Patent Application
20170045768
Field of Invention
The present disclosure relates to display technologies, and more particularly, to a liquid crystal display panel and a method of fabricating the same.
Description of Related Art
The basic structure of a liquid crystal display includes an active device array substrate, an opposite substrate, a sealant connecting the active device array substrate and the opposite substrate, and a liquid crystal material filled into a space defined by the active device array substrate, the opposite substrate, and the sealant. In addition, to better control the alignment of liquid crystal molecules, an alignment film is deposited in advance on each of the active device array substrate and the opposite substrate. The alignment film is generally made of a polymer material such as polyimide (PI), which is a non-conductive material. In consequence, the presence of alignment films introduces some complexities to the electrical communication between the active device array substrate and the opposite substrate.
The present disclosure provides a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display panel including the following steps. An active device array substrate and an opposite substrate are provided, wherein the active device array substrate includes a first substrate and a first electrode layer disposed on the first substrate, and the opposite substrate includes a second substrate and a second electrode layer disposed on the second substrate. A first alignment film is formed on the first electrode layer and a second alignment film is formed on the second electrode layer. A sealant composition is applied on one of the first alignment film and the second alignment film, wherein the sealant composition includes an adhesive and a plurality of conductive particles dispersed in the adhesive. The active device array substrate and the opposite substrate are assembled, wherein assembling the active device array substrate and the opposite substrate includes heating the sealant composition so as to merge a part of the conductive particles into a conductive material piercing through the first alignment film and the second alignment film, respectively.
In an embodiment, the conductive material contacts with the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer, respectively.
In an embodiment, the conductive particles include nickel.
In an embodiment, the diameter of the conductive particles is smaller than 1 μm.
In an embodiment, the diameter of the conductive particles ranges from 10 nm to 500 nm.
In an embodiment, the sealant composition includes 1 wt % to 15 wt % of the conductive particles.
In an embodiment, the sealant composition includes 1 wt % to 5 wt % of the conductive particles.
The present disclosure further provides a liquid crystal display panel, including an active device array substrate, an opposite substrate, a first alignment film, a second alignment film, and a sealant. The active device array substrate includes a first substrate and a first electrode layer disposed on the first substrate. The opposite substrate includes a second substrate and a second electrode layer disposed on the second substrate. The first alignment film is disposed on the first electrode layer. The second alignment film is disposed on the second electrode layer. The sealant is disposed between the active device array substrate and the opposite substrate. The sealant includes an adhesive and a conductive material in the adhesive, wherein the conductive material pierces through the first alignment film and the second alignment film, respectively.
In an embodiment, the conductive material includes nickel.
The present disclosure can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the embodiment, with reference made to the accompanying drawings as follows:
In the following description, directional or positional relation indicated by terms such as “at the center of,” “on,” “over,” “under,” “below,” “in front of,” “behind,” “at the left of,” and “at the right of” is the directional or positional relation with reference to the figures. These terms are used to simplify the description, and using these terms does not indicate or suggest a specific configuration or orientation for operation of the device or element being described. In addition, terms such as “first” and “second” are used for descriptive purpose and shall not be construed as indicating or suggesting an element is more significant than another. Unless otherwise specified, terms such as “disposed,” “attached,” and “connected” shall be construed in their broad sense. For example, “connected” includes “fixedly connected,” “detachably connected,” or “integrally connected”; it also includes “mechanically connected” or “electrically connected”; it further includes “directly connected” or “connected via an intermediate element.” The meaning of these terms in the present disclosure shall be construed in light of the specific context. In addition, unless otherwise specified, in the following description, “a plurality of” or “several” means “two or more than two.”
Referring to
The first substrate 104 may be a silicon wafer in which a plurality of active devices (not shown in the figures) are formed and arranged in array. The active devices may be metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) or other active devices. The first electrode layer 106 may be a pixel electrode layer and may be made of, for example, aluminum (Al). In other embodiments, the first substrate 104 may be a transparent substrate (a glass substrate for example), and active devices such as thin film transistors (TFTs, not shown in the figures) may be formed in the first substrate 104.
The second substrate 204 may be a transparent substrate such as a glass substrate. The second electrode layer 206 may be a common electrode layer and may be made of a transparent conductive material such as indium tin oxide (ITO). The opposite substrate 202 may be a color filter substrate and thus may further include a black matrix (not shown in the figures) that defines a plurality of display areas and color filter layers (not shown in the figures) disposed in the display areas. It is noted that, materials, structures, and fabrication methods of the active devices, the color filters, and the black matrix are well understood in the relevant technical field and therefore those details are omitted herein for a concise description.
Still referring to
Referring to
Since the conductive material 306 is formed by merging a part of the conductive particles 304, the dimension of the conductive material 306 is influenced by the diameter of the conductive particles 304 as well as the relative amount of the conductive particles 304 to the adhesive. For example, if the diameter of the conductive particles 304 is too large, or the ratio of the conductive particles 304 to the adhesive 302 is too high, the dimension of the resulting conductive material 306 may exceed the predetermined cell gap, leading to a non-uniform cell gap. In this regards, the diameter of the conductive particles may be smaller than 1 μm, and for example, may range from 10 nm to 500 nm. Meanwhile, the sealant composition 300 may include 1 wt % to 15 wt % (in some instances 1 wt % to 5 wt %) of the conductive particles 304.
Another embodiment of the present disclosure provides a liquid crystal display panel, which will be described with reference to
Accordingly, the present disclosure provides a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display panel and a liquid crystal display panel fabricated by said method. By adopting this method, the process for achieving electrical communication between the active device array substrate and the opposite substrate is incorporated into the process of applying the sealant. Similarly, the additional electrical connection element that is necessary in conventional method is eliminated. Therefore, the method of the present disclosure simplifies the fabrication process of a liquid crystal display panel and provides the possibility to further reduce the dimension of the liquid crystal display panel.
Although the present disclosure has been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations could be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from the disclosure, processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed, that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present disclosure. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or step.
