Patent Description:
This application relates to the field of image display, and specifically, to a display and a terminal device.

An electronic ink display is a reflective display. When external ambient light is incident on the display, the light is reflected out of the display by ink particles to implement developing. Compared with a liquid crystal display (Liquid Crystal Display, LCD), the electronic ink display does not need a backlight unit to serve as a backlight source. Compared with an organic light-emitting diode (Organic Light-Emitting Diode, OLED) display, the electronic ink display does not need to excite an organic light-emitting diode to emit light. Therefore, the electronic ink display has an advantage of low power consumption.

At present, relatively mature electronic ink display solutions include: <NUM>. microcapsule electronic ink display; and <NUM>. electrowetting electronic ink display. The microcapsule electronic ink display is subject to a retarding effect of filling liquid in microcapsules. As a result, ink particles move at a limited speed, and the display is refreshed at a low speed, which cannot be adapted to dynamic content display. In addition, in terms of color display, the microcapsule electronic ink display adopts a printed color light filter film to display colors by superimposing different levels of gray displayed by the microcapsules and a corresponding color of pixels in the color light filter film. Different levels of gray of the microcapsules are discretely displayed and are limited in number, and therefore types of displayed colors are highly limited and full color gamut display cannot be implemented.

The electrowetting electronic ink display utilizes a surface tension property of liquid to control ink droplets to spread and contract on a hydrophobic layer to implement imaging. Because the ink droplets are agile in shape changing, the electrowetting electronic ink display has a higher refresh rate and a better effect in displaying dynamic content such as videos and GIFs, compared with the microcapsule display. In terms of color display, to implement full color gamut display, the electrowetting display is formed by using three stacked electrowetting structures, and pixels of the three stacked electrowetting structures are sequentially filled with red, green, and blue ink droplets. Shape changing of the ink droplets is continuous, so superposition of three primary color components can implement full color gamut display. However, such structure increases a device thickness of the display, not in line with a current design idea of making terminals thinner and lighter. In addition, blocked out by the upper electrowetting structure, incident light for the bottom electrowetting structure is weakened, resulting in low light reflectivity and color unsaturation.

To further reduce a display thickness while implementing full color gamut display, a "semi-emissive and semi-reflective" display is proposed in the prior art. The display is formed by stacking one emissive display layer and one reflective display layer. The emissive display layer is made of a display material such as an LCD or OLED. The reflective display layer is made of an ink material. The emissive display layer includes first pixel zones and second pixel zones that are alternately arranged. The first pixel zone includes three adjacent pixels for displaying a color image, and the second pixel zone leaves vacancy for three adjacent pixels, to permit passage of a grayscale image displayed by the lower reflective display layer. Because the first pixel zones and the second pixel zones are alternately arranged, pixels per inch (Pixels Per Inch, PPI) of the display is reduced. Consequently, a display resolution significantly decreases and a high-definition image cannot be displayed.

The technical solutions of this application provide a display and a terminal device, to stack a reflective display layer and an emissive display layer at a pixel level to avoid a PPI decrease of the display.

According to a first aspect, this application provides a display, where the display includes a reflective display layer and an emissive display layer disposed under the reflective display layer, where.

According to the display provided in this application, the reflective display layer and the emissive display layer are stacked at a granularity of pixel, so that each pixel can switch between a grayscale display mode and a color display mode. Therefore, compared with the prior art, the display has no display PPI decrease and ensures a display resolution.

In an implementation of the first aspect, the first zone is filled with a transparent resin material.

The transparent resin material has high light transmittance, so that in the color display mode, light from the effective light transmitting zone under the first zone can effectively and completely pass through the reflective display layer to form a color image.

In an implementation of the first aspect, the first zone is covered with a color light filter film, and a color of the color light filter film is the same as a pixel color in the effective light transmitting zone.

The color light filter film can effectively reduce reflection of a cathode layer in the effective light transmitting zone, avoiding chromatic aberration caused by lightening of a displayed color.

In an implementation of the first aspect, the first TFT electrode layer includes a transparent zone corresponding to the effective light transmitting zone and a non-transparent zone corresponding to the non-effective light transmitting zone, and TFT electrode wiring is arranged in the non-transparent zone.

Arrangement of TFT electrode wiring in the non-transparent zone can improve light transmittance of the effective light transmitting zone, and improve a display effect of the emissive display layer in the color display mode.

In an implementation of the first aspect, the reflective display layer further includes a second substrate, and the second substrate is located on a side of the first TFT electrode layer close to the emissive display module layer.

In an implementation of the first aspect, the emissive display layer further includes a second cover plate, and the second cover plate is located on a side of the emissive display module close to the first TFT electrode layer.

In an implementation of the first aspect, the substrate or the cover plate is a glass base material.

Using a glass substrate or a glass cover plate can increase support strength of the display.

In an implementation of the first aspect, the substrate or the cover plate is a flexible base material.

Replacing the glass substrate/cover plate with a flexible base material can reduce a thickness of the display.

In an implementation of the first aspect, in a grayscale display mode, the first TFT electrode layer controls the second zone of the ink filling layer to display grayscale effects, and the second TFT electrode layer controls the effective light transmitting zone of the emissive display module layer to turn black.

In an implementation of the first aspect, in a color display mode, the second TFT electrode layer controls the effective light transmitting zone of the emissive display module layer to turn colored, and the first TFT electrode layer controls the second zone of the ink filling layer to turn black.

According to the display provided in this application, the reflective display layer and the emissive display layer are stacked in an up-and-down stacking direction, and switching between reflective display and emissive display is implemented through switching between the color display mode and the grayscale display mode.

In an implementation of the first aspect, the second zone is filled with a microcapsule ink material or an electrowetting ink material.

In an implementation of the first aspect, the emissive display module layer is an organic light-emitting diode OLED display module.

The OLED display module features high brightness, fast response, and high definition, and therefore can improve the display effect in the color display mode. In addition, an aperture ratio of an OLED pixel is small, and a non-effective light transmitting zone occupies a large area of the pixel. An ink material may be added to the second zone with a larger area at the reflective display layer to increase a pixel aperture ratio at the ink display layer, so as to improve the display effect in the grayscale display mode.

In an implementation of the first aspect, the second zone is filled with an electrowetting ink material, and the emissive display module layer is an OLED display module, where.

According to a second aspect, this application provides a display, where the display includes a reflective display layer and an emissive display layer disposed under the reflective display layer, where.

In an implementation of the second aspect, the first TFT electrode layer includes a transparent zone and a non-transparent zone with respect to each pixel, and TFT electrode wiring is arranged in the non-transparent zone.

Arrangement of TFT electrode wiring in the non-transparent zone can improve light transmittance of the emissive display layer, and improve a display effect of the emissive display layer in the color display mode.

In an implementation of the second aspect, the reflective display layer further includes a second substrate, and the second substrate is located between the first TFT electrode layer and the electrochromic layer.

In an implementation of the second aspect, the emissive display layer further includes a second cover plate, and the second cover plate is located on a side of the emissive display module layer close to the electrochromic layer.

In an implementation of the second aspect, the substrate or the cover plate is a glass base material.

In an implementation of the second aspect, the substrate or the cover plate is a flexible base material.

In an implementation of the second aspect, in a grayscale display mode, reflectivity of the electrochromic layer is controlled to be not less than a first threshold, and the first TFT electrode layer controls the ink filling layer to display grayscale effects.

In an implementation of the second aspect, in a color display mode, the reflectivity of the electrochromic layer is controlled to be not greater than a second threshold, the first TFT electrode layer controls the ink filling layer to turn transparent, and the second TFT electrode layer controls the emissive display module layer to turn colored.

In an implementation of the second aspect, the ink filling layer is filled with an electrowetting ink material, and the emissive display module layer is a LCD display layer;.

In this implementation, the LCD emissive display layer is provided, and the electrowetting ink display layer is provided to avoid blocking out the lower LCD display layer, so as to ensure normal switching and usage of both the grayscale display mode and the color display mode.

According to a third aspect, this application provides a terminal device, where the terminal device includes the display according to the first aspect or the second aspect.

It can be understood that for beneficial effects of the terminal device provided according to the second aspect, reference may be made to the beneficial effects in the first aspect and any implementation thereof. Details are not repeated herein.

Obviously, the described embodiments are merely some but not all of the embodiments of this application.

In addition, the terms such as "first" and "second" are merely intended for a purpose of description, and shall not be understood as an indication or implication of relative importance or an implicit indication of the number of the indicated technical features. Therefore, a feature limited by "first", "second", or the like may explicitly or implicitly include one or more features.

In addition, in this application, the orientation terms such as "central", "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "top", and "bottom" are defined with respect to the schematic orientation or location of the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that these directional terms are relative concepts, are used in relative description and clarification, are not intended to indicate or imply that the apparatuses or components mentioned must have specific orientations or be constructed and operated for a specific orientation, and may correspondingly change with the placed orientation of the components in the drawings, and therefore shall not be construed as a limitation to this application.

It should also be noted that in the embodiments of this application, a same component or a same part is represented by a same reference numeral. For a same part in the embodiments of this application, a reference numeral for only one part or component may be used as an example in the figure, and it should be understood that the reference numeral applies to other identical parts or components.

In this application, a terminal may include a handheld device, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a computing device, or another processing device connected to a wireless modem. The terminal may also include a cellular phone (cellular phone), a smart phone (smart phone), a personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA) computer, a tablet computer, a laptop computer (laptop computer), a machine type communication (machine type communication, MTC) terminal, a point of sale (point of sale, POS), an in-vehicle computer, and another terminal with an imaging capability. In the embodiments of this application, the terminal may also be referred to as a terminal device.

The embodiments of this application impose no special limitation on a specific form of the terminal. For ease of description and understanding, an example in which the terminal is a mobile phone is used for description in this application. As shown in <FIG>, the terminal includes components such as a display, buttons, a camera, an infrared sensor, and an ambient light sensor. The terminal further includes internal components such as a processor, an internal memory, an antenna, a speaker, a receiver, and a gravity sensor (not shown in the figure). This application proposes a design solution for a display. For ease of description, this application first defines three axis directions of the terminal. As shown in <FIG>, facing toward the display of the terminal, a short side of the terminal is defined as an axis-X direction, a long side of the terminal is defined as an axis-Y direction, and a direction that is perpendicular to the display of the terminal and that is of emergent light of the display is an axis-Z direction. The "direction of emergent light of the display" mentioned later in this application is the axis-Z direction in <FIG>, and "from top to bottom of the display" is a direction opposite to the axis Z, namely, an incident direction of ambient light.

Display principles of a microcapsule display and an electrowetting display are described below:.

As shown in <FIG>, the microcapsule display includes countless microcapsules, and the microcapsule is filled with a plurality of black ink particles and a plurality of white ink particles. The ink particles of the two colors have opposite charges. In addition, transparent filling liquid for supporting suspension of the ink particles is also added between the ink particles. When a forward voltage is applied to the microcapsule, the black ink particles move to the top of the microcapsule, and the white ink particles move to the bottom of the microcapsule. In this case, ambient light outside the display is reflected by the black ink particles after irradiating into the display, and the display turns black to naked eyes. When a reverse voltage is applied to the microcapsule, the two types of ink particles move in an opposite way, and the display turns white.

At present, in addition to displaying black and white, most microcapsule displays support a grayscale display mode, such as GC4, GC8, or GC16. GC (Grey Clean) means grayscale clearing, and <NUM>, <NUM>, or <NUM> indicates the maximum levels of gray supported by different modes. At present, an electronic ink display can support up to <NUM> levels of gray for display, namely, GC16 mode. This mode provides a total of <NUM> levels of grayscale display effects from <NUM> to <NUM>. Level <NUM> corresponds to white, level <NUM> corresponds to black, and levels <NUM> to <NUM> correspond to increasingly darkening gray colors between white and black. Certainly, in practical application, there are also solutions in which level <NUM> is defined as black and level <NUM> is defined as white, which is not limited in the embodiments of this application. As shown in <FIG>, when different levels of gray between black and white are displayed, the black and white ink particles are no longer driven to the top or bottom of the microcapsule, but move to and suspend at specified locations in the microcapsule, so as to meet requirements of displaying different levels of gray.

As shown in <FIG>, when a frame of image is being displayed, firstly, an RGB image is subjected to graying to convert RGB values of each pixel in the image into <NUM>-level grayscale values, and then a timing controller circuit performs a look up table (Look Up Table, LUT) operation to obtain a driving waveform (waveform) of the pixel. The driving waveform includes a current/voltage, a pulse duration, a pulse period, and other parameter information that the pixel needs to display the current frame. After receiving a driving waveform corresponding to each pixel in the current frame, an electronic paper controller drives a microcapsule corresponding to the pixel of the electronic ink display based on parameter information carried by the driving waveform, to control each of black and white ink particles in the microcapsule to move from a current location to a next location, so that the electronic ink display is refreshed to display content of a next frame of image.

An LUT table is an electronic ink display drive mapping table that an electronic ink display supplier obtains and records based on display hardware testing. The table records driving waveforms of pixels that correspond to different display requirements/conditions. Dependent variables affecting the mapping table generally include: a next-frame gray level of the pixel, a current-frame gray level of the pixel, and a current display temperature. The next-frame gray level of the pixel determines a moved-to location of an ink particle, and the current-frame gray level of the pixel corresponds to a current location of the ink particle. The display temperature needs to be taken into account because viscosity of filling liquid in microcapsules varies under different temperatures. For a same driving waveform, higher viscosity of the filling liquid means that an ink particle is more difficult to move. If a moving distance of the ink particle is insufficient, a display becomes too dark or too light, affecting a display effect. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the driving waveform based on a current display temperature to ensure that the ink particle can accurately move to designated locations under different temperatures, so as to achieve sufficient and accurate grayscale presentation. Generally, viscosity of filling fluid is negatively correlated with a temperature, that is, a lower temperature indicates greater viscosity of the filling fluid.

In the LUT table, all permutations and combinations of the three parameters of "next-frame gray level", "current-frame gray level", and "current display temperature" are given, and each permutation and combination is mapped to one corresponding driving waveform parameter to form the above mapping table. During the look up table operation, the timing controller circuit obtains a next-frame grayscale image from a system on chip (System on Chip, SOC), and obtains a gray level of each pixel therefrom; and then obtains a current-frame grayscale image from a cache, and obtains a gray level of each pixel in the current frame. Then, the timing controller circuit queries the SOC for temperature data of the electronic ink display. The data is monitored and obtained by a temperature sensor disposed inside the terminal and close to a backlight plate of the electronic ink display, and transmitted to the SOC. After obtaining the data, the timing controller circuit uses the three pieces of data as dependent variables to look up a corresponding driving waveform in the LUT table. After driving waveforms corresponding to all pixels in the next frame of image are obtained, the look up table process is completed.

As shown in <FIG>, an electrowetting display structurally includes a glass cover plate, a retaining wall, a transparent hydrophobic layer, a reflective metal layer, an electrode layer, and a glass substrate from top to bottom. Black oily ink droplets, also referred to as ink droplets, are added at the transparent hydrophobic layer. When the ink droplets spread all over the entire transparent hydrophobic layer, the ink droplets completely block the reflective metal layer under the transparent hydrophobic layer. Ambient light outside the display irradiates on the ink droplets, and then is reflected by the ink droplets out of the display to present a black color. When the ink droplets contract to corners of the hydrophobic layer, the reflective metal layer under the hydrophobic layer is exposed from most zones of pixels. Ambient light outside the display irradiates on the reflective metal layer, and then is reflected by the reflective metal layer out of the display to present a white color.

When the ink droplets are in a state between the foregoing two boundary states, a gray tone can be displayed through joint reflection by the black ink droplets and the reflective metal layer. Different levels of gray from light to dark can be displayed by adjusting a proportion of occlusion by ink droplets. Unlike the microcapsule display, the ink droplets have a smooth and continuous shape changing process, and therefore can theoretically display infinite grayscale effects between white and black.

In the prior art, it takes time, usually more than <NUM>, for black and white ink particles in a microcapsule display to move. Particularly, in a low temperature environment, affected by increased viscosity of filling liquid, such time can be more than <NUM>. In a global refresh mode, such time is further increased to be more than <NUM>, which severely limits a display refresh rate and is not suitable for dynamic content display. Taking a minimum dynamic frame rate of <NUM> frames per second for example, a refresh time of one frame of image does not exceed <NUM>. Obviously, the microcapsule display cannot reach this refresh rate.

The so-called global refresh means performing screen clearing once before driving black and white ink particles from a location (for example, gray level <NUM>) corresponding to a current frame of image to a location (for example, gray level <NUM>) corresponding to a next frame of image, to drive all the black ink particles to the bottom of a microcapsule and drive all the white ink particles to the top of the microcapsule, so that the black and white ink particles are then driven from the bottom or top to the location corresponding to the next frame of image (a location corresponding to gray level <NUM>). Significance of the global refresh is to eliminate a screen ghost image accumulated by multiple local refreshes. Because there is a small error in moving distances of the ink particles during each refresh, such distance error grows to an extent that can be observed by naked eyes after multiple refreshes, resulting in the ghost image. The black and white ink particles can be "reset" by the global refresh before the next frame of image is displayed, and then driven to the required locations, thereby eliminating accumulation of errors.

A refresh rate of the electrowetting display is much higher than that of the microcapsule display. Ink droplets of the electrowetting display change more quickly in response to driving waveforms, and resistance between the ink droplets and the transparent hydrophobic layer is nearly zero, offering the electrowetting display an incomparable advantage over the microcapsule display in terms of refresh rate. The electrowetting display usually needs <NUM> to <NUM> to refresh a frame of image, and can better adapt to display of dynamic content such as waterfall pages, UI animation, GIFs, and videos.

In terms of color display, the microcapsule display adopts a printed color electronic paper technology that prints a layer of color light filter film on the microcapsule layer. As shown in <FIG>, a front view of <FIG> is based on an observation perspective opposite to an axis Z, that is, a perspective of looking towards a display, and a section of a cross-sectional view is based on a perspective of looking towards an XZ plane. For the color light filter film, adjacent R, G, and B light filtering zones are used as a pixel zone, and each pixel zone vertically corresponds to three adjacent pixels of the lower microcapsule layer, and gray level changes of pixels present different colors through the color light filter film. As mentioned above, each pixel supports a maximum of <NUM> gray levels, meaning that one pixel zone on the color light filter film can display only a total of <NUM>*<NUM>*<NUM>, namely, <NUM> colors at most, which strictly limits a color gamut and is far from satisfying usage requirements.

By contrast, the electrowetting display has three separate electrowetting layers stacked. As shown in <FIG>, a bottom electrowetting layer is filled with red ink droplets, and a middle electrowetting layer is filled with green ink droplets, and a top electrowetting layer is filled with blue ink droplets. As mentioned above, ink droplets have a smooth and continuous shape changing process, and can output almost infinite grayscale effects. Therefore, a much wider color gamut is supported by a display of three stacked layers.

However, this solution cannot overcome a problem that a display device is excessively thick. For example, in a structure shown in <FIG>, an electrowetting layer includes a glass cover plate, a retaining wall, a transparent hydrophobic layer, an electrode layer, and a glass substrate from top to bottom. For ease of light reflection by a bottom electrowetting layer, reflective metal layers of a top electrowetting layer and a middle electrowetting layer are removed, and only a reflective metal layer of the bottom electrowetting layer is retained. After irradiating into the display, external light passes through blue, green and red electrowetting structures in turn, and is reflected out of the display by the bottom metal reflective layer. For any electrowetting layer, a glass cover plate or glass substrate is about <NUM> thick, which can be reduced to <NUM> through an acid etching process. For ease of description, <NUM> is used as a thickness of a glass cover plate/substrate in the following descriptions of this application. Generally, the ink droplet layer, the transparent hydrophobic layer, the electrode layer, and the metal reflective layer each have a thickness of less than <NUM>, which is negligible compared with the thickness of the glass cover plate/substrate. It can be learned that in the structure shown in <FIG>, a thickness of one electrowetting layer is approximately a sum of a thickness of a glass cover plate and a thickness of a glass substrate, that is, about <NUM>. An overall thickness of the three stacked electrowetting layers reaches <NUM>. Compared with a traditional electrowetting display, LCD display, or OLED display (one glass cover plate layer + one glass substrate layer), the display doubles in thickness.

It should be noted that for ease of displaying a shape of an ink droplet, a display layer in which the ink droplet is located is enlarged in <FIG> and <FIG>, and thicknesses of layers in the figures do not indicate real thicknesses in practical application. This is not noted for subsequent drawings of this application.

To further reduce a display thickness while implementing full color gamut display, a "semi-emissive and semi-reflective" display is proposed in the prior art. Emissive display is a display manner using an LCD, an OLED, a MICRO LED, or the like, in which light is generated inside a display, passes through the display, and enters human eyes to implement imaging. Reflective display is a display manner using the above-mentioned microcapsules or electrowetting electric paper.

As shown in <FIG>, in this solution, a display includes one emissive display layer and one reflective display layer from top to bottom, and the emissive display layer includes first pixel zones and second pixel zones that are alternately arranged. The first pixel zone includes three adjacent pixels on the left of the figure, which correspond to R, G, and B pixels of the emissive display layer. The second pixel zone leaves vacancy for three adjacent pixels to transmit content displayed by the lower reflective display layer.

In a color display mode, RGB pixels at the emissive display layer are used for full gamut color display, and the reflective display layer displays black to reduce display interference with the emissive display layer. In a black and white display mode, the reflective display layer displays a corresponding level of gray based on a requirement, and the RGB pixels at the emissive display layer are de-energized to be displayed in black, so as to reduce display interference with the reflective display layer.

It can be seen that the structure shown in <FIG> includes only four glass cover plate/substrate layers, and has an overall thickness of about <NUM>, reduced by one third compared with the structure shown in <FIG> while ensuring full color gamut display. However, the alternate arrangement of the first and second pixel zones decreases a display PPI by half, greatly reducing a display resolution and making it impossible to display a high-definition image.

In view of this, this application proposes a pixel-level display integration solution that an emissive display structure and a reflective display structure are stacked at a pixel level, to avoid a display PPI decrease of the solution in <FIG>.

As shown in <FIG>, this application provides a display. A front view is based on a perspective opposite to an axis Z, that is, a perspective of looking towards the display, and a section of a cross-sectional view is based on a perspective of looking towards an XZ plane. The display includes a reflective display layer <NUM> and an emissive display layer <NUM> from top to bottom. The reflective display layer <NUM> includes a first cover plate <NUM>, an ink filling layer <NUM>, and a first thin-film transistor TFT electrode layer <NUM> from top to bottom. The emissive display layer <NUM> includes an emissive display module layer <NUM> and a first substrate <NUM> from top to bottom.

The emissive display module layer <NUM> includes a plurality of pixels arranged in an XY plane, and each pixel includes an effective light transmitting zone <NUM> and a non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM>. The effective light transmitting zone <NUM> is used to display one of R, G, and B color components, and the non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM> includes a second TFT electrode layer <NUM> used to drive the emissive display module layer <NUM>. The non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM> is made of a transparent resin material that wraps a TFT circuit and wiring, and is not used as a light-emitting zone of the pixel.

A smallest structural unit of the emissive display module layer <NUM> is a pixel, each pixel is used to display one color component, three adjacent pixels form one pixel zone, and one pixel zone is a smallest display unit to implement full color gamut display. In an implementation, one R pixel, one G pixel, and one B pixel form one pixel zone. In another implementation, one R pixel, two G pixels, and one B pixel form one pixel zone. A pixel zone including one R pixel, one G pixel, and one B pixel is used as an example for latter description of this application. In practical application, neither the number nor color type of pixels in the pixel zone is limited.

At the reflective display layer <NUM>, the ink filling layer <NUM> includes a first zone <NUM> corresponding to the effective light transmitting zone <NUM> and a second zone <NUM> corresponding to the non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM>. "Corresponding to" means that the two zones have the same shape and size on the XY plane, and have projections in the axis-Z direction that can completely overlap. Certainly, "completely overlap" in the axis-Z direction, namely, the projection direction, may have a deviation in product implementation. In this application, the first zone <NUM> and the second zone <NUM> are surrounded by a retaining wall <NUM>, the first zone <NUM> is not filled with materials, the second zone <NUM> is filled with an electronic ink material, and light emitted by the effective light transmitting zone <NUM> of the emissive display module layer <NUM> can pass through the first zone <NUM> of the ink filling layer <NUM> and exit the display.

In a grayscale display mode, the reflective display layer <NUM> is used for display. In this case, the electronic ink material in the second zone <NUM> of the ink filling layer <NUM> is driven by a first TFT electrode layer <NUM> to display different grayscale effects such as black, white, and gray in the second zone <NUM>. In addition, at the emissive display layer <NUM>, the second TFT electrode layer <NUM> in the non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM> powers off the emissive display module layer <NUM>, so that the effective light transmitting zone <NUM> turns black and no longer emits RGB light, to avoid display interference with the reflective display layer <NUM>.

In a color display mode, the emissive display layer <NUM> is used for display. The second TFT electrode layer <NUM> in the non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM> controls the effective light transmitting zone <NUM> at the emissive display module layer <NUM> to emit RGB light. The light passes through the first zone <NUM> of the reflective display layer <NUM> and exits the display to display color content. In addition, the first TFT electrode layer <NUM> drives the electronic ink material in the second zone <NUM> of the ink filling layer <NUM>, so that the second zone <NUM> turns black. This can occlude TFT wiring of the second TFT electrode layer <NUM> in the non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM> to avoid display interference with the emissive display layer <NUM>.

In this application, the second zone <NUM> turning black can effectively block external ambient light reflected by the TFT circuit and wiring, and can also minimize ambient light reflected by ink particles themselves. If the second zone <NUM> turns white, light mixing occurs after white light reflected by white ink particles is mixed with RGB light, resulting in a "whitish" display. Black light from black ink particles and RGB light have a higher contrast ratio, and therefore light mixing can be effectively resolved and display effects can be improved.

In an implementation, under a condition of moderately compromising a display effect, dark gray may be used to occlude the second TFT electrode layer <NUM>, that is, the second zone <NUM> turns dark gray. For example, in the foregoing <NUM>-level grayscale mode, if gray level <NUM> corresponds to a black display effect, display effects corresponding to gray level <NUM> to gray level <NUM> may be determined as dark gray effects. Alternatively, in the foregoing <NUM>-level grayscale mode, if gray level <NUM> corresponds to a black display effect, display effects corresponding to gray level <NUM> to gray level <NUM> may be determined as dark gray effects.

The display proposed in this application may use a microcapsule ink material to fill the second zone <NUM>, as shown in <FIG>, or may use an electrowetting ink material to fill the second zone <NUM>, as shown in <FIG>. In the latter implementation, a transparent hydrophobic layer <NUM> needs to be provided below ink droplets in the second zone <NUM>, and a reflective metal layer <NUM> needs to be provided on a side of the transparent hydrophobic layer <NUM> facing away from the ink droplets. For driving methods of microcapsule ink particles and electrowetting ink droplets, refer to the foregoing description. Details are not repeated herein. The microcapsule ink material is used as an example for latter description in this application. Unless otherwise specified, the microcapsule solution can be replaced with an electrowetting solution.

Compared with the display in <FIG>, the display provided in this application can avoid a PPI decrease of the display, and ensure a display resolution of the display. This is because in the solution in <FIG>, adjacent pixel zones are used as an emissive display zone and a reflective display zone respectively. If a display has N pixels in total, the number of pixels used for emissive display and the number of pixels used for reflective display are both N/<NUM>. When one of the zones is used for display, the other zone is in an idle state and cannot be effectively used, resulting in that PPI of the display is halved. However, in this application, the ink material is superimposed on the non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM> at the pixel level to combine a reflective display mechanism and an emissive display mechanism, so that each pixel of the display can perform reflective display and emissive display. In other words, N pixels of the display are usable for emissive display, and the N pixels are also usable for reflective display. Compared with the solution in <FIG>, the PPI of the display is not decreased. In addition, when the effective light transmitting zone <NUM> of the emissive display module layer <NUM> emits light, the non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM> itself does not emit light for display. Therefore, superimposing the ink material on the non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM> does not affect the emissive display mechanism in this application.

In one implementation, an OLED display module is used as the emissive display module layer <NUM>. As shown in <FIG>, the effective light transmitting zone <NUM> of the OLED display module includes a cathode layer <NUM>, an electron injection layer <NUM>, an electron transport layer <NUM>, an organic self-luminous layer <NUM>, a hole transport layer <NUM>, a hole injection layer <NUM>, and an anode layer <NUM> from top to bottom. RGB colors emitted by pixels are determined by organic display materials of different colors added at the organic self-luminous layer <NUM>.

In the prior art, an aperture ratio of an OLED pixel is usually about <NUM>%. The so-called aperture ratio is a ratio of a light transmitting zone of the pixel to an entire zone of the pixel, and the entire zone of the pixel includes the light transmitting zone and an opaque zone. In this application, referring to <FIG>, an aperture ratio of an OLED pixel is equal to effective light transmitting zone <NUM>/(effective light transmitting zone <NUM> + non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM>), or equivalent to first zone <NUM>/(first zone <NUM> + second zone <NUM>).

Due to high luminous brightness of the OLED pixel, a low aperture ratio of the pixel does not affect display of the display. In this application, the second zone <NUM> with a higher area ratio is used to implement the electronic ink display. This can effectively ensure color density of the display in the grayscale display mode, thereby avoiding color distortion caused by too few ink particles. For example, when there are too few black ink particles, a light-colored gap between black dot matrices displayed on the display widens. As a result, a dark image becomes lighter to an observer.

In this solution, with no materials added in the first zone <NUM>, the ink filling layer <NUM> is inconsistent in thicknesses, affecting structural stability. Therefore, in an implementation, the first zone <NUM> may be filled with a transparent resin material, and the material is the same as the ink material in thickness. The transparent resin material has high light transmittance and therefore does not occlude light emitted by the effective light transmitting zone <NUM>, thereby avoiding affecting an OLED display effect.

Further, the first zone <NUM> may alternatively be filled with a color light filter film instead of the transparent resin. As shown in <FIG>, the first zone <NUM> is filled with a color light filter film instead of the transparent resin. When a thickness of the color light filter film is smaller than a thickness of the first zone <NUM>, multiple color light filter films may be stacked, so that a total thickness of the stacked color light filter films is or approximately the same as the thickness of the first zone <NUM>. In addition, a color of the color light filter films is the same as a pixel color in the effective light transmitting zone <NUM> below the color light filter films. In this solution, a purpose of adding the color light filter film is to reduce ambient light reflected by the effective light transmitting zone <NUM>. As mentioned above, the OLED display module includes the cathode layer <NUM> that is usually made of a metal material and therefore can reflect light. As shown in <FIG>, upon entering the display along an opposite direction of the axis Z, external ambient light is reflected out of the display by the cathode layer <NUM>, resulting in chromatic aberration in a pixel color seen by an observer. For example, the color becomes lighter. The color light filter film can polarize and filter the ambient light. As shown in <FIG>, when ambient light irradiates on the color light filter film, only light whose component corresponds to a color of the filter film can pass through the color filter film and reach the cathode layer <NUM>. This reduces the amount of incident light and reduces light reflection. In addition, when the incident light is reflected out of the color light filter film, because the color of the light is the same as the color of the color light filter film, chromatic aberration can be "corrected" to avoid lightening of the displayed color.

In addition to the foregoing manners, in practical application, the first zone <NUM> may alternatively be filled with a transparent resin material, and a color light filter film may be added over or under the transparent resin material.

In addition to the advantages described above, the display in <FIG> has the following advantage over the traditional OLED display: no need to add a polarizer at an upper layer of the OLED display module. In the prior art, a cathode layer <NUM> in which OLED pixels are located, and a TFT circuit and wiring in a non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM> all reflect external ambient light, affecting display quality. Therefore, a polarizer is added above an OLED display module to reduce the amount of light entering and exiting the LOED display module, so as to reduce display reflection. In this solution, the color light filter film is used to reduce light reflected by OLED pixels, and the ink material displayed in black is used to occlude TFT wiring to prevent light reflection, so that display reflection is resolved without using a polarizer.

In practical application, TFT wiring at the first TFT electrode layer <NUM> occludes some light emitted by the effective light transmitting zone <NUM>, resulting in reduced display quality of the display in the color display mode. In this regard, when TFT wiring is being arranged, TFT wiring density at a location, corresponding to the effective light transmitting zone <NUM>, of the first TFT electrode layer <NUM> may be reduced, and corresponding TFT wiring may be moved to a location, corresponding to the non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM>, of the first TFT electrode layer <NUM>. In another implementation of this application, to completely resolve the problem of light being blocked out by the TFT electrode layer, as shown in <FIG>, the first TFT electrode layer <NUM> is divided into a transparent zone <NUM> and a non-transparent zone <NUM>. The transparent zone <NUM> corresponds to the effective light transmitting zone <NUM>, and the non-transparent zone <NUM> corresponds to the non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM>. No TFT wiring is arranged in the transparent zone <NUM>, and all TFT wiring at the first TFT electrode layer <NUM> is arranged in the non-transparent zone <NUM>. The TFT electrode layer of the display is extremely thin, and therefore the transparent zone <NUM> does not need to be filled with transparent resin.

"Corresponding to" in the above description has the same meaning as "corresponding to" in <FIG>, and therefore is not repeated herein.

Further, this application further provides a display, as shown in <FIG>, the display includes a first cover plate <NUM>, an ink filling layer <NUM>, a first TFT electrode layer <NUM>, a second substrate <NUM>, an emissive display module layer <NUM>, and a first substrate <NUM> from top to bottom. In this solution, the second substrate <NUM> is added to the display. A reflective display layer <NUM> and an emissive display layer <NUM> share the second substrate <NUM> of the reflective display layer <NUM>. The second substrate <NUM> is used as a substrate of the reflective display layer <NUM> and also as a cover plate of the emissive display layer <NUM>. Alternatively, in another solution, the second substrate <NUM> in <FIG> is replaced with a second cover plate <NUM>. In this case, the reflective display layer <NUM> and the emissive display layer <NUM> share the second cover plate <NUM> of the emissive display layer <NUM> (not shown in the figure). In practical application, the first TFT electrode layer <NUM> may be formed on the second substrate <NUM> or the second cover plate <NUM> by using a low temperature poly-silicon (Low Temperature Poly-silicon, LTPS for short) process. Compared with the solution in <FIG>, this solution has added one substrate/cover plate layer, and therefore can increase support strength of the display.

Further, as shown in <FIG>, a display includes a first cover plate <NUM>, an ink filling layer <NUM>, a first TFT electrode layer <NUM>, a second substrate <NUM>, a second cover plate <NUM>, an emissive display module layer <NUM>, and a first substrate <NUM> from top to bottom. Compared with the solution in <FIG>, a reflective display layer <NUM> and an emissive display layer <NUM> each have a separate cover plate and substrate. From a perspective of process, the reflective display layer <NUM> and the emissive display layer <NUM> are directly stacked and bonded by optical glue to form the display, with no need to separately form the first TFT electrode layer <NUM> of the reflective display layer <NUM> on the intermediate substrate/cover plate, thereby simplifying a display manufacturing process and increasing a yield.

The substrate and the cover plate in each example of this application are required to have good light transmittance. Therefore, in practical application, glass base materials may be used as the substrate and the cover plate. In terms of display thickness, the display in <FIG> has three layers of glass substrates/cover plates. Based on an assumption that one layer of glass substrate is <NUM> thick, a thickness of the display can be decreased from <NUM> to <NUM>, that is, reduced by <NUM>%, compared with the prior art shown in <FIG>.

Further, at least one of the first cover plate <NUM>, the second substrate <NUM>, the second cover plate <NUM>, and the first substrate <NUM> may alternatively be made of a flexible base material. A thickness of the flexible base material is about <NUM>, which is negligible compared with a thickness of a glass substrate. The flexible base material in this solution may be made of a resin or silicon nitride (SiNx) material.

The display with three substrate layers in <FIG> is used as an example. The second substrate <NUM> or the second cover plate <NUM> may be replaced with a flexible base material. As shown in <FIG>, a display includes a first cover plate <NUM>, an ink filling layer <NUM>, a first TFT electrode layer <NUM>, a first flexible thin film <NUM>, an emissive display module layer <NUM>, and a first substrate <NUM> from top to bottom. Alternatively, as shown in <FIG>, a display includes a first cover plate <NUM>, an ink filling layer <NUM>, a first TFT electrode layer <NUM>, a second flexible thin film <NUM>, an emissive display module layer <NUM>, and a first substrate <NUM> from top to bottom.

The display with four substrate layers in <FIG> is used as an example. Both the second substrate <NUM> and the second cover plate <NUM> may alternatively be replaced with a flexible base material. As shown in <FIG>, a display includes a first cover plate <NUM>, an ink filling layer <NUM>, a first TFT electrode layer <NUM>, a first flexible thin film <NUM>, a second flexible thin film <NUM>, an emissive display module layer <NUM>, and a first substrate <NUM> from top to bottom.

The solutions in <FIG>, <FIG> can optimize the three-layer or four-layer glass substrate structure into a two-layer glass substrate structure, and therefore can reduce the thickness of the display to <NUM>.

Further, the first cover plate <NUM> may alternatively be replaced with a flexible base material. As shown in <FIG>, a display includes a third flexible thin film <NUM>, an ink filling layer <NUM>, a first TFT electrode layer <NUM>, a first flexible thin film <NUM>, a second flexible thin film <NUM>, an emissive display module layer <NUM>, and a first substrate <NUM> from top to bottom.

Further, the first substrate <NUM> may alternatively be replaced with a flexible base material. As shown in <FIG>, a display includes a third flexible thin film <NUM>, an ink filling layer <NUM>, a first TFT electrode layer <NUM>, a first flexible thin film <NUM>, a second flexible thin film <NUM>, an emissive display module layer <NUM>, and a fourth flexible thin film <NUM> from top to bottom. The solution in <FIG> can completely eliminate the use of a glass cover plate/substrate, and an overall thickness of the display can be controlled at about <NUM>. Compared with the thickness of <NUM> of the display in <FIG>, the thickness can be reduced by <NUM>%. In addition, the solution in <FIG> can be used for a flexible display.

In an implementation of this application, the ink filling layer <NUM> is filled with an electrowetting material, and an LCD display module serves as the emissive display layer <NUM>. As shown in <FIG>, along a direction opposite to an axis Z, a display includes a reflective display layer <NUM> and an emissive display layer <NUM> disposed under the reflective display layer <NUM> from top to bottom.

The reflective display layer <NUM> includes a first cover plate <NUM>, an ink filling layer <NUM>, and a first TFT electrode layer <NUM> from top to bottom. The emissive display layer <NUM> includes an emissive display module layer <NUM>, a second TFT electrode layer <NUM>, and a first substrate <NUM> from top to bottom. An electrochromic layer <NUM> is disposed between the reflective display layer <NUM> and the emissive display layer <NUM>.

The emissive display module layer <NUM> includes a plurality of arranged pixels. Each pixel is used to display one of R, G, and B color components, three adjacent pixels form one pixel zone, and one pixel zone is a smallest display unit to implement full color gamut display. The ink filling layer is filled with an electronic ink material.

In an implementation of this application, as shown in <FIG>, a transparent hydrophobic layer <NUM> is arranged below ink droplets at the ink filling layer <NUM>. The emissive display layer <NUM> includes a front polarizer <NUM>, the emissive display module layer <NUM>, the second TFT electrode layer <NUM>, the first substrate <NUM>, a rear polarizer <NUM>, and a backlight unit <NUM> from top to bottom.

The emissive display module layer <NUM> is formed by stacking RGB filter films and a liquid crystal layer along the direction opposite to the axis Z. On an XY plane, a pixel at the emissive display module layer <NUM> is not divided into an effective light transmitting zone <NUM> and a non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM>. In an OLED display structure, RGB light-emitting points and a TFT circuit are arranged at one layer, namely, the emissive display module layer <NUM>. A zone in which the RGB light-emitting points are located is the above-mentioned effective light transmitting zone <NUM>, and a zone in which the TFT circuit is located is the above-mentioned non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM>. No separate TFT electrode layer is provided under the emissive display module layer <NUM>. By contrast, a liquid crystal layer and a TFT circuit in an LCD display are designed to be upper and lower layers. In other words, the liquid crystal layer is the foregoing emissive display module layer <NUM>, and a second TFT electrode layer <NUM> is further provided below the emissive display module layer <NUM>. In such structure, an entire pixel at the emissive display module layer <NUM> is an effective light transmitting zone, and is not divided into an effective light transmitting zone <NUM> and a non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM> any longer. Correspondingly, the ink filling layer <NUM> is no longer divided into a first zone <NUM> corresponding to the effective light transmitting zone <NUM> and a second zone <NUM> corresponding to the non-effective light transmitting zone <NUM>. In other words, the ink filling layer <NUM> includes only an effective light transmitting zone, and the entire ink filling layer <NUM> is filled with electrowetting ink materials.

In this solution, an electrochromic layer <NUM> is further provided between the reflective display layer <NUM> and the emissive display layer <NUM>. Electrochromism is a phenomenon that optical properties (reflectivity, transmittance, absorptivity, and the like) of a material experience a stable and reversible color change under the action of an external electric field, appearing as reversible color and transparency changes. Materials with electrochromic properties are referred to as electrochromic materials. The electrochromic layer <NUM> can change reflectivity of the electrochromic layer <NUM> under the action of an external electric field, to switch between a metallic color and a transparent color. When the electrochromic layer <NUM> is displayed in a metallic color, the reflectivity of the electrochromic layer <NUM> is highest. When the electrochromic layer <NUM> is displayed transparent, the reflectivity of the electrochromic layer <NUM> is lowest. In a grayscale display mode, the reflectivity of the electrochromic layer <NUM> is not lower than a first threshold, and serves as a reflective metal layer of the reflective display layer <NUM>. In this implementation, the first threshold may be set to <NUM>% to <NUM>%. Ink droplets in an electrowetting structure are driven by a driving waveform to spread or contract, so as to present different grayscale effects. In addition, the emissive display layer <NUM> is powered off, and displayed in black. Because the electrochromic layer <NUM> can block light emitted by the emissive display layer <NUM>, in practical application, the emissive display layer <NUM> may alternatively be displayed in white or other colors.

In a color display mode, the reflectivity of the control electrochromic layer <NUM> is controlled to be not higher than a second threshold, where the second threshold is less than or equal to the first threshold. In an implementation, to ensure a light transmitting effect of the emissive display layer <NUM>, the second threshold may be set to a value below <NUM>%, so that the electrochromic layer <NUM> is or nearly transparent. In addition, the second TFT electrode layer <NUM> is used to control the emissive display module layer <NUM> to turn colored. At the reflective display layer <NUM>, the ink droplets contract to corners of the pixels under the control of an electric field, so that minimum light emitted by the emissive display layer <NUM> is blocked out. Colored light emitted by the emissive display layer <NUM> passes through the transparent electrochromic layer <NUM> and the reflective display layer <NUM> and then exits the display to implement imaging. In the prior art, an electrowetting display is provided with a reflective metal layer under a transparent hydrophobic layer. When ink droplets are driven to contract to corners, a main body of an ink filling layer displays a color of the reflective metal layer to achieve an effect of displaying white. In this implementation, that the ink droplets are controlled to contract to corners of the pixels corresponds to a driving waveform used by an electronic ink display to exhibit white in the prior art. In other words, a driving waveform for exhibiting white can make the ink droplets contract to corners of the pixels in a color display mode in this implementation.

In this solution, the reflective metal layer at the ink filling layer <NUM> is removed, and the electrochromic layer <NUM> is added. State switching of the electrochromic layer <NUM> can implement both light transmission of the emissive display layer <NUM> in the color display mode and a reflection function of the reflective metal layer in the grayscale display mode.

In practical application, TFT wiring at the first TFT electrode layer <NUM> occludes some light emitted by the emissive display layer <NUM>, resulting in decreased display quality of the display in the color display mode. In an implementation of this application, the first TFT electrode layer <NUM> may be divided into a transparent zone and a non-transparent zone, and TFT electrode wiring is arranged in the non-transparent zone. As shown in <FIG>, at the first TFT electrode layer <NUM>, a zone corresponding to each ink pixel is divided into a transparent zone <NUM> and a non-transparent zone <NUM>, and the non-transparent zone <NUM> is provided at the corner of an electro-wetting ink pixel.

Similar to the previous solution, on the basis of the solution in <FIG> or <FIG>, a second substrate <NUM> may be further added at the reflective display layer <NUM>. As shown in <FIG>, the second substrate <NUM> is located between the first TFT electrode layer <NUM> and the electrochromic layer <NUM>. Alternatively, as shown in <FIG>, a second cover plate <NUM> may be further added at the emissive display layer <NUM>, and the second cover plate <NUM> is located under the electrochromic layer <NUM> and close to the electrochromic layer <NUM>.

The substrate and the cover plate in each example of this application are required to have good light transmittance. Therefore, in practical application, glass base materials may be used as the substrate and the cover plate. Alternatively, at least one of the first cover plate <NUM>, the second substrate <NUM>, the second cover plate <NUM>, and the first substrate <NUM> may be made of a flexible base material.

In the description of this application, it should be noted that unless otherwise specified and defined explicitly, the terms "mount", "connect", and "join" are to be interpreted broadly. For example, they may refer to a fixed connection, or detachable connection, or an integral union, may refer to a mechanical connection or electrical connection, and may refer to a direct connection or indirect connection through an intermediate medium, or internal communication between two elements. A person of ordinary skill in the art can understand specific meanings of these terms in this application as appropriate to specific situations.

Claim 1:
A display, wherein the display comprises a reflective display layer (<NUM>) and an emissive display layer (<NUM>) disposed under the reflective display layer, wherein
the reflective display layer comprises a first cover plate (<NUM>), an ink filling layer (<NUM>), and a first thin-film transistor TFT electrode layer (<NUM>) from top to bottom, and the emissive display layer comprises an emissive display module layer (<NUM>) and a first substrate (<NUM>) from top to bottom; and
the emissive display module layer comprises a plurality of pixels, each pixel comprises an effective light transmitting zone (<NUM>) and a non-effective light transmitting zone (<NUM>), the effective light transmitting zone comprises an emissive luminescent material, and the non-effective light transmitting zone comprises a second TFT electrode layer (<NUM>);
and the ink filling layer comprises a first zone (<NUM>) corresponding to the effective light transmitting zone and a second zone (<NUM>) corresponding to the non-effective light transmitting zone, wherein the second zone is filled with an electronic ink material.