Color filter structures for electronic devices with color displays

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9645436-B2
Application number	US-201414497168-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 25, 2014
Priority date	Jun 17, 2014
Publication date	May 9, 2017
Grant date	May 9, 2017

Abstract

A display may have a color filter layer and a thin-film transistor layer. A liquid crystal layer may be located between the color filter layer and the thin-film transistor layer. The color filter layer may have an array of color filter elements on a transparent substrate. The array of color filter elements may include more than three colors. Colored photoimageable polymer layers may be combined to form some of the color filter elements. The color filter may have cyan, magenta, and yellow color filter elements each formed from a respective single layer of cyan, magenta, and yellow polymer and may have blue elements formed by overlapping cyan and magenta polymer, green elements formed by overlapping cyan and yellow polymer, and red elements formed by overlapping magenta and yellow polymer. Filters with white elements may also be provided.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A display having an array of pixels, comprising:
a color filter layer having a clear substrate and an array of color filter elements for the pixels, wherein the color filter elements are formed from colored polymer layers of different colors on the clear substrate and wherein at least some of the color filter elements are formed by overlapping two of the colored polymer layers of different colors, the color filter layer further comprising a black matrix formed from black masking material on the clear substrate, wherein the black matrix has openings in which the color filter elements are formed, wherein the two overlapping colored polymer layers of different colors overlap the black masking material, and wherein at least a portion of the black matrix is formed from the black masking material and overlapping portions of three of the colored polymer layers each of which has a different respective color; and
a thin-film transistor layer that controls emitted light for the array of pixels.

2. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the thin-film transistor layer comprises an array of organic light-emitting diodes.

3. The display defined in claim 2 wherein the array of organic light-emitting diodes comprises white light diodes.

4. The display defined in claim 1 further comprising:
a layer of liquid crystal material between the color filter layer and the thin-film transistor layer.

5. The display defined in claim 1 wherein some of the openings in the black matrix are associated with white color filter elements and contain no non-clear polymer.

6. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the three colored polymers layers are a cyan polymer layer, a yellow polymer layer, and a magenta polymer layer.

7. The display defined in claim 4 wherein at least some of the color filter elements are formed from single layers of the colored polymer layers of different colors.

8. The display defined in claim 7 wherein the colored polymer layers are a cyan polymer layer, a yellow polymer layer, and a magenta polymer layer and wherein the colored filter elements that are formed from the single layers of the colored polymer layers are cyan color filter elements, yellow color filter elements, and magenta color filter elements.

9. The display defined in claim 8 wherein the color filter elements that are formed by overlapping two of the colored polymer layers of different colors include red color filter elements that are formed by overlapping the magenta and yellow polymer layers.

10. The display defined in claim 9 wherein the color filter elements that are formed by overlapping two of the colored polymer layers of different colors include green color filter elements that are formed by overlapping the cyan and yellow polymer layers.

11. The display defined in claim 10 wherein the color filter elements that are formed by overlapping two of the colored polymer layers of different colors include blue color filter elements that are formed by overlapping the cyan and magenta polymer layers.

12. The display defined in claim 11 wherein at least the portion of the black matrix is formed from the black masking material and overlapping portions of the cyan, magenta, and yellow polymer layers.

13. The display defined in claim 12 wherein the color filter elements are arranged in a repeating pattern of blocks each containing a 2×3 array of color filter elements made up of six of the red, green, blue, cyan, yellow, and magenta color filter elements.

14. The display defined in claim 12 wherein the color filter elements are arranged in blocks each containing a 1×6 array of color filter elements made up of six of the red, green, blue, cyan, yellow, and magenta color filter elements.

15. A color filter layer for a display, comprising:
a transparent substrate and an array of color filter elements of six different colors on the transparent substrate, wherein at least some of the six color filter elements are formed by overlapping colored polymer layers of different colors, wherein the colored polymer layers include a cyan polymer layer and a yellow polymer layer, wherein the six color filter elements include a blue color filter element and a green color filter element that share a common portion of the cyan polymer layer, wherein the six color filter elements include a red color filter element, and wherein the green color filter element and the red color filter element share a common portion of the yellow polymer layer.

16. The color filter layer defined in claim 15 wherein the six color filter elements include yellow color filter elements each formed from a single layer of the yellow polymer layer, magenta color filter elements each formed from a single layer of a magenta polymer layer, and cyan color filter elements each formed from a single layer of the cyan polymer layer, wherein the blue color filter element is formed by overlapping the cyan and magenta polymer layers, wherein the green color filter element is formed by overlapping the cyan and yellow polymer layers, and wherein the red color filter element is formed by overlapping the yellow and magenta polymer layers.

17. The color filter layer defined in claim 15 wherein the six color filter elements include a white color filter element.

18. The color filter layer defined in claim 17 wherein the six color filter elements include yellow color filter elements each formed from a single layer of the yellow polymer layer and cyan color filter elements each of which is formed from a single layer of the cyan polymer layer, wherein the white color filter element contains no non-clear polymer, wherein the blue color filter element is formed by overlapping the cyan and magenta polymer layers, wherein the green color filter element is formed by overlapping the cyan and yellow polymer layers, and wherein the red color filter element is formed by overlapping the yellow and magenta polymer layers.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Chen Yu-Cheng
• Yang Young Cheol
• Osawa Hiroshi
• Chang Shih Chang

Classifications

• G02F1/133512

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

• G02B5/201

  in the form of arrays · CPC title

• H01L27/3244

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L27/322

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G02F1/133514 Primary

  Colour filters · CPC title