Electrophoretic display layer with thin film top electrode

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11892739-B2
Application number	US-202117167387-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 4, 2021
Priority date	Feb 7, 2020
Publication date	Feb 6, 2024
Grant date	Feb 6, 2024

Abstract

A method for making electrophoretic displays layers including various thin films that are deposited directly onto a layer of microcapsules of electrophoretic media. In an embodiment, a thin film of a light-transmissive conductive material is deposited to create a clear front electrode for an electrophoretic display. In some embodiments, both a dielectric layer and a thin film of a light-transmissive conductive material will be deposited onto the microcapsules.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of making an electrophoretic display layer comprising:
providing a first substrate;
depositing a layer of capsules comprising electrophoretic media on the first substrate, thereby creating a contoured surface of the layer of capsules on the side of the layer of capsules opposite to the first substrate;
depositing a dielectric layer on the contoured surface of the layer of capsules comprising electrophoretic media; and
depositing a layer of light-transmissive conductive material over the dielectric layer previously deposited on the contoured surface of the layer of capsules.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein depositing a layer of light-transmissive conductive material takes place at a vacuum pressure of less than 133 Pascal (1 Torr).

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein depositing is done with a chemical vapor deposition process.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein indium tin oxide or zinc oxide is deposited as the light-transmissive conductive layer.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dielectric layer comprises Si 3 N 4 , SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , HFO 2 , ZrO 2 , or a polymer.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrophoretic media comprises at least one type of charged particle that moves within the capsule in response to an applied electric field.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the layer of capsules additionally comprises a polyurethane binder between at least some of the capsules within the layer of capsules.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first substrate is a release sheet.

Assignees

• E Ink Corp

Inventors

• Murari Nishit
• Kamaev Pavel
• Miller David Darrell
• Paolini Jr Richard J
• Anseth Jay William

Classifications

• G02F1/167 Primary

  by electrophoresis · CPC title

• G02F1/16757 Primary

  Microcapsules · CPC title

• G02F1/1303

  Apparatus specially adapted to the manufacture of LCDs · CPC title

• G02F1/16756

  Insulating layers · CPC title

• G02F1/1676

  Electrodes · CPC title