and rollable displays.

Reducing a hole-in-active-area size for flexible displays

A display may have an array of organic light-emitting diodes that form an active area on a flexible substrate. Metal traces may extend between the active area and an inactive area of the flexible substrate. Display driver circuitry such as a display driver integrated circuit may be coupled to the inactive area. The metal traces may extend across a bend region in the flexible substrate. The flexible substrate may be bent in the bend region. The flexible substrate may be made of a thin flexible material to reduce metal trace bending stress. A coating layer in the bend region may be provided with an enhanced elasticity to allow its thickness to be reduced. The flexible substrate may be bent on itself and secured within an electronic device without using a mandrel.

Flexible display panel with bent substrate

Methods, systems, and apparatus, for shielding a bending portion of a flexible display that can be incorporated in electronic devices. One of the apparatus includes a cover glass element; a driver integrated circuit (D-IC); a mandrel portion; a shaft portion; a panel, positioned between the cover glass element and the D-IC, and comprising an inner panel layer that wraps around at least a portion of the mandrel portion to form a bending portion of the panel, the panel attached on either side on the shaft portion; and a shielding layer positioned around the inner panel layer and configured to inhibit electromagnetic signals through the bending portion.

Shielding portions of an electronic device

A computing device includes memory configured for storing executable instructions, a processor configured for executing the instructions, a foldable display layer configured for displaying information in response to the execution of the instructions, and a bend limit layer coupled to the foldable display layer and arranged substantially parallel to a display surface of the foldable display layer. The bend limit layer is configured to increase its stiffness non-linearly when a radius of a bend of the bend limit layer is less than a threshold radius of curvature of the foldable display layer, the threshold radius of curvature being greater than 1 mm and less than 20 mm.

Bend limit film

A system includes a display panel having an input to receive pixel data representative of a sequence of display images and an array of display elements. Each display element includes a first buffer stage, a second buffer stage coupled to the first buffer stage, and a light emitting diode (LED) coupled to the second buffer stage. The display panel further includes a controller to control the array of display elements to concurrently activate the LEDs of the array for a first time interval based on pixel data of a first display image stored at the second buffer stages of the array of display elements and to receive and store at least a portion of pixel data of a second display image at the first buffer stages of the array of display elements during the first time interval.

Display panel with concurrent global illumination and next frame buffering

In a general aspect, a display device may include a flexible display having a substantially flat central portion and an end portion, a printed circuit film disposed on the end portion of the display, a panel member attached to the printed circuit film, the panel member being bent around a bend axis to form an edge of the display, and a support structure disposed inside of formed edge of the panel member, the support structure being non-parallel to the flat central portion of the display. The panel member may conform to a shape of the support structure.

Display device including support structure for bending

A thin-film transistor layer, an organic light-emitting diode layer, and other layers may be used in forming an array of pixels on a substrate in a display. Vias may be formed through one or more layers of the display such as the substrate layer to form vertical signal paths. The vertical signal paths may convey signals between display driver circuitry underneath the display and the pixels. The vias may pass through a polymer layer and may contact pads formed within openings in the substrate. Vias may pass through a glass support layer. Metal traces may be formed in the thin-film transistor layer to create signal paths such as data lines and gate lines. Portions of the metal traces may form vias through a polymer layer such as a substrate layer or a polymer layer that has been formed on top of the substrate layer.

Display with vias to access driver circuitry

A pixel driving technique for an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display. A frame of image data is shifted into an OLED panel and activated for global illumination. During the time period of global illumination for the frame of image data, pixel data for a next frame of image data is buffered in a partial memory. After the period of global illumination for the frame of image data, the next frame of image data being buffered in the partial memory is read out of partial memory to the OLED panel and updates the previous frame of pixel data with the new pixel data.

Partial memory method and system for bandwidth and frame rate improvement in global illumination

A display may have an array of organic light-emitting diodes that form an active area on a flexible substrate. Metal traces may extend between the active area and an inactive area of the flexible substrate. Display driver circuitry such as a display driver integrated circuit may be attached to a flexible printed circuit that is attached to the flexible substrate in the inactive area. The metal traces may extend across a bend region in the flexible substrate. The flexible substrate may be bent in the bend region. The flexible substrate may be locally thinned in the bend region. A neutral stress plane adjustment layer may cover the metal traces in the bend region. The neutral stress plane adjustment layer may include polymer layers such as an encapsulation layer, a pixel definition layer, a planarization layer, and a layer that covers a pixel definition layer and planarization layer.

Organic light-emitting diode display with bent substrate

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Yi Tao