Displays with low reflectance border regions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9341878-B2
Application number	US-201213607368-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 7, 2012
Priority date	Apr 5, 2012
Publication date	May 17, 2016
Grant date	May 17, 2016

Abstract

An electronic device may have a display such as a liquid crystal display. A color filter layer may be formed on a display layer such as a transparent substrate layer of the display. The color filter layer may include an array of color filter elements on an inner surface of the transparent substrate layer. The color filter layer may include opaque masking material. In an inactive portion of the display, the opaque masking material may be formed over the color filter elements and interposed between the color filter elements. In the inactive portion of the display, the opaque masking material and the color filter elements may form a ring that serves as a border region surrounding an active portion of the display. In the active portion of the display, the opaque masking layer may be patterned to from an opaque matrix that separates the color filter elements.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A display, comprising:
a first set of color filter elements in an active region of the display;
a second set of color filter elements in an inactive region of the display;
opaque masking material, wherein adjacent color filter elements in the first set of color filter elements are separated by the opaque masking material, and wherein adjacent color filter elements in the second set of color filter elements are separated by the opaque masking material; and
a planarization layer that covers the first and second sets of color filter elements, wherein the planarization layer is in direct contact with the first set of color filter elements, and wherein the planarization layer and the second set of color filter elements are not in direct contact.

2. The display defined in claim 1 , wherein the opaque masking material covers the color filter elements in the second set of color filter elements.

3. The display defined in claim 1 , wherein the first and second sets of color filter elements are formed on a display substrate, and wherein the display comprises a liquid crystal display.

4. The display defined in claim 1 , wherein the inactive region forms a border around the active region of the display.

5. The display defined in claim 1 , wherein the inactive region comprises a peripheral region of the display.

6. The display defined in claim 1 further comprising a transparent substrate and a layer of liquid crystal material, wherein the first set of color filter elements and the second set of color filter elements are interposed between the transparent substrate and the layer of liquid crystal material.

7. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the inactive region is devoid of active display pixels.

8. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the opaque masking material comprises openings and wherein each of the openings overlaps a respective one of the color filter elements in the first set of color filter elements.

9. The display defined in claim 3 , wherein a color filter element in the second set of color filter elements has first and second opposing sides that are each in direct contact with the opaque masking material.

10. The display defined in claim 9 , wherein the color filter element has third and fourth opposing sides, wherein the third side is in direct contact with the display substrate, and wherein the entire fourth side is in direct contact with the opaque masking layer.

11. The display defined in claim 1 , wherein at least some of the layer of opaque masking material forms a grid that separates adjacent color filter elements in the first set of color filter elements.

12. A display, comprising:
a transparent substrate layer having a surface;
an array of display pixels configured to display images in an active portion of the display, wherein the active portion of the display is surrounded by an inactive portion of the display;
an array of color filter elements on the surface of the transparent substrate layer, wherein the array of color filter elements includes a first set of color filter elements aligned with the display pixels in the active portion of the display and includes a second set of color filter elements in the inactive portion of the display;
a layer of opaque masking material that covers the color filter elements in the inactive portion of the display, wherein each color filter element of the second set of color filter elements has a first portion that is in direct contact with the surface of the transparent substrate layer and a second portion that is in direct contact with the layer of opaque masking material, and wherein at least some of the layer of opaque masking material forms a grid that separates adjacent color filter elements in the first set of color filter elements; and
a planarization layer that covers the first and second sets of color filter elements, wherein the planarization layer is in direct contact with the first set of color filter elements, and wherein the planarization layer and the second set of color filter elements are not in direct contact.

13. The display defined in claim 12 wherein the layer of opaque masking material separates adjacent color filter elements in the first and second sets of color filter elements.

14. The display defined in claim 12 , wherein the opaque masking material comprises polymeric material.

15. The display defined in claim 12 , further comprising a backlight unit that produces backlight, wherein the backlight passes through color filter elements in the first set of color filter elements.

16. The display defined in claim 12 wherein the inactive portion is located at the periphery of the display and wherein the inactive portion is devoid of active display pixels.

17. The display defined in claim 12 wherein the first and second sets of color filter elements are in direct contact with the surface of the transparent substrate layer.

18. The display defined in claim 17 wherein the color filter elements in the inactive portion of the display are interposed between the transparent substrate layer and the opaque masking material.

19. A display, comprising:
a transparent substrate layer having a surface;
an array of color filter elements on the surface of the transparent substrate layer, wherein the array of color filter elements includes a first set of color filter elements in an active portion of the display and includes a second set of color filter elements in an inactive portion of the display;
a layer of opaque masking material that completely covers the color filter elements in the inactive portion of the display, wherein the color filter elements in the inactive portion of the display are separated by the layer of opaque masking material, and wherein the color filter elements in the inactive portion are interposed between the layer of opaque masking material and the transparent substrate layer; and
a planarization layer that covers the first and second sets of color filter elements, wherein the planarization layer is in direct contact with the first set of color filter elements, and wherein the planarization layer and the second set of color filter elements are not in direct contact.

20. The display defined in claim 19 wherein the first and second sets of color filter elements are in direct contact with the surface of the transparent substrate layer.

21. The display defined in claim 19 wherein the second set of color filter elements comprises first, second, and third color filter elements that are positioned entirely in the inactive portion of the display, wherein the first and second color filter elements are separated by a first distance, and wherein the second and third color filter elements are separated by a second distance that is different than the first distance.

22. The display defined in claim 19 , wherein the second set of color filter elements comprises first and second color filter elements that are positioned entirely in the inactive portion of the display, and wherein the first color filter element is in direct contact with the second color filter element.

Assignees

• Chen Cheng
• Yang Young Cheol
• Park Young Bae
• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Chen Cheng
• Yang Young Cheol
• Park Young Bae

Classifications

• G02F1/133502 Primary

  Antiglare, refractive index matching layers · CPC title

• G02F1/133516

  Methods for their manufacture, e.g. printing, electro-deposition or photolithography · CPC title

• G02F1/133512

  Light shielding layers, e.g. black matrix (G02F1/136209 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G02F1/133514

  Colour filters · CPC title

• G02F2001/133388

  Physics · mapped topic