1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for displaying images including a display panel, and more particularly to a display panel with substrates treated by a thinning process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Display devices are continually being developed toward lighter weights. In general, the glass substrate of display panels is thinned to provide display devices with lighter weights. In the conventional methods, the glass substrates are thinned by a mechanical polishing process. However, the thinning process weakens the strength of the glass substrates.
The conventional thinning process for glass substrates is performed by two mechanical polishing process steps. The first step is a rough polishing process, used to reduce a thickness of the glass substrate to a required thickness. In the first step, the surface roughness of the glass substrate becomes large, so that the light transmission of the glass substrate is reduced and the glass substrate becomes opaque. Next, the second step of the polishing process is used to reduce the surface roughness of the glass substrate, such that the transparency of the glass substrate is enhanced. However, the strength of the thinned glass substrate is reduced, thus the glass substrate is easily broken during the second polishing process step. Therefore, the thickness of the glass substrate is limited. Moreover, after the second polishing process step, the surface roughness of the glass substrate is not able to be reduced further
U.S. Pat. No. 7,294,373 discloses utilizing a metal oxide thin film to cover the surfaces of thinned glass substrates to solve the thinning process problems described previously. However, the two polishing process steps are still required, thus, still hindering further reduction in thickness of the glass substrate.
Therefore, a display panel with thin substrates is desirable, wherein the thinning process does not have the problems as described previously.
The present invention provides a system for displaying images including a display panel. The display panel comprises a first substrate having a first outer surface and a second substrate having a second outer surface. The second substrate is disposed opposite to the first substrate and assembled with the first substrate to obtain a total thickness, wherein the total thickness is formed after a thinning process. A transparent acrylic-based or epoxy acrylic-based polymer film covers the first outer surface and the second outer surface.
The present invention further provides a method for fabricating a display panel. The method comprises providing a first substrate having a first outer surface and providing a second substrate having a second outer surface. The second substrate is disposed opposite to the first substrate and assembled with the first substrate to form a first total thickness. A thinning process is performed to the first substrate and the second substrate, so that the first total thickness is reduced to form a second total thickness. Then, an acrylic-based or an epoxy acrylic-based polymer material is provided to coat on the first outer surface and the second outer surface for forming a transparent acrylic-based or epoxy acrylic-based polymer film.
A detailed description is given in the following embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The present invention can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description and examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The following description is of the best-contemplated mode of carrying out the invention. The description is provided for illustrating the general principles of the invention and is not meant to be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the invention is best determined by reference to the appended claims.
In an embodiment of a display panel of the present invention, surfaces of thinned substrates are treated by utilizing an acrylic-based or an epoxy acrylic-based polymer film to cover the outer surfaces of the thinned substrates, such that defects on the outer surfaces of substrates produced from a thinning process are repaired and strength of the thinned substrates are enhanced.
Referring to
The first substrate 100 and the second substrate 102 are treated by a thinning process. A total thickness of assembling the first substrate 100 and the second substrate 102 can be reduced by at least 20% by the thinning process. For example, a total thickness of assembling the first substrate 100 and the second substrate 102 is about 1 mm before thinning. After the thinning process, a display panel formed from assembling the first substrate 100 and the second substrate 102 has a total thickness of about 0.2 to 0.8 mm. The thinning process may be a mechanical polishing process, a chemical etching process or other thinning processes. Through the chemical or physical treatment of the thinning process, a first outer surface 100a of the first substrate 100 and a second outer surface 102a of the second substrate 102 become rough. The first outer surface 100a and the second outer surface 102a have a roughness of peak to valley (RPeak to valley) of about more than 0.25 μm. Meanwhile, surface defects are produced on the outer surfaces 100a and 102a, for example, a dimple, a scratch, a pimple or combinations thereof, so that transparencies of the first substrate 100 and the second substrate 102 are reduced and strengths thereof are also reduced.
Thus, in an embodiment of the present invention, polymer films 106 and 108 are formed to cover the first outer surface 100a of the first substrate 100 and the second outer surface 102a of the second substrate 102, respectively. The polymer films 106, 108 may be a transparent acrylic-based or epoxy acrylic-based polymer. After being covered with the polymer films 106, 108, the roughness of the first outer surface 100a and the second outer surface 102a are reduced by at least 50%. Meanwhile, a width, a depth and a height of the surface defects on the first outer surface 100a and the second outer surface 102a are reduced significantly. Referring to
In one embodiment of the present invention, a thickness of the polymer films 106 and 108 may be about 1.5 to 10 μm, and a light transmission of the polymer films 106 and 108 are similar to that of the first substrate 100 and the second substrate 102. For example, the first substrate 100 and the second substrate 102 have a light transmission of about 70% to 90% and the polymer films 106 and 108 have a light transmission of about 98% to 100%. In an embodiment of the present invention, a composition of the polymer film may be an oligomer, a reactive monomer, a photoinitiator and other additives, wherein the oligomer may be about 10% to 80% by weight. The oligomer may be, for example, polyester acrylic oligomer, epoxy acrylic oligomer, or polyurethane acrylic oligomer. In the composition of the polymer film, the reactive monomer may be about 10% to 80% by weight. The reactive monomer may be, for example, multifunctional acrylate. In the composition of the polymer film, the photoinitiator may be about 0.5% to 10% by weight and the other additives may be about 0 to 10% by weight. The additive may be, for example, silica (SiO2).
Referring to
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In an embodiment of the present invention, only one etching process is needed to complete thinning the substrates of the display panel. Then, the polymer films are utilized to cover the outer surfaces of the thinned substrates to repair the surface defects produced by the thinning process. Meanwhile, the roughness of the surfaces of the substrates is reduced and the transparency of the substrates is enhanced. Moreover, the strength of the thinned substrates is increased. In addition, compared with the conventional thinning processes of the substrates, the thinning process of the present invention can omit one polishing step, such that the production costs can be reduced.
The characteristics of the thinned substrates of Examples and Comparative Examples of the present invention are listed as below in Table 1. In both the Examples and the Comparative Examples, two assembled glass substrates had a total thickness of 1 mm and the total thickness was reduced into 0.8 mm after the thinning process. The polymer films of each Example had different thicknesses. In the Comparative Examples, there was no polymer film utilized to cover the substrates. The surface defects of the substrates before and after coating the polymer films were measured by a white light scattering instrument (SNU) and a surface profiler (KT-profiler). The fracture strength of the thinned substrates was measured by a dual axes breaking-resistant test of ring-on-ring (RoR) test. The measurement results are shown in Table 1.resistant test of ring-on-ring (RoR) test. The measurement results are shown in Table 1.
As shown in Table 1, in the Examples of the present invention utilizing the polymer films to cover the thinned substrates, the width of the dimple defects were reduced by at least 36%, the depth of the dimple defects were reduced by at least 70% and the strength of the substrates was enhanced at least 88%. In addition, the width of the scratch defects on the surfaces of the thinned substrates were reduced by at least 1%, the depth of the scratch defects were reduced by at least 87% and the strength of the substrates was enhanced at least 35%.
Thus, the display panels of the present invention have several advantages, such as repairing the surface defects of the thinned substrates and enhancing the strength of the thinned substrates. Moreover, the polishing step of the thinning process can be saved to reduce production costs.
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While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements (as would be apparent to those skilled in the art). Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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098110377 | Mar 2009 | TW | national |
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/104,665, filed on Oct. 10, 2008, and priority of Taiwan Patent Application No. 098110377, filed on Mar. 30, 2009, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61104665 | Oct 2008 | US |