Electronic device display with a backlight

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10852582-B2
Application number	US-201916439419-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 12, 2019
Priority date	Oct 26, 2018
Publication date	Dec 1, 2020
Grant date	Dec 1, 2020

Abstract

An electronic device may include display layers such as liquid crystal display layers and a backlight unit that provides illumination for the display layers. The backlight unit may include light-emitting diodes that emit light into the edge of a light guide film. To minimize the inactive area of the display, the light-emitting diodes may be tightly spaced to approximate a line light source instead of point light sources. Color and/or luminance compensation layers may be incorporated at various locations within the backlight structures to ensure that the backlight provided to the display layers is homogenous. A thin-film transistor layer of the display may be coupled to a printed circuit board by a flexible printed circuit. The flexible printed circuit may have additional solder mask layers to improve robustness, may include encapsulation, and may have traces with a varying pitch.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device comprising:
display layers; and
a backlight unit that provides backlight for the display layers, the backlight unit comprising:
a light guide film;
a plurality of light-emitting diode packages, wherein each light-emitting diode package includes two or more light-emitting diodes connected in series that emit light into an edge of the light guide film; and
a flexible printed circuit board, wherein each light-emitting diode package is flip chip bonded to the flexible printed circuit board, wherein a distance between each pair of adjacent light-emitting diode packages is less than 0.5 millimeters, wherein each light-emitting diode package is flip chip bonded to the flexible printed circuit board with first, second, and third flip chip bumps, and wherein each light-emitting diode package has a first recess that receives the first flip chip bump, a second recess that receives the second flip chip bump, and a third recess that receives the third flip chip bump.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the second recess is interposed between the first and third recesses and wherein the second recess has a smaller width than the first and third recesses.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
a chassis that supports the light guide film; and
an adhesive layer that attaches the light guide film to the chassis, wherein the adhesive layer includes an optical component that alters one of the color and luminance of the backlight.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 3 , further comprising:
a reflector layer on a lower surface of the light guide film; and
a compensation layer on the lower surface of the light guide film between the reflector layer and the adhesive layer.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 3 , further comprising:
a reflector layer on a lower surface of the light guide film; and
a compensation layer on the chassis between the reflector layer and the adhesive layer.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 3 , wherein the light guide film has an additional edge opposite the edge of the light guide film, the electronic device further comprising:
a compensation layer on the additional edge of the light guide film.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 3 , wherein the chassis is a metal chassis, the electronic device further comprising:
a plastic chassis attached to the metal chassis; and
a compensation layer on the plastic chassis.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the light guide film has a plurality of tabs, the electronic device further comprising:
a compensating layer formed over each tab of the plurality of tabs.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
a compensating layer formed over the light guide film that modifies the backlight to compensate for a non-uniformity in the display layers.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 9 , wherein the edge of the light guide film that receives light from the light-emitting diodes is a left edge of the light guide film and wherein the compensating layer comprises gray ink along an upper edge of the light guide film.

11. An electronic device comprising:
display layers; and
a backlight unit that provides backlight for the display layers, the backlight unit comprising:
a flexible printed circuit;
a light guide film;
a plurality of light-emitting diodes mounted on the flexible printed circuit that emit light into an edge of the light guide film;
an optical film that is interposed between the light guide film and the display layers; and
a compensating layer formed on the optical film, wherein the compensating layer causes the backlight unit to provide non-uniform backlight to the display layers and wherein the non-uniform backlight provided to the display layers compensates for a non-uniformity in the display layers to cause the electronic device to display a uniform light from the display layers.

12. The electronic device defined in claim 11 , wherein the compensating layer covers some but not all of the light guide film.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 11 , wherein the edge of the light guide film that receives light from the light-emitting diodes is a left edge of the light guide film and wherein the compensating layer is formed over only an upper edge of the light guide film.

14. The electronic device defined in claim 11 , wherein the compensating layer comprises gray ink formed on the optical film.

15. The electronic device defined in claim 11 , wherein the optical film is a diffuser layer.

16. The electronic device defined in claim 11 , wherein the optical film is a brightness enhancement film.

17. The electronic device defined in claim 11 , wherein the light guide film has first and second opposing edges and third and fourth opposing edges that extend between the first and second opposing edges, wherein the edge of the light guide film that receives light from the light-emitting diodes is the first edge of the light guide film, wherein the third edge is orthogonal to the first and second edges, and wherein the compensating layer extends along only the third edge of the light guide film.

18. An electronic device comprising:
display layers; and
a backlight unit that provides backlight for the display layers, the backlight unit comprising:
a flexible printed circuit;
a light guide film having edges and a plurality of tabs that protrude from the edges;
a plurality of light-emitting diodes mounted on the flexible printed circuit that emit light into one of the edges of the light guide film; and
a plurality of compensating layers that each alter at least one of the color and luminance of the backlight, wherein each one of the plurality of compensating layers is formed over a respective tab of the plurality of tabs.

19. The electronic device defined in claim 18 , wherein each one of the plurality of compensating layers comprises ink.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Zhu Wenyong
• Hsu Shan-Ting
• Yin Victor H
• Xu Daming
• Suh Heesang
• You Chenhua
• Son Mookyung

Classifications

• H05K1/147

  at least one of the printed circuits being bent or folded, e.g. by using a flexible printed circuit (H05K1/148 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H05K2201/10674

  Flip chip · CPC title

• H05K1/118

  specially for flexible printed circuits, e.g. using folded portions · CPC title

• H01R4/04

  using electrically conductive adhesives · CPC title

• H05K2201/10136

  Liquid Crystal display [LCD] · CPC title