Wire grid polarizer and manufacturing method thereof, display panel and display device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9759947-B2
Application number	US-201514892257-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 15, 2015
Priority date	Dec 4, 2014
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

The invention relates to the display technology field, and particularly to a wire grid polarizer, a manufacturing method thereof, a display panel and a display device. The wire grid polarizer comprises a substrate, in which wire grid structures are arranged at intervals in an array, to allow light to penetrate from the grid pitches thereof, with the other area except the wire grid structures of the substrate being a continuous opaque area. Due to the wire grid polarizer being provided with the wire grid structures arranged at intervals in a array, local light transmitting areas can be formed, and light emergence can be controlled more flexibly. A display panel using the wire grid polarizer can effectively lower the light absorption rate, also avoid peripheral light leakage in a non-subpixel area, and prevent the light leakage of the pixels themselves; correspondingly, a display device using the display panel can improve the light utilization rate, and achieve a good display effect.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wire grid polarizer, comprising a substrate, wherein multiple open areas are formed at intervals in an array on the substrate, the wire grid polarizer further comprises multiple wire grid structures arranged in the open areas respectively, each of the wire grid structures comprises multiple grid lines disposed at intervals, the intervals between two adjacent grid lines form grid pitches of the wire grid structures, and the wire grid structures allow light to penetrate through the grid pitches thereof, another area except the open areas of the substrate is a continuous opaque area, and the wire grid polarizer is disposed at a side of a base of a substrate plate comprising the base and a TFT array, opposite to the TFT array.

2. The wire grid polarizer of claim 1 , wherein, in the wire grid structures, a width of the grid lines ranges between 25-250 nm, and a width of the grid pitches ranges between 25-250 nm.

3. The wire grid polarizer of claim 1 , wherein, the substrate is made of a metal material.

4. The wire grid polarizer of claim 3 , wherein, the metal material comprises silver or aluminum.

5. The wire grid polarizer of claim 1 , wherein, the wire grid structures are formed with the substrate as a whole, a thickness of the substrate ranges between 20-250 nm, and a thickness of the grid lines of the wire grid structure ranges between 20-250 nm.

6. A display panel, comprising an active area which comprises multiple sub-pixel areas arranged at intervals, and an inactive area surrounding the active area, wherein the area of the display panel corresponding to the active area is provided with the wire grid polarizer described in claim 1 , the areas of the wire grid polarizer corresponding to the sub-pixel areas are the wire grid structures, the display panel comprises a first substrate plate and a second substrate plate arranged opposite to one another, the second substrate plate comprises a base and a TFT array, the TFT array is disposed at a side of the base towards the first substrate plate, and the wire grid polarizer is disposed at a side of the base away from the first substrate plate.

7. The display panel of claim 6 , wherein, the areas, corresponding to the sub-pixel areas, of the first substrate plate or the second substrate plate are provided with multiple color film patterns of multiple different colors, and the wire grid structures correspond one-to-one to the color film patterns.

8. The display panel of claim 7 , wherein, the color film patterns comprise color resistive layers, multiple color resistive layers of different colors are arranged on the first substrate plate or the second substrate plate periodically, and the grid pitches of the different wire grid structures corresponding to the color resistive layers of different colors are the same.

9. The display panel of claim 8 , wherein, the side of the first substrate plate away from the second substrate plate is further provided with a matching polarizer, and a polarization axis of the matching polarizer is disposed orthogonally to a polarization axis of the polarizer.

10. A display device, comprising a display panel and a backlight source, wherein, the display panel is the display panel described in claim 6 .

11. The display panel of claim 6 , wherein, in the wire grid structures, a width of the grid lines ranges between 25-250 nm, and a width of the grid pitches ranges between 25-250 nm.

12. A method for manufacturing a wire grid polarizer comprising a substrate, wherein multiple open areas are formed at intervals in an array on the substrate, the wire grid polarizer further comprises multiple wire grid structures arranged in the open areas respectively, each of the wire grid structures comprises multiple grid lines disposed at intervals, the intervals between two adjacent grid lines form grid pitches of the wire grid structures, and the wire grid structures allow light to penetrate through the grid pitches thereof, and another area except the open areas of the substrate is a continuous opaque area, the manufacturing method comprising:
Step S1, forming a transparent supporting layer on a base;
Step S2, heating the supporting layer to make a temperature of the supporting layer higher than a temperature of a glass phase transition point of the supporting layer;
Step S3, pressing a pressing template into the supporting layer with a preset pressure, the pressing template being prefabricated with pressing patterns corresponding to patterns of the wire grid structures disposed at intervals;
Step S4, maintaining the preset pressure, cooling the supporting layer down below the temperature of the glass phase transition point of the supporting layer, removing the pressing template, and forming raised areas and depressed areas on the supporting layer, with the raised areas corresponding to the grid pitches, with the depressed areas comprising portions corresponding to the grid lines and a portion corresponding to the continuous opaque area;
Step S5, removing portions of the supporting layer corresponding to the depressed areas to expose the base of corresponding areas, thus forming masking patterns on the base having the same patterns as the wire grid structures using the supporting layer;
Step S6, forming a layer of opaque material on an exposed base and the masking patterns; and
Step S7, removing the masking patterns and the opaque material attached on the masking patterns, so as to form the wire grid polarizer.

13. The manufacturing method of claim 12 , wherein, in Step S1, the material forming the supporting layer comprises any one of polymethyl methacrylate, polycarbonate, polystyrene, cycloolefin resin and cross-linked polyethylene, the supporting layer is formed by spin coating, and a thickness of the supporting layer ranges between 0.1-0.3 μm.

14. The manufacturing method of claim 13 , wherein, in Step S1, the supporting layer is formed with polymethyl methacrylate, a temperature of the glass phase transition point of which is 105° C.; and in Step S2, a heating temperature of the supporting layer ranges between 180-220° C.

15. The manufacturing method of claim 13 , wherein, in Step S3, the pressing template is formed with a silica material, a width of the portions, corresponding to grid lines of the wire grid structures, of the pressing patterns of the pressing template ranges between 25-250 nm, and a width of the portions, corresponding to grid pitches of the wire grid structures, of the pressing patterns of the pressing template ranges between 25-250 nm, the depth of the portions, corresponding to the grid pitches of the wire grid structures, of the pressing patterns of the pressing template ranges between 20-250 nm; and a preset pressure ranges between 12-14 MPa.

16. The manufacturing method of claim 12 , wherein, in Step S5, the supporting layer is etched by means of oxygen reactive ion etching, until the depressed areas, corresponding to the grid lines and the continuous opaque area of the wire grid structures, of the supporting layer expose the base of the corresponding areas.

17. The manufacturing method of claim 12 , wherein, in Step S6, the opaque material is a metal material, and the opaque material layer is formed above the supporting layer by sputter deposition.

18. The manufacturing method of claim 17 , wherein, the metal material comprises aluminum or silver, and an aluminum layer or a silver layer is formed above the supporting layer by sputter deposition.

19. The manufacturing method of claim 12 , wherein, in Step S7, the masking patterns and the

Assignees

• Boe Technology Group Co Ltd

Inventors

• Liu Kairan
• Wu Yanbing
• Li Wenbo
• Zhang Xiangyan

Classifications

• G02B5/30

  Polarising elements (light-modulating devices with active elements G02F1/00) · CPC title

• H01L27/1214

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G02B5/3058 Primary

  comprising electrically conductive elements, e.g. wire grids, conductive particles · CPC title

• G02F1/133528 Primary

  Polarisers · CPC title

• G02F1/133536

  Reflective polarizers (G02F1/13362 takes precedence) · CPC title