Patent Application
20190294290
This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201810251602.2, filed with the State Intellectual Property Office on Mar. 26, 2018 and titled “Display substrate and short-circuit detecting method thereof, and display device”, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present disclosure relates to a display substrate and a short-circuit detection method thereof, and a display device.
In an electrical test of a display product, a driving signal can be uniformly provided to all the electrode patterns by using a shorting bar fabricated on a substrate, so that it is possible to detect whether the display product is defective by direct observation. For example, when an electrode pattern cannot receive the driving signal due to a connection lead being disconnected, a display area at the corresponding position cannot be normally displayed. Based on this, it is possible to detect whether or not there is a broken circuit in a circuit structure.
There is provided a display substrate and a short-circuit detection method thereof, and a display device in the present disclosure.
In a fist aspect, there is provided a display substrate comprising: a plurality of touch control electrodes in a display area; a plurality of touch control signal lines, each of the touch control signal lines connecting one of the touch control electrodes to a peripheral circuit area of the display substrate; a voltage receiving end in the peripheral circuit area; and a plurality of switch circuits in the peripheral circuit area, each of the switch circuits being connected to the voltage receiving end, and each of the switch circuits being respectively connected with a switch control signal; wherein the plurality of touch control electrodes are divided into a plurality of test groups, and each of the touch control electrodes belongs to one of the plurality of test groups, and each of the switch circuits is connected to all of the touch control electrodes in one of the test groups through the touch control signal line, and the switch circuit is configured to switch a connection state between each of the connected touch control electrodes and the voltage receiving end under the control of the connected switch control signal.
In a possible implementation, the plurality of touch control electrodes are divided into at least two test groups, and any two adjacent touch control electrodes respectively belong to two different test groups of the at least two test groups.
In a possible implementation, the voltage receiving end comprises a plurality of sub-receiving ends, and each of the sub-receiving ends is connected to a switch circuit to provide a received voltage and the switch control signal to the connected switch circuit.
In a possible implementation, the switch circuit comprises at least one transistor, and a first electrode of each of the transistors is connected to a touch control electrode in a corresponding test group, a gate and a second electrode of each of the transistors are connected to a corresponding sub-receiving end, and the first and second electrodes of the transistor are one of a source and a drain of the transistor respectively.
In a possible implementation, there is a fan-out area in the peripheral circuit area, and the plurality of touch control signal lines are connected to the plurality of switch circuits through the fan-out area.
In a possible implementation, a number of the touch control signal lines is the same as a number of the touch control electrodes, and a first end of each of the touch control signal lines is respectively connected to one of the plurality of the touch control electrodes.
In a possible implementation, the switch circuit comprises at least one transistor, and a first electrode of each of the transistors is connected to a touch control electrode in a corresponding test group, a gate of each of the transistors is connected to a corresponding switch control signal, and a second electrode of each of the transistors is connected to the voltage receiving end, and the first and second electrodes of the transistor are one of a source and a drain of the transistor respectively.
In a possible implementation, the display substrate comprises two voltage receiving ends in the peripheral circuit area, and the two voltage receiving ends are respectively on opposite sides of the plurality of switch circuits to provide same electrical signal to each of the switch circuits.
In a possible implementation, a chip area is in the peripheral circuit area, and the plurality of switch circuits are on a side of the chip area adjacent to the display area.
In a second aspect, there is provided a display device comprising any of the above mentioned display substrates.
In a third aspect, there is provided a short-circuit detecting method for a display substrate, comprising: detecting whether there is a short circuit between a first test group and a second test group according to whether there is a touch control electrode receiving the test voltage in the second test group, when all the touch control electrodes in the first test group are connected to the voltage receiving end through the switch control signal and a test voltage is provided to the voltage receiving end, wherein the first test group and the second test group are respectively one of the plurality of test groups.
In a fourth aspect, there is provided a short-circuit detecting method for a display substrate comprising: detecting whether there is a short circuit between a first test group and a second test group according to whether there is a difference between the test voltages received by the first test group and the second test group, when all the touch control electrodes in each of the test groups are connected to a corresponding sub-receiving end through the switch control signal and different test voltages are provided to each of the sub-receiving ends respectively, wherein the first test group and the second test group are respectively one of the plurality of test groups.
The embodiments of this disclosure will be described in details with reference to the enclosed drawings, to clearly present the principles and benefits of the present disclosure. Obviously, the embodiments presented here are merely some rather than all embodiments of the present disclosure. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present disclosure, without requiring creative works, shall fall within the protect scope of the present disclosure. Unless otherwise defined, technical terms or scientific terms used in the present disclosure should have the ordinary meaning understood by those of ordinary skill in the art. The words “first”, “second” and similar terms used in the present disclosure do not denote any order, quantity, or importance, and are merely used to distinguish different components. The word “comprise” or similar terms mean that elements or objects appearing before the term cover the listed elements or objects and its equivalents appearing after the term, without excluding other elements or objects. The word “connected” or “coupled” and similar terms are not limited to physical or mechanical connections, and may include electrical connection that is direct or indirect.
It can be noted that the conventional test method is insufficient for the detection of whether there is a short circuit in the circuit structure. For example, when a short circuit occurs between an electrode pattern and a similar electrode pattern, the driving signals are still uniformly provided via the shorting bar on the two electrode patterns, which is hardly changed compared to the case where no short circuit occurs, and thus it cannot be detected during the electrical test. It is easy to make the defective product continue to be processed as a good product, resulting in economic loss and waste of production resources.
In an electrical test example in the related art, each of the touch control signal lines 12 is connected to the voltage receiving end 13, and the voltage receiving end 13 is located in a cutting area (an area of the display substrate which is to be cut off). That is, after the test is completed, the voltage receiving end 13 will be cut off from the display substrate. During the test, a full gray scale data voltage is provided to the pixel electrodes of all the sub-pixels of the display area A1, and a common voltage is provided to all the touch control electrodes 11 through the voltage receiving end 13, so as to make the display area A1 display a white monochromatic picture. When any of the touch control signal lines 12 has a broken circuit, the display area where the touch control electrodes 11 connected with touch control signal lines 12 are located cannot present a white monochrome picture normally, so that the broken-circuit detection of the touch control signal line 12 can be performed by observing the picture displayed in the display area where each of the touch control electrodes 11 is located. However, the above test cannot detect a short circuit occurring between different touch control electrodes 11, because whether or not such a short circuit occurs, a common voltage will be applied to each of the touch control electrodes 11, and the test result cannot reflect such a problem.
Taking
In an electrical test example, the electrical test is performed one by one among a plurality of test groups. For example, the voltage receiving end 13 first provides a common voltage to the first row of touch control electrodes 11 through the switch control signal S1, and simultaneously provides a full gray scale data voltage to the pixel electrodes of all the sub-pixels of the display area A1, so that the display area corresponding to the first row of touch control electrodes 11 presents a white monochrome picture. Then, while keeping the data voltage unchanged, the voltage receiving end 13 provides a common voltage to the second row of touch control electrodes 11 through the switch control signal S2, so that the display area corresponding to the second row of touch control electrodes 11 presents a white monochrome image, and so on. Thus, if there is a short circuit between the first row of touch control electrodes 11 and the second row of touch control electrodes 11, a white monochrome image will be presented in a display area corresponding to the short-circuited touch control electrodes 11 in the second row when the first test group is under test. When this phenomenon is observed, it can be determined that there is a short circuit between the touch control electrode 11 corresponding to the display area and the first row of touch control electrodes 11. Therefore, the short circuit existing between any two test groups can be detected via this test. That is, whether there is a short circuit between the touch control electrodes is detected in the electrical test.
It should be understood that, the test method, in which the above-mentioned touch control electrode 11 is used as a common electrode and the display picture is observed when a full gray scale data voltage and a common voltage are provided, is merely an example of an electrical test method. According to the function of the touch control electrode 11, the electrical test method can also be detecting the electromagnetic shielding effect of the touch control electrode when a stable voltage is provided, or detecting a signal received on an opposite electrode of the touch control electrode when an analog touch control signal is provided, which is not limited thereto.
It can be seen that, it is can be performed in the embodiments of the present disclosure a separate circuit test for each test group based on the connection relationship between the plurality of switch circuits and the plurality of test groups, so that a short circuit occurring between the test groups can be reflected in the test results. Based on this, it is possible to realize the detection of a short circuit in the circuit structure in the electrical test, which helps the short-circuit defect to be detected in time and improves the production efficiency.
In an example, a short-circuit detecting method for a display substrate may include:
when all the touch control electrodes in the first test group are connected to the voltage receiving ends through the switch control signal and a test voltage is provided to the voltage receiving end, whether there is a short circuit between the first test group and the second test group is detected according to whether there is a touch control electrode that receives the test voltage in the second test group; wherein the first test group and the second test group respectively is one of the plurality of test groups.
It can be understood that an exemplary implementation of the above short-circuit detecting method is included in the above electrical test example. In the exemplary implementation, the test voltage provided to the voltage receiving end is a constant common voltage, the test performed is a lighting test of the display area corresponding to a target test group, and the obtained test result includes the display condition in the display area. If a lit-up area appears in the display area corresponding to any test group when the test is not performed, it indicates that a short circuit has occurred between the test group and the target test group, so that each test group can be sequentially tested to determine the short circuit condition between any two test groups. According to the above description, the specific implementations of other electrical test methods can be obtained analogously, which will not be described herein.
It should be understood that any of the display substrates involved in the present disclosure can use the short-circuit detecting method as described above to perform detection of whether a short circuit occurs between test groups. That is, whether or not there is a short circuit can be realized in the electrical test, which can help the timely detection of short-circuit defects and improve production efficiency.
It should be noted that the voltage receiving end in the present disclosure refers to a conductor structure that provides a test voltage to the touch control electrode during the electrical test. The method of providing the test voltage from the outside of the display panel to the voltage receiving end may include, but is not limited to, the probe being electrically connected to the spacer, the plug being electrically connected to the socket, and the conductive clip being electrically connected to the spacer. It should also be noted that the switch control signal in the present disclosure may be generated outside the display substrate and transmitted to the switch circuit through the conductor structure on the display substrate, or may be generated through the on/off of a mechanical switch on the display substrate and transmitted to the switch circuit, or may also be generated by a controller on the display substrate through external communication and transmitted to the switch circuit, which is not limited thereto.
From the comparison of the embodiments of the present disclosure and the above comparative example, it can be seen that since the number of touch control signal lines is the same as the number of touch control electrodes (one-to-one correspondence) and a first end (the upper end in
In an example, when the switch control signal Si is at an active level, the gate and the transistor connected thereto are both in an ON state, so that the first row of touch control electrodes 11 are electrically connected to the voltage receiving end 13. At this time, the switch control signals S2 and S3 are at an inactive level, so that the remaining transistors in
In an example, a short-circuit detecting method for a display substrate as shown in
when all the touch control electrodes in each of the test groups are connected to the corresponding sub-receiving ends through the switch control signal and a different test voltage is respectively provided to each of the sub-receiving ends, whether there is a short circuit is detected between the first test group and the second test group according to whether there is a difference between the test voltages received by the first test group and the second test group; wherein the first test group and the second test group are respectively one of the plurality of test groups.
In the example, an electrical test can be performed simultaneously among a plurality of test groups. In an exemplary implementation, a common voltage corresponding to a different gray scale value is provided to each of the switch circuits 14 through the sub-receiving ends 131/132/133, such that the display area corresponding to the first row of touch control electrodes 11 in the display area A1 presents a white color with an intermediate brightness, the display area corresponding to the second row of touch control electrodes 11 in the display area A1 presents a white color with the highest brightness, and the display area corresponding to the third row of touch control electrodes 11 in the display area A1 presents a white color with the lowest brightness. At this time, if there is a short circuit between the first row of touch control electrodes 11 and the second row of touch control electrodes 11, the display area corresponding to the two rows of touch control electrodes 11 will present a white color with almost the same brightness. When this phenomena is observed, it is determined that there is a short circuit between the touch control electrode 11 corresponding to the display area and the first row of touch control electrodes 11. By analogy, the short circuit existing between any two test groups can be detected by using the above method. That is, whether there is a short circuit between the touch control electrodes is detected in the electrical test.
It can be understood that, in the above exemplary implementations, the test voltage provided to the voltage receiving end is a common voltage corresponding to a different gray scale value, the test performed is a lighting test of the display area corresponding to a target test group, and the obtained test result includes the display condition in the display area. If the difference in brightness between any test group and the target test group is too small, it indicates a short circuit occurs between the test group and the target test group, thus each test group can be sequentially detected to determine the short circuit condition between any two test groups. According to the above description, the specific implementations of other electrical test methods can be obtained analogously, which is not described herein.
It should be understood that as long as the voltage receiving end in the display substrate includes a plurality of sub-receiving ends, any type of display substrate involved in the present disclosure can perform the short-circuit detecting method as described above to detect whether there is a short circuit between the test groups. That is, it is possible to detect whether there is a short circuit in the electrical test, which helps the short-circuit defect to be detected in time and improves the production efficiency.
It can be seen that the design of some other aspects of the peripheral circuit area of the display substrate is also shown in
Referring to
In addition, referring to
As an example of a material selection method, the conductive material used by the touch control signal line 12 and the voltage receiving end 13 may include, for example, a metal material including at least one element of iron, copper, aluminum, molybdenum, nickel, titanium, silver, zinc, tin, lead, chromium, and manganese, and the components may be set according to application requirements. The touch control electrode 11 may be formed of a transparent conductive material including at least one of indium tin oxide ITO, graphene, a metal mesh, a conductive polymer, and a nano conductive material, and may also be formed by a translucent conductive material such as a silver thin film. The semiconductor material used in the active region of the above transistor may include amorphous silicon, polycrystalline silicon, single crystal silicon, metal oxide semiconductor, or the like, and at least a portion of the region may be doped in accordance with the characteristics of the thin film transistor to be realized. Each of the above structures may be formed by pattern design in the existing film layer. For example, the plurality of touch control signal lines may be formed together with the source electrode and the drain electrode of the transistor in the patterning process of the source/drain conductive layer, which is not limited herein.
Based on the same disclosure concept, there is provided a display device in the embodiments of the present disclosure. The display device includes any one of the above display substrates. The display device in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be any product or part with a display function, such as a display panel, a mobile phone, a tablet, a TV, a display, a laptop, a digital photo frame, a navigator, and etc. As an example,
It should be noted that, for the sake of clarity, only the structures for explaining the technical solution are shown in the drawings of the present disclosure; in the actual product, it is also possible to add, delete or deform within a possible scope on the basis of the drawings of the present disclosure, without affecting the implementation of the technical solution. The above descriptions are merely exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. Any modifications, equivalents, improvements, etc., within the spirit and principle of the present disclosure, shall fall into the protection scope defined by the appended claims of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201810251602.2 | Mar 2018 | CN | national |
