Patent Application
20080024427
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
Please refer to
The substrate 310 can be a rigid substrate, like a glass substrate, or a flexible substrate in accordance with practical demands. A plurality of scan lines 312 and data lines 314 are formed on the substrate 310 by a semiconductor process to define a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix. These pixels comprise the display pixels 320 and the dummy pixels 330 driven by the corresponding scan lines 312 and data lines 314, and the dummy pixels 330 are adjacent to the display pixels 320. In this embodiment, the display pixels 320 are surrounded by the dummy pixels 330. Therefore, these dummy pixels 330 serve as buffers against any damages when ESD occurs, and the display pixels 320 would not be damaged directly. Therefore, the yield rate and display quality of the display panel are improved. More specifically, each display pixel 320 comprises a display thin film transistor 320a disposed on the substrate 310 and a display pixel electrode 320b electrically connected to the display thin film transistor 320a, and each dummy pixel 330 comprises a dummy thin film transistor 330a disposed on the substrate 310 and a dummy pixel electrode 330b electrically connected to the dummy thin film transistor 330a. The E-ink display panel 300 further comprises a display driver (not shown) disposed on the substrate 310 for driving the display pixels 320 and the dummy pixels 330.
The E-ink display medium 340 is disposed over the display pixels 320 and the dummy pixels 330, and the display medium 340 comprises a plurality of capsules 342. Each capsule 342 contains a plurality of positively charged pigments 342a and negatively charged pigments 342b suspended in a clear fluid 342c. The display mechanism of the capsules 342 has been discussed before, and it is not repeated herein. In one embodiment of the present invention, the positively charged pigments 342a can be white pigments, and the negatively charged pigments 342b are black pigments.
The common electrode 350 is disposed on the display medium 340, and it can be an indium tin oxide (ITO) layer or other transparent conductive film formed on a transparent substrate. The display medium 340 disposed above the display pixels 320 is driven by the bias voltage between the display pixel electrode 320b of the display pixel 320 and the common electrode 350, such that an image is displayed through reflecting incident light by the display medium 340. However, the dummy pixels 330 serve as the ESD protection device; therefore, the display state of the display medium 340 above the dummy pixels 330 is controlled by the bias voltage between the dummy pixel electrode 330b of the dummy pixel 330 and the common electrode 350.
In this embodiment, the layout of the display pixels 320 could be is identical with that of the dummy pixels 330. In another embodiment, the layout of the display pixels 320 can be different with that of the dummy pixels 330, and the layout of the display pixels 320 and the dummy pixels 330 is not restricted in the present invention.
As shown in
Except surrounding with the display region, the dummy pixels 330 may have different arrangement in accordance with practical demands. Please refer to
In summary, the present invention utilizes the arrangement of the dummy pixels adjacent to the display pixels, to prevent the display pixels from being damaged directly due to an ESD and further improve the display quality and the manufacturing yield of the E-ink display panel. Thus, the dummy pixels serve as an ESD protection device for the E-ink display panel. Besides, the layout of the dummy pixels can be identical with that of the display pixels to simplify the fabrication process of the E-ink display panel; otherwise, the layout of the dummy pixels can be different from that of the display pixels in accordance with practical demands. Furthermore, all the dummy pixel electrodes of the dummy pixels surrounding the display pixels can be electrically connected to one another, and thus they may share the ESD current at the same time, to further prevent the display pixels from being damaged.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
