Patent Publication Number: US-2022229323-A1

Title: Display module and electronic device

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/CN2020/115391, filed on Sep. 15, 2020, which claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201910950355.X, filed on Oct. 8, 2019. The entire contents of each of the above-identified applications are expressly incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates to the field of display technologies, and in particular to a display module and an electronic device. 
     BACKGROUND 
     With the progress of technologies and the development of electronic devices, users have greater demand for full-screen electronic devices. Therefore, a full screen has gradually become a development trend. Installation positions of cameras, sensors, telephone receivers, and other components are main factors that restrict the development of the full screen. Taking a camera as an example, an existing solution is as follows: a driving mechanism is disposed in a housing of an electronic device, and the driving mechanism is connected to the camera to drive the camera to enter and exit the housing of the electronic device. However, in this way, the demand for the driving mechanism leads to large internal space occupied by the driving mechanism in the housing of the electronic device. 
     To solve the problem, a light-transmissive hole may be disposed on a display module of the electronic device, and the camera may be disposed towards the light-transmissive hole, to achieve camera functions. The display module includes a first substrate, a second substrate, and a plurality of support columns disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The support columns are distributed in a region outside the light-transmissive hole. Such structure occupies less space in the housing of the electronic device and a large screen-to-body ratio of the electronic device approaches the concept of a full screen. 
     However, in order not to affect light transmittance of the light-transmissive hole, no support column is disposed in the light-transmissive hole, which leads to a weak support force at the light-transmissive hole and easily causes a recess at the light-transmissive hole, affecting the optical performance of the light-transmissive hole and further reducing the performance of the electronic device. 
     SUMMARY 
     The present disclosure provides a display module and an electronic device to solve the problem of low performance of the electronic device. 
     To solve the foregoing problem, the following technical solutions are used in the present disclosure. 
     A display module is provided, where the display module is applied to an electronic device with an optical component, and the display module is provided with a light-transmissive hole, where the light-transmissive hole is disposed opposite to the optical component, and the display module includes a light-transmissive cover plate, a first substrate, a second substrate, and a first support column, where 
     the second substrate is located between the first substrate and the light-transmissive cover plate, and the second substrate has a first region and a second region, where the second region is a region, corresponding to a field-of-view range of the optical component, on the second substrate, the first region is located in the second region, and the first region is a region, corresponding to a photosensitive region of the optical component, on the second substrate; and 
     the first support column is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, and at least a part of the first support column is located in a third region, where the third region is a region other than the first region in the second region. 
     An electronic device is provided, including the display module. 
     The technical solutions used in the present disclosure can achieve the following beneficial effects: 
     In the display module disclosed by the present disclosure, the second substrate has a first region, a second region, and a third region, where the first region is located in the second region, the second region is a region, corresponding to a field-of-view range of an optical component, on the second substrate, the first region is a region, corresponding to a photosensitive region of the optical component, on the second substrate, the third region is a region other than the first region in the second region, and at least a part of a first support column is located in the third region. In this solution, the first support column is disposed in a region covered by the light-transmissive hole. In addition, the first support column may avoid the photosensitive region, so that the structure may help to enhance a support force of a light-transmissive hole without affecting light transmittance of the light-transmissive hole, effectively preventing a recess at the light-transmissive hole. Therefore, the light-transmissive hole has better optical performance, further improving the performance of the electronic device. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawings described herein are used to provide further understanding of the present disclosure and constitute a part of the present disclosure. The illustrative embodiments of the present disclosure and descriptions thereof are used to explain the present disclosure, and do not constitute any improper limitation on the present disclosure. In the accompanying drawings: 
         FIG. 1  is a partial sectional view of a display module according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and 
         FIG. 2  is a top view of the display module according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     REFERENCE SIGNS 
     A—Region of a light-transmissive hole, B—First region, C—Second region, D—First sub-region, E—Second sub-region, F—Third sub-region, G—Fourth sub-region,  100 —First substrate,  200 —Second substrate,  300 —First support column, and  400 —Annular light-shielding part. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the present disclosure clearer, the following clearly and describes the technical solutions of the present disclosure with reference to the specific embodiments of the present disclosure and the corresponding accompanying drawings. Apparently, the described embodiments are merely a part rather than all of the embodiments of the present disclosure. All other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of the present disclosure without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure. 
     The technical solutions disclosed by various embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     As shown in  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 , embodiments of the present disclosure provides a display module which is applied to an electronic device with an optical component. The display module has a light-transmissive hole. The light-transmissive hole has a corresponding light-transmissive hole region A, and the light-transmissive hole is disposed opposite to the optical component. In some embodiments, the optical component includes at least one of a camera and a flash light. 
     The display module may specifically include a light-transmissive cover plate, a first substrate  100 , a second substrate  200 , and a first support column  300 . The second substrate  200  is located between the first substrate  100  and a light-transmissive cover plate. The second substrate  200  has a first region B and a second region C. The second region C is a region, corresponding to a field-of-view range (a range corresponding to an angle α as shown in  FIG. 1 ) of the optical component, on the second substrate  200 . The first region B is located in the second region C. The first region B is a region, corresponding to a photosensitive region of the optical component, on the second substrate  200 . Specifically, main bodies of the first substrate  100  and the second substrate  200  are glass plates, the second substrate  200  is provided with components such as an optical filter, the second substrate  200  and the light-transmissive cover plate are bonded by an optical adhesive, and the first substrate  100  is provided with components such as a thin film transistor. When the display module is a liquid crystal display module, liquid crystal is filled between the first substrate  100  and the second substrate  200 . In this case, the electronic device is provided with a backlight module. The backlight module is further provided with a through hole at a position corresponding to the light-transmissive hole. In this case, the optical component is installed under the display module, which will not occupy too much display region. Therefore, the electronic device has a larger screen-to-body ratio. 
     The first support column  300  is disposed between the first substrate  100  and the second substrate  200 . At least a part of the first support column  300  is located in a third region. The third region is a region in the second region C other than the first region B. 
     According to this embodiment of the present disclosure, the first support column  300  is disposed in a region covered by the light-transmissive hole. In addition, the first support column  300  may avoid a photosensitive region, so that the structure may help to enhance a support force of the light-transmissive hole without affecting light transmittance of the light-transmissive hole, effectively preventing a recess at the light-transmissive hole. Therefore, the light-transmissive hole has better optical performance, further improving the performance of the electronic device. 
     Because there is an installation allowance during installation of the optical component, the first region B may be actually slightly larger than the field-of-view range of the optical component, so as to prevent vignetting when the optical component is installed. Light beyond the field-of-view range of the optical component may be shielded by silk screen on the optical filter. 
     In one embodiment, there is a plurality of the first support columns  300 . The plurality of the first support columns  300  is disposed at intervals. In this solution, the support force of the light-transmissive hole is further enhanced, further improving the optical performance of the light-transmissive hole. 
     Specifically, one end of the first support column  300  is fixedly connected to the first substrate  100 , and the other end of the first support column  300  may be connected to the second substrate  200 . In this solution, the first support column  300  is in contact with both the first substrate  100  and the second substrate  200 , so that the first support column  300  strongly supports the first substrate  100  and the second substrate  200 . Therefore, a support force of the light-transmissive hole becomes stronger, and then the light-transmissive hole has better optical performance. 
     However, when the display module in the foregoing embodiment bears an external force, because the first support column  300  is in contact with both the first substrate  100  and the second substrate  200 , the first substrate  100  and the second substrate  200  has large stresses, which easily causes the display module to be damaged, thus affecting the light transmission performance of the light-transmissive hole. To solve this problem, in one embodiment, one end of the first support column  300  is fixedly connected to the first substrate  100 , and there is a gap between the other end of the first support column  300  and the second substrate  200 . In this case, when the second substrate  200  is forced to bend, the gap can play a buffering role, so that the stresses of the first substrate  100  and the second substrate  200  become small, and the display module is not easily damaged. In some embodiments, the gap between the first support column  300  and the second substrate  200  may further be filled with a buffer material. In this case, the buffer material may provide a support force for the second substrate  200 . In addition, when the second substrate  200  is deformed by a pressure, the buffer material may further be elastically deformed, which can play a buffering role, thus further improving the reliability of the display module. 
     To enable both a strong support force and a good buffering force to be provided between first substrate  100  and the second substrate  200 , in one embodiment, there is a plurality of the first support columns  300 , and the plurality of the first support columns  300  are displayed at intervals. One part of the first support columns  300  is in contact with both the first substrate  100  and the second substrate  200 . One end of the other part of the first support column  300  is fixedly connected to the first substrate  100 , and there is a gap between the other end and the second substrate  200 . In this case, a strong support function and a good buffering function both provided between the first substrate  100  and the second substrate  200  further improves the performance of the display module. 
     In one embodiment, the second region C is a circular region, the first region B is a rectangular region, and the first region B is tangent to the second region C. Because a photosensitive region of a photosensitive chip in the foregoing optical component is rectangular, this solution can enable the second region C to be adapted to the photosensitive region as much as possible, thus better utilizing light and preventing stray light from entering the light-transmissive hole. Specifically, the photosensitive chip may be a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor, CMOS) imaging chip with a  4 : 3  rectangular structure. 
     Because the first region B is tangent to the second region C, the third region is divided into a plurality of sub-regions. Specifically, the third region includes a first sub-region D, a second sub-region E, a third sub-region F, and a fourth sub-region G. In addition, the first sub-region D, the second sub-region E, the third sub-region F, and the fourth sub-region G are arranged around the first region B. An area of the first sub-region D is the same as that of the third sub-region F, and an area of the second sub-region E is the same as that of the fourth sub-region G. In order to average support forces among the sub-regions, the number of the first support columns  300  in the first sub-region D and the third sub-region F is greater than the number of the first support columns  300  in the second sub-region E and the fourth sub-region G. In this solution, as the first sub-region D and the third sub-region F have large areas, there are a great number of the first support columns  300 . As the second sub-region E and the fourth sub-region G have small areas, there are a small number of the first support columns  300 . In this case, support forces born by all sub-regions are relatively uniform, so the optical performance of the light-transmissive hole is better. 
     In one embodiment, the number of the first support columns  300  in the first sub-region D is equal to the number of the first support columns  300  in the third sub-region F, and the number of the first support columns  300  in the second sub-region E is equal to the number of the first support columns  300  in the fourth sub-region G. In this solution, the numbers of the first support columns in symmetrical regions are the same, so that support forces born by symmetrical sub-regions are the same, thereby enabling support forces born by all sub-regions are more uniform, furthering leading to a stronger support force for the light-transmissive hole. 
     In one embodiment, to prevent an edge region of the light-transmissive hole from leaking light, which affects the performance of the optical component, an annular light-shielding part  400  is further disposed in the light-transmissive hole. A center of the circle of the annular light-shielding part  400  coincides with a center of the circle the second region C. In this case, the annular light-shielding part  400  can cover the edge region of the light-transmissive hole, preventing stray light from entering the optical component. In addition, the center of the circle of the annular light-shielding part  400  coincides with the center of the circle of the second region C, so that when a light beam enters a photosensitive region, the light beam will not be blocked by the annular light-shielding part  400 . Therefore, the optical component can receive more light beams, further improving the performance of the optical component. 
     In one embodiment, the display module further includes a second support column. The second column is located between the first substrate  100  and the second substrate  200 , and an annular light-shielding part  400  is disposed in the light-transmissive hole, and one end of the second support column is connected to the annular light-shielding part  400 . In this solution, a second support column is disposed in a region covered by the annular light-shielding part  400 , so that a support force at the annular light-shielding part  400  can be improved. Therefore, a support force of the light-transmissive hole is further enhanced, and the whole light-transmissive hole is not easy to sag, so that the light-transmissive hole has better optical performance. 
     Specifically, the first support column  300  has a relatively strong support force but generates a relatively strong stress, and the second support column has a relatively weak support force but can alleviate a stress generated by the first support column  300 . 
     In some embodiments, the number of the first support columns  300  is greater than that of second support columns, and the second support columns are evenly distributed among the first support columns  300 , so that a support force at the light-transmissive hole is relatively uniform and no great stress is generated. 
     Based on the display module described in any of the foregoing embodiments of the present disclosure, an embodiment of the present disclosure further discloses an electronic device. The disclosed electronic device has the display module and the optical component described in the embodiments. The display module has a light-transmissive hole, and the light-transmissive hole is disposed opposite to the optical component. In this case, the optical component is directly installed under the display module, which will not occupy too much display region. Therefore, the electronic device has a larger screen-to-body ratio. 
     The electronic device disclosed in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be a smartphone, a tablet computer, an e-book reader, or a wearable device. Certainly, the electronic device may also be another device, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     The embodiments of the present disclosure focus on describing differences between the embodiments, and different optimization features of the embodiments may be combined to form better embodiments provided that they are not contradictory. Considering brevity, details are not described herein again. 
     The foregoing descriptions are merely embodiments of the present disclosure, but are not intended to limit the present disclosure. Various changes and modifications may be made to the present disclosure by those skilled in the art. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present disclosure should be included within the scope of the claims of the present disclosure.