Flexible display panel and display apparatus including the flexible display panel

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9448592-B2
Application number	US-201414275704-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 12, 2014
Priority date	Jun 30, 2011
Publication date	Sep 20, 2016
Grant date	Sep 20, 2016

Abstract

A flexible display panel including: a flexible substrate including a first region, second regions that extend from the first region and that have a curved surface, and a third region folded towards the second regions; a first display region in the first region of the flexible substrate; a second display region in the second regions of the flexible substrate; a plurality of non-display regions outside the first display region or the second display regions, wherein at least one of the plurality of non-display regions is in the third region of the flexible substrate; and an encapsulation member for encapsulating the first display region and the second display regions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A flexible display panel comprising:
a flexible substrate comprising:
a first display region; and
second display regions extending from the first display region and having a curved surface; and

an encapsulation member encapsulating at least one of the first display region and the second display regions; and
a touch panel located on at least one side of the flexible substrate and the encapsulation member.

2. The flexible display panel of claim 1 , wherein the first display region and the second display regions are continuous in the flexible substrate such that there is an indistinguishable border between the first display region and each of the second display regions.

3. The flexible display panel of claim 1 , wherein the first display region and the second display regions are configured to display input signals input by a single image signal input unit.

4. The flexible display panel of claim 1 , wherein the first display region and the second display regions are configured to display input signals input by different image signal input units.

5. The flexible display panel of claim 1 , wherein a curvature radius of the curved surface of each the second display regions is substantially identical.

6. The flexible display panel of claim 5 , wherein the curvature radius of the curved surface is greater than or equal to about 0.01 mm and is less than or equal to about 20 mm.

7. The flexible display panel of claim 5 , wherein the curved surface is arc-shaped.

8. The flexible display panel of claim 5 , wherein an angle formed by a boundary between the first display region and a respective one of the second display regions to an edge of the respective one of the second display regions is between about 0° and about 90°.

9. The flexible display panel of claim 1 , wherein the first display region is substantially planar.

10. The flexible display panel of claim 1 , further comprising a third region extending from each of the second display regions in a direction generally towards the first display region, wherein the third region includes a non-display region comprising a circuit unit for transmitting a signal to at least one of the first display region and the second display region.

11. The flexible display panel of claim 10 , wherein the third region is oriented so that it is not visible to a user looking at the first display region from a first direction.

12. The flexible display panel of claim 10 , wherein the third region is substantially parallel to a surface of the first display region.

13. The flexible display panel of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first display region and the second display regions comprise an organic light-emitting device.

14. The flexible display panel of claim 1 , further comprising a barrier layer located between the flexible substrate and the encapsulation member.

15. The flexible display panel of claim 1 , wherein the encapsulation member is a flexible thin encapsulation layer.

16. The flexible display panel of claim 1 , further comprising a support unit for maintaining a shape of the flexible display panel.

17. The flexible display panel of claim 16 , wherein the support unit is a transparent protection window located on the encapsulation member.

18. The flexible display panel of claim 1 , wherein the touch panel comprises a flexible film that generally corresponds to a shape of the flexible display panel.

19. The flexible display panel of claim 18 , wherein the touch panel comprises:
touch regions in the flexible film that generally correspond to the first display region and the second display regions; and
wiring regions outside the touch regions.

20. A display apparatus comprising:
a flexible display panel comprising:
a first display region; and
second display regions extending from the first display region and facing a different direction from the first display region; and

a support member for maintaining a shape of the flexible display panel;
an encapsulation thin layer on the flexible display panel; and
a touch panel on the encapsulation thin layer and comprising touch regions generally corresponding to the first display region and the second display regions, wherein at least one organic light-emitting device is located in the first display region or in at least one of the second display regions.

21. The display apparatus of claim 20 , further comprising a transparent protection window located on the touch panel generally corresponding to the first display region and the second display regions of the flexible display panel.

22. The display apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the second display regions have a curved surface.

23. The display apparatus of claim 20 , further comprising non-display regions extending generally towards the first display region from the second display region and being invisible from a front of the first display region, wherein at least one of the non-display regions comprises a circuit unit for transmitting a signal to at least one of the first display region and the second display region.

Assignees

• Samsung Display Co Ltd

Inventors

• Jin Dong-Un
• Lee Woo-Jong
• Kim Yang-Wan
• Kim Young-Sik
• Lyu Jun-Sang
• Kim Sang-Min

Classifications

• G06F1/1643

  the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads (details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615) · CPC title

• G06F1/169

  the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes (G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033) · CPC title

• G09F9/301

  flexible foldable or roll-able electronic displays, e.g. thin LCD, OLED · CPC title

• G02F1/13338

  Input devices, e.g. touch panels · CPC title

• G06F1/1626

  with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs] · CPC title