Display with power supply mesh

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10224386-B2
Application number	US-201615370297-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 6, 2016
Priority date	Sep 23, 2016
Publication date	Mar 5, 2019
Grant date	Mar 5, 2019

Abstract

An organic light-emitting diode display may have an array of pixels. The pixels may each have an organic light-emitting diode with a respective anode and may be formed from thin-film transistor circuitry formed on a substrate. A mesh-shaped path may be used to distribute a power supply voltage to the thin-film circuitry. The mesh-shaped path may have intersecting horizontally extending lines and vertically extending lines. The horizontally extending lines may be zigzag metal lines that do not overlap the anodes. The vertically extending lines may be straight vertical metal lines that overlap the anodes. The pixels may include pixels of different colors. Angularly dependent shifts in display color may be minimized by ensuring that the anodes of the differently colored pixels overlap the vertically extending lines by similar amounts.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An organic light-emitting diode display, comprising:
a substrate;
an array of pixels on the substrate, each pixel being configured to receive a power supply voltage and each pixel having a light-emitting diode with an anode;
a planarization layer on which the anodes are formed; and
a mesh-shaped power supply distribution path formed from horizontally extending zigzag metal lines and vertically extending lines, wherein the anodes overlap the vertically extending lines and do not overlap the horizontally extending zigzag metal lines.

2. The organic light-emitting diode display defined in claim 1 wherein each pixel has a positive power supply terminal and a ground power supply terminal and wherein the mesh-shaped power supply distribution path is a positive power supply distribution path coupled to the positive power supply terminals of the pixels.

3. The organic light-emitting diode display defined in claim 2 wherein each anode has a diamond shape with edges that extend diagonally with respect to the vertically extending lines.

4. The organic light-emitting diode display defined in claim 3 wherein each of the vertically extending lines is a respective vertically extending straight metal line.

5. The organic light-emitting diode display defined in claim 4 wherein the pixels include pixels of different colors each of which is characterized by a respective overlap area with the vertically extending straight metal lines and wherein the overlap areas of the pixels of different colors differ by less than 20%.

6. The organic light-emitting diode display defined in claim 5 wherein the overlap areas of the pixels of different colors differ by less than 10%.

7. The organic light-emitting diode display defined in claim 1 further comprising thin-film transistors on the substrate, wherein the thin-film transistors have source-drain terminals formed from a first metal layer, wherein a polymer layer overlaps the first metal layer, and wherein the mesh-shaped power supply distribution path is interposed between the polymer layer and the planarization layer.

8. The organic light-emitting diode display defined in claim 1 wherein each horizontally extending zigzag metal line has at least one diagonal segment between opposing diagonal edges of a pair of the anodes.

9. The organic light-emitting diode display defined in claim 1 wherein the vertically extending lines each extend parallel to a first axis, wherein the horizontally extending zigzag metal lines each include a plurality of horizontal segments that extend parallel to a second axis that is perpendicular to the first axis and a plurality of diagonal segments, wherein each diagonal segment is interposed between a respective two horizontal segments, and wherein each diagonal segment extends parallel to a respective axis that is at a non-zero angle with respect to the first and second axes.

10. An organic light-emitting diode display, comprising:
a substrate;
thin-film circuitry on the substrate;
first and second polymer planarization layers on the thin-film circuitry;
a patterned metal layer between the first and second polymer planarization layers that forms a mesh-shaped positive power supply distribution path that distributes a positive power supply voltage to the thin-film circuitry, wherein the mesh-shaped positive power supply distribution path has a grid of intersecting vertically extending lines that each extend parallel to a first axis and horizontally extending zigzag metal lines, wherein the horizontally extending zigzag metal lines each include a plurality of horizontal segments that extend parallel to a second axis that is perpendicular to the first axis and a plurality of diagonal segments, wherein each diagonal segment is interposed between a respective two horizontal segments, and wherein each diagonal segment extends parallel to a respective axis that is at a non-zero angle with respect to the first and second axes; and
an array of organic light-emitting diodes, each organic light-emitting diode having a respective anode on the second polymer planarization layer.

11. The organic light-emitting diode display defined in claim 10 , wherein the anodes overlap the vertically extending lines and do not overlap the horizontally extending zigzag metal lines.

12. The organic light-emitting diode display defined in claim 10 , wherein each anode is characterized by a respective overlap area with the mesh-shaped positive power supply distribution path, wherein the overlap area for each anode is less than 50% of the area of that anode, and wherein the overlap areas of the anodes differ by less than 30%.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Rieutort-Louis Warren S
• Chang Ting-Kuo
• Chen Chieh-Wei
• Yu Cheng-Ho

Classifications

• G09G2320/0242

  Compensation of deficiencies in the appearance of colours · CPC title

• G09G2300/0426

  Layout of electrodes and connections · CPC title

• G09G2320/0223

  Compensation for problems related to R-C delay and attenuation in electrodes of matrix panels, e.g. in gate electrodes or on-substrate video signal electrodes · CPC title

• G09G2330/00

  Aspects of power supply; Aspects of display protection and defect management · CPC title

• H01L27/3262

  Electricity · mapped topic