PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-9140925-B2
Application Number: US-201213590487-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Display with reduced border

Abstract:
An electronic device may be provided with a display such as a liquid crystal display having upper and lower polarizer layers, a color filter layer, a liquid crystal layer, and a thin-film transistor layer. The display may have backlight structures that include a light guide plate, a reflector, and optical films. An opaque masking layer may be formed in a strip that runs along a peripheral edge of the lower polarizer in the display. The lower polarizer and the optical films may be separated by an air gap. The uppermost optical film may be a brightness enhancing film. The lower polarizer may be a matte polarizer layer, a polarizer film attached to an achromatic polarizing compensating film, or a matte polarizer that is attached to an achromatic polarizing compensating film coated with a matte coating.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A display, comprising:
 a thin-film transistor layer; 
 a polarizer layer on the thin-film transistor layer, wherein the polarizer layer has a lower surface; and 
 a strip of opaque masking material that runs along a peripheral border region of the lower surface of the polarizer layer, wherein the polarizer layer separates the opaque masking material from the thin-film transistor layer. 
 
     
     
       2. The display defined in  claim 1  further comprising:
 optical films that are separated from the lower surface of the polarizer by an air gap. 
 
     
     
       3. The display defined in  claim 2  wherein the optical films include a brightness enhancing film. 
     
     
       4. The display defined in  claim 3  wherein the brightness enhancing film has an upper surface that is adjacent to the air gap. 
     
     
       5. The display defined in  claim 2  wherein the optical films include a lower diffuser, a first brightness enhancing film, and a second brightness enhancing film and wherein the second brightness enhancing film has a surface that is adjacent to the air gap. 
     
     
       6. The display defined in  claim 5  further comprising a light guide plate, wherein the optical films are interposed between the air gap and the light guide plate. 
     
     
       7. The display defined in  claim 1  wherein the polarizer layer comprises a matte polarizer having opposing first and second surfaces and wherein the second surface forms the lower surface of the polarizer. 
     
     
       8. The display defined in  claim 1  wherein the polarizer layer comprises an achromatic polarizing compensating film and wherein the lower surface forms a surface of the achromatic polarizing compensating film. 
     
     
       9. The display defined in  claim 8  wherein the polarizer layer further comprises a polarizer film on the achromatic polarizing compensating film. 
     
     
       10. The display defined in  claim 1  wherein the polarizer layer comprises a matte polarizer. 
     
     
       11. The display defined in  claim 10  wherein the polarizer layer comprises a matte coating. 
     
     
       12. The display defined in  claim 11  wherein the polarizer layer comprises an achromatic polarizing compensating film located between the matte coating and the matte polarizer. 
     
     
       13. The display defined in  claim 1  wherein the polarizer layer comprises a matte coating layer and wherein the lower surface forms a surface of the matte coating layer. 
     
     
       14. A display, comprising:
 a color filter layer; 
 a thin-film transistor layer; 
 a layer of liquid crystal material between the color filter layer and the thin-film transistor layer; 
 an optical film; 
 an air gap between the thin-film transistor layer and the optical film; 
 a strip of opaque masking material located between the air gap and the thin-film transistor layer; and 
 a lower polarizer located between the opaque masking material and the thin-film transistor layer. 
 
     
     
       15. The display defined in  claim 14  further comprising an upper polarizer on the color filter layer, wherein the and a lower polarizer is interposed between the thin-film transistor layer and the air gap, and wherein the strip of opaque masking material is an ink-jet printed black ink layer on the lower polarizer. 
     
     
       16. The display defined in  claim 15  wherein the optical film comprises a brightness enhancing film having a surface adjacent to the air gap and wherein the display further comprises a light guide plate, wherein the brightness enhancing film is located between the light guide plate and the air gap. 
     
     
       17. The display defined in  claim 14  wherein the lower polarizer comprises a matte polarizer. 
     
     
       18. A display, comprising:
 display layers including at least one polarizer layer having a surface; 
 an opaque masking layer on a peripheral border portion of the surface; and 
 an optical film, wherein the polarizer layer and the optical film are separated by an air gap and wherein the opaque masking layer is interposed between the polarizer layer and the optical film. 
 
     
     
       19. The display defined in  claim 18  in which the polarizer layer comprises a matte polarizer. 
     
     
       20. The display defined in  claim 18  wherein the polarizer layer comprises an achromatic polarizing compensating film. 
     
     
       21. The display defined in  claim 18  wherein the polarizer layer comprises an achromatic polarizing compensating film and a matte coating on the achromatic polarizing compensating film and wherein the surface is a surface of the matte coating.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     This relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly, to electronic devices with displays. 
     Electronic devices often include displays. For example, cellular telephones and portable computers often include displays for presenting information to a user. An electronic device may have a housing such as a housing formed from plastic or metal. Components for the electronic device such as display components may be mounted in the housing. 
     It can be challenging to incorporate a display into the housing of an electronic device. Size and weight are often important considerations in designing electronic devices. If care is not taken, displays may be bulky or may be surrounded by overly large borders. The housing of an electronic device can be adjusted to accommodate a bulky display with large borders, but this can lead to undesirable enlargement of the size and weight of the housing and unappealing device aesthetics. 
     It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved ways to provide displays for electronic devices. 
     SUMMARY 
     An electronic device may be provided with a display such as a liquid crystal display. The display may have upper and lower polarizer layers. The display may have layers located between the upper and lower polarizer layers such as a color filter layer, a liquid crystal layer, and a thin-film transistor layer. 
     The display may have backlight structures that include a light guide plate, a reflector, and optical films. The optical films may include brightness enhancing films and a diffuser layer. 
     An opaque masking layer may be formed in a strip that runs along a peripheral edge of the lower polarizer in the display. The lower polarizer and the optical films may be separated by an air gap. The uppermost optical film may be a brightness enhancing film. 
     The lower polarizer may be a matte polarizer layer, a polarizer film attached to an achromatic polarizing compensating film, or a matte polarizer that is attached to an achromatic polarizing compensating film coated with a matte coating. The matte materials in the lower polarizer may allow the lower polarizer to serve as a diffuser layer. 
     Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device such as a laptop computer with a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device such as a handheld electronic device with a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device such as a tablet computer with a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram of an illustrative electronic device with a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a cross-sectional side view of a display having an opaque masking layer in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 7  is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative matte polarizer layer that may be formed on the lower surface of a thin-film transistor layer in a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 8  is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative polarizer and achromatic polarizing compensating film that may be formed on the lower surface of a thin-film transistor layer in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 9  is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative polarizer and achromatic polarizing film coated with a matte coating in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 10  is a diagram showing how ink-jet printing equipment and other tools may be used in creating display layers for an electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Electronic devices may include displays. The displays may be used to display images to a user. Illustrative electronic devices that may be provided with displays are shown in  FIGS. 1 ,  2 , and  3 . 
       FIG. 1  shows how electronic device  10  may have the shape of a laptop computer having upper housing  12 A and lower housing  12 B with components such as keyboard  16  and touchpad  18 . Device  10  may have hinge structures  20  that allow upper housing  12 A to rotate in directions  22  about rotational axis  24  relative to lower housing  12 B. Display  14  may be mounted in upper housing  12 A. Upper housing  12 A, which may sometimes referred to as a display housing or lid, may be placed in a closed position by rotating upper housing  12 A towards lower housing  12 B about rotational axis  24 . 
       FIG. 2  shows how electronic device  10  may be a handheld device such as a cellular telephone, music player, gaming device, navigation unit, or other compact device. In this type of configuration for device  10 , housing  12  may have opposing front and rear surfaces. Display  14  may be mounted on a front face of housing  12 . Display  14  may, if desired, have a display cover layer or other exterior layer that includes openings for components such as button  26 . Openings may also be formed in a display cover layer or other display layer to accommodate a speaker port (see, e.g., speaker port  28  of  FIG. 2 ). 
       FIG. 3  shows how electronic device  10  may be a tablet computer. In electronic device  10  of  FIG. 3 , housing  12  may have opposing planar front and rear surfaces. Display  14  may be mounted on the front surface of housing  12 . As shown in  FIG. 3 , display  14  may have a cover layer or other external layer with an opening to accommodate button  26  (as an example). 
     The illustrative configurations for device  10  that are shown in  FIGS. 1 ,  2 , and  3  are merely illustrative. In general, electronic device  10  may be a laptop computer, a computer monitor containing an embedded computer, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, a media player, or other handheld or portable electronic device, a smaller device such as a wrist-watch device, a pendant device, a headphone or earpiece device, or other wearable or miniature device, a television, a computer display that does not contain an embedded computer, a gaming device, a navigation device, an embedded system such as a system in which electronic equipment with a display is mounted in a kiosk or automobile, equipment that implements the functionality of two or more of these devices, or other electronic equipment. 
     Housing  12  of device  10 , which is sometimes referred to as a case, may be formed of materials such as plastic, glass, ceramics, carbon-fiber composites and other fiber-based composites, metal (e.g., machined aluminum, stainless steel, or other metals), other materials, or a combination of these materials. Device  10  may be formed using a unibody construction in which most or all of housing  12  is formed from a single structural element (e.g., a piece of machined metal or a piece of molded plastic) or may be formed from multiple housing structures (e.g., outer housing structures that have been mounted to internal frame elements or other internal housing structures). 
     Display  14  may be a touch sensitive display that includes a touch sensor or may be insensitive to touch. Touch sensors for display  14  may be formed from an array of capacitive touch sensor electrodes, a resistive touch array, touch sensor structures based on acoustic touch, optical touch, or force-based touch technologies, or other suitable touch sensor components. 
     Displays for device  10  may, in general, include image pixels formed from light-emitting diodes (LEDs), organic LEDs (OLEDs), plasma cells, electrowetting pixels, electrophoretic pixels, liquid crystal display (LCD) components, or other suitable image pixel structures. In some situations, it may be desirable to use LCD components to form display  14 , so configurations for display  14  in which display  14  is a liquid crystal display are sometimes described herein as an example. It may also be desirable to provide displays such as display  14  with backlight structures, so configurations for display  14  that include a backlight unit may sometimes be described herein as an example. Other types of display technology may be used in device  10  if desired. The use of liquid crystal display structures and backlight structures in device  10  is merely illustrative. 
     A display cover layer may cover the surface of display  14  or a display layer such as a color filter layer or other portion of a display may be used as the outermost (or nearly outermost) layer in display  14 . A display cover layer or other outer display layer may be formed from a transparent glass sheet, a clear plastic layer, or other transparent member. 
     Touch sensor components such as an array of capacitive touch sensor electrodes formed from transparent materials such as indium tin oxide may be formed on the underside of a display cover layer, may be formed on a separate display layer such as a glass or polymer touch sensor substrate, or may be integrated into other display layers (e.g., substrate layers such as a thin-film transistor layer). 
     A schematic diagram of an illustrative configuration that may be used for electronic device  10  is shown in  FIG. 4 . As shown in  FIG. 4 , electronic device  10  may include control circuitry  29 . Control circuitry  29  may include storage and processing circuitry for controlling the operation of device  10 . Control circuitry  29  may, for example, include storage such as hard disk drive storage, nonvolatile memory (e.g., flash memory or other electrically-programmable-read-only memory configured to form a solid state drive), volatile memory (e.g., static or dynamic random-access-memory), etc. Control circuitry  29  may include processing circuitry based on one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, baseband processors, power management units, audio codec chips, application specific integrated circuits, etc. 
     Control circuitry  29  may be used to run software on device  10 , such as operating system software and application software. Using this software, control circuitry  29  may present information to a user of electronic device  10  on display  14 . When presenting information to a user on display  14 , sensor signals and other information may be used by control circuitry  29  in making adjustments to the strength of backlight illumination that is used for display  14 . 
     Input-output circuitry  30  may be used to allow data to be supplied to device  10  and to allow data to be provided from device  10  to external devices. Input-output circuitry  30  may include communications circuitry  32 . Communications circuitry  32  may include wired communications circuitry for supporting communications using data ports in device  10 . Communications circuitry  32  may also include wireless communications circuits (e.g., circuitry for transmitting and receiving wireless radio-frequency signals using antennas). 
     Input-output circuitry  30  may also include input-output devices  34 . A user can control the operation of device  10  by supplying commands through input-output devices  34  and may receive status information and other output from device  10  using the output resources of input-output devices  34 . 
     Input-output devices  34  may include sensors and status indicators  36  such as an ambient light sensor, a proximity sensor, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, a magnetic sensor, an accelerometer, and light-emitting diodes and other components for gathering information about the environment in which device  10  is operating and providing information to a user of device  10  about the status of device  10 . 
     Audio components  38  may include speakers and tone generators for presenting sound to a user of device  10  and microphones for gathering user audio input. 
     Display  14  may be used to present images for a user such as text, video, and still images. Sensors  36  may include a touch sensor array that is formed as one of the layers in display  14 . 
     User input may be gathered using buttons and other input-output components  40  such as touch pad sensors, buttons, joysticks, click wheels, scrolling wheels, touch sensors such as sensors  36  in display  14 , key pads, keyboards, vibrators, cameras, and other input-output components. 
     A cross-sectional side view of an illustrative configuration that may be used for display  14  of device  10  (e.g., for display  14  of the devices of  FIG. 1 ,  FIG. 2 , or  FIG. 3  or other suitable electronic devices) is shown in  FIG. 5 . As shown in  FIG. 5 , display  14  may include backlight structures such as backlight unit  42  for producing backlight  44 . During operation, backlight  44  travels outwards (vertically upwards in dimension Z in the orientation of  FIG. 5 ) and passes through display pixel structures in display layers  46 . This illuminates any images that are being produced by the display pixels for viewing by a user. For example, backlight  44  may illuminate images on display layers  46  that are being viewed by viewer  48  in direction  50 . 
     Display layers  46  may be mounted in chassis structures such as a plastic chassis structure and/or a metal chassis structure to form a display module for mounting in housing  12  or display layers  46  may be mounted directly in housing  12  (e.g., by stacking display layers  46  into a recessed portion in housing  12 ). Display layers  46  may form a liquid crystal display or may be used in forming displays of other types. 
     In a configuration in which display layers  46  are used in forming a liquid crystal display, display layers  46  may include a liquid crystal layer such a liquid crystal layer  52 . Liquid crystal layer  52  may be sandwiched between display layers such as display layers  58  and  56 . Layers  56  and  58  may be interposed between lower polarizer layer  60  and upper polarizer layer  54 . 
     Layers  58  and  56  may be formed from transparent substrate layers such as clear layers of glass or plastic. Layers  56  and  58  may be layers such as a thin-film transistor layer and/or a color filter layer. Conductive traces, color filter elements, transistors, and other circuits and structures may be formed on the substrates of layers  58  and  56  (e.g., to form a thin-film transistor layer and/or a color filter layer). Touch sensor electrodes may also be incorporated into layers such as layers  58  and  56  and/or touch sensor electrodes may be formed on other substrates. 
     With one illustrative configuration, layer  58  may be a thin-film transistor layer that includes an array of thin-film transistors and associated electrodes (display pixel electrodes) for applying electric fields to liquid crystal layer  52  and thereby displaying images on display  14 . Layer  56  may be a color filter layer that includes an array of color filter elements for providing display  14  with the ability to display color images. If desired, layer  58  may be a color filter layer and layer  56  may be a thin-film transistor layer. 
     During operation of display  14  in device  10 , control circuitry  29  (e.g., one or more integrated circuits such as components  68  on printed circuit  66  of  FIG. 5 ) may be used to generate information to be displayed on display (e.g., display data). The information to be displayed may be conveyed from circuitry  68  to display driver integrated circuit  62  using a signal path such as a signal path formed from conductive metal traces in flexible printed circuit  64  (as an example). 
     Display driver integrated circuit  62  may be mounted on thin-film-transistor layer driver ledge  82  or elsewhere in device  10 . A flexible printed circuit cable such as flexible printed circuit  64  may be used in routing signals between printed circuit  66  and thin-film-transistor layer  60 . If desired, display driver integrated circuit  62  may be mounted on printed circuit  66  or flexible printed circuit  64 . Printed circuit  66  may be formed from a rigid printed circuit board (e.g., a layer of fiberglass-filled epoxy) or a flexible printed circuit (e.g., a flexible sheet of polyimide or other flexible polymer layer). 
     Backlight structures  42  may include a light guide plate such as light guide plate  78 . Light guide plate  78  may be formed from a transparent material such as clear glass or plastic. During operation of backlight structures  42 , a light source such as light source  72  may generate light  74 . Light source  72  may be, for example, an array of light-emitting diodes. 
     Light  74  from light source  72  may be coupled into edge surface  76  of light guide plate  78  and may be distributed in dimensions X and Y throughout light guide plate  78  due to the principal of total internal reflection. Light guide plate  78  may include light-scattering features such as pits or bumps. The light-scattering features may be located on an upper surface and/or on an opposing lower surface of light guide plate  78 . 
     Light  74  that scatters upwards in direction Z from light guide plate  78  may serve as backlight  44  for display  14 . Light  74  that scatters downwards may be reflected back in the upwards direction by reflector  80 . Reflector  80  may be formed from a reflective material such as a layer of white plastic or other shiny materials. 
     To enhance backlight performance for backlight structures  42 , backlight structures  42  may include optical films  70 . Optical films  70  may include diffuser layers for helping to homogenize backlight  44  and thereby reduce hotspots, compensation films for enhancing off-axis viewing, and brightness enhancement films (also sometimes referred to as turning films) for collimating backlight  44 . Optical films  70  may overlap the other structures in backlight unit  42  such as light guide plate  78  and reflector  80 . For example, if light guide plate  78  has a rectangular footprint in the X-Y plane of  FIG. 5 , optical films  70  and reflector  80  may have a matching rectangular footprint. 
     As shown in  FIG. 6 , display  14  may include opaque masking material such as opaque masking material  82  of  FIG. 6 . Opaque masking material  82  may be formed from a material such as black ink (e.g., a polymer that contains a filler such as carbon black) or other material that blocks light. Opaque masking material  82  may have the shape of a strip that runs along the periphery of display  14  (i.e., in a border region that located along the edge of the lower surface of polarizer layer  60  and that extends in dimension X in the example of  FIG. 6 ). The border strip of opaque masking material may be used to block stray backlight  74 . 
     Conventional displays have a black ink layer in a location such as location  84  (on the upper surface of the display layers that lie below air gap  102 ). The lower surface of conventional lower polarizers is shiny, leading to bright stray light reflections. As indicated by dashed lines  90  and  92 , this can allow a viewer such as viewer  86  to view an unsightly reflected image of the black ink in location  84 . Edge  104  of black ink  84  may mark the edge of the backlight portion of a conventional display. The point at which backlight light ray  90  (associated with conventional black ink edge  104 ) would exit the surface of the display coincides with dashed line  94 . The location of dashed line  94  therefore represents the outermost possible boundary for a display surface such as surface  106  and may therefore represent the outermost possible boundary for conventional active display active area AA′. 
     By placing opaque masking layer  82  on the lowermost surface of polarizer layer  60 , edge  96  of black masking layer  82  will be at a lateral location in dimension Y so that light ray  98  exits surface  106  of display  14  at location  100 . This allows display active area AA to be increased (relative to conventional active area AA′) by an increased width amount D, thereby reducing the size of display inactive border region IA. 
     Backlight unit  42  may include light guide plate  78  for laterally distributing backlight, reflector  80  for helping to direct backlight  44  upwards in dimension Z, and display layers  46 . Display layers  46  may include layers such as a color filter layer, a thin-film-transistor layer, a layer of liquid crystal material, and layers of polarizing material. For example, display layers  46  may include upper polarizer layer  54 , color filter layer  56 , liquid crystal layer  52 , thin-film transistor layer  58 , and lower polarizer layer  60 . Black masking layer  82  may be formed on the lower surface of polarizer layer  60  and may be separated from the uppermost surface of optical films  70  by air gap  102 . 
     Optical films  70  may include layers such as brightness enhancing films, diffuser layers, and compensation films for enhancing off-axis viewing. These layers may be free of opaque masking layer materials (e.g., in locations such as location  84 ), because stray light masking functions can be performed by opaque masking layer  82  on polarizer layer  60 . 
     To reduce light reflections from underside  108  of polarizer layer  60 , polarizer layer  60  may include structures that reduce light reflections. These structures may be formed as an integral part of the polarizer (e.g., by using a matte polarizer to implement polarizer layer  60 ), by adding a matte surface to one or more other layers in polarizer layer  60 , or by otherwise configuring polarizer layer  60  to reduce reflected light off of lower surface  108 . The reflection-reducing structures may, if desired, be configured to provide sufficient light diffusing capabilities to make it possible to reduce or eliminate the diffusing layer structures in optical films  70 . As an example, when sufficient light diffusing structures are incorporated into polarizer layer  60  (e.g., in the form of a matte layer, a matte coating, etc.), optical films  70  may include only lower diffuser layer  70 C and brightness enhancing films  70 A and  70 B. No conventional upper diffuser layer need be provided on top of layer  70 A. 
     Displays with configurations of the type shown in  FIG. 6  are not subjected to misalignment between the opaque masking layer and other display structures such as the lower polarizer that can sometimes arise due to coefficient of thermal expansion mismatch when an opaque masking layer is formed in a location such as location  84  of  FIG. 6 . Registration challenges and issues with assembly tolerances may also be minimized. 
     In some arrangements for display  14 , polarizer layer  60  may include a shiny layer such as a layer of achromatic polarizing compensating film. The positioning of opaque masking layer  82  on lower surface  108  of polarizer layer  60  in situations in which layer  60  is formed from a shiny film may, by virtue of the position of opaque masking layer  82 , reduce the presence of undesired reflections and resulting undesired visible black ink images of the type that might be formed when locating the black ink in conventional location  84 . In both arrangements in which polarizer  60  is provided with matte (non-shiny) structures and in which polarizer  60  has a shiny surface, display  14  will exhibit the benefits of reduced coefficient of thermal expansion mismatch and the elimination of registration and assembly tolerance problems. 
     Illustrative configurations that may be used for polarizer layer  60  are shown in  FIGS. 7 ,  8 , and  9 . In the illustrative configuration of  FIG. 7 , polarizer layer  60  has been formed from matte polarizer layer  60 - 1 . Because matte polarizer  108  is formed from a matte material, lower surface  108  of matte polarizer layer  60 - 1  will reflect less light than shiny (non-matte) polarizer layers and will reflect less light than layers that are generally shiny such as achromatic polarizing compensating film. Opaque masking material  82  may be formed on lower surface  108  of matte polarizer  60 - 1 . 
       FIG. 8  shows an illustrative configuration in which polarizer layer  60  has been formed from multiple layers such as upper layer  60 - 2  and lower layer  60 - 3 . Layer  60 - 2  may be a polarizer film (a polarizer layer) and layer  60 - 3  may be an achromatic polarizing compensating film. Film  60 - 3  may increase light usage efficiency (e.g., for off-angle viewing) while performing polarization functions. Opaque masking material  82  may be formed on lower surface  108  of achromatic polarizing compensating film  60 - 3 . 
       FIG. 9  shows an illustrative configuration in which polarizer layer  60  has been formed from three layers. Layer  60 - 4  is a matte polarizer. Layer  60 - 5  is an achromatic polarizing compensating film. Layer  60 - 6  is a matte coating (e.g., a clear polymer coating or inorganic coating of about 2-3 microns in thickness or more that provides lower surface  108  of polarizer layer  60  with a matte finish). 
       FIG. 10  is a diagram showing how displays such as display  14  of  FIG. 6  may be formed and assembled into a finished electronic device. Initially, polarizer layer  60  (e.g., a polarizer layer of the type shown in  FIGS. 7 ,  8 , and  9 ) may be provided to ink-jet printer  122  or other coating equipment. Ink-jet printer  122  may print opaque masking layer  82  in a strip on surface  108  that runs along the peripheral edge of polarizer layer  60 . Assembly tools  124  may then be used to incorporate display layer  60  into display  14  and a finished version of device  10 . Assembly tools  124  may include display layer lamination tools, equipment for incorporating display  14  into device  10 , and other assembly equipment. 
     The foregoing is merely illustrative of the principles of this invention and various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20120821
Publication Date: 20150922
Grant Date: 20150922
Priority Date: 20120821
Inventors: QI JUN
YIN VICTOR H.
ZHU WENYONG
CHEN WEI
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "G02B5/3025", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02B5/30", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/133512", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/133514", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/133528", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F2001/133567", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02B5/3025", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02B5/3025", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/133514", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02B5/30", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/133567", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/133567", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/133528", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/133512", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/133512", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 50147711