PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-11417709-B2
Application Number: US-202016859904-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Display with array of light-transmitting windows

Abstract:
A display may have an array of pixels. Each pixel may have a light-emitting diode such as an organic light-emitting diode. The organic light-emitting diodes may each have an anode that is coupled to a thin-film transistor pixel circuit for controlling the anode. Transparent windows may be formed in the display. The windows may be formed by replacing data storage capacitors and other pixel circuit structures in a subset of the pixels with transparent window structures, by selectively removing portions of light-emitting diode anodes, and by shifting anodes. An array of electrical components such as an array of light sensors may be aligned with the transparent windows and may be used to measure light passing through the transparent windows.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An electronic device, comprising:
 a housing; 
 a display mounted in the housing and having an array of pixels including first and second groups of pixels, wherein the second group of pixels has pixel circuit elements that are excluded from the first group of pixels to accommodate window regions in the display; and 
 a fingerprint sensor located behind the array of pixels, wherein the fingerprint sensor emits and detects signals through the window regions in the display. 
 
     
     
       2. The electronic device defined in  claim 1  wherein the pixels comprise organic light-emitting diode pixels. 
     
     
       3. The electronic device defined in  claim 1  wherein the display comprises a substrate on which the array of pixels is located. 
     
     
       4. The electronic device defined in  claim 3  wherein the window regions comprise holes in the substrate. 
     
     
       5. The electronic device defined in  claim 4  wherein the holes pass from an upper surface to a lower surface of the substrate. 
     
     
       6. The electronic device defined in  claim 1  wherein the display has an active area and an inactive area, wherein the array of pixels is located in the active area, and wherein at least some of the pixel circuitry associated with the first group of the pixels is located in the inactive area of the display. 
     
     
       7. The electronic device defined in  claim 6  wherein the pixel circuitry associated with the first group of the pixels comprises drive current lines each of which extends between the inactive area and one of the pixels in the first group. 
     
     
       8. The electronic device defined in  claim 7  wherein each of the pixels in the second group include a data storage capacitor and wherein the pixels in the first group are free of data storage capacitors. 
     
     
       9. The electronic device defined in  claim 1  wherein the window regions comprise light-transmitting window regions. 
     
     
       10. The electronic device defined in  claim 1  wherein the fingerprint sensor comprises a light-based fingerprint sensor. 
     
     
       11. An electronic device, comprising:
 a display comprising an array of pixels on a substrate; 
 window regions within the array of pixels, wherein the array of pixels comprises first and second groups of pixels and wherein the second group of pixels has pixel circuit elements that are excluded from the first group of pixels to accommodate the window regions; and 
 a microphone behind the substrate that detects signals that pass through the window regions within the array of pixels. 
 
     
     
       12. The electronic device defined in  claim 11  wherein the first group of the pixels has less pixel circuitry than the second group of the pixels. 
     
     
       13. The electronic device defined in  claim 12  wherein the display comprises an active area and an inactive area and wherein at least some of the pixel circuitry associated with the first group of the pixels is located in the inactive area of the display. 
     
     
       14. The electronic device defined in  claim 13  wherein the first group of pixels do not include storage capacitors. 
     
     
       15. The electronic device defined in  claim 11  wherein the window regions comprise holes in the substrate. 
     
     
       16. An electronic device, comprising:
 a housing; 
 a display mounted in the housing, wherein the display has an active area with an array of pixels including first and second groups of pixels, wherein the second group of pixels has pixel circuit elements that are excluded from the first group of pixels; and 
 a proximity sensor located behind the array of pixels, wherein the proximity sensor emits signals that pass through the display and detects reflected signals that reflect from external objects near the display. 
 
     
     
       17. The electronic device defined in  claim 16  wherein the proximity sensor detects a fingerprint. 
     
     
       18. The electronic device defined in  claim 16  wherein the display comprises window regions within the array through which the signals and the reflected signals pass. 
     
     
       19. The electronic device defined in  claim 16  wherein the display has an inactive area without pixels and wherein at least some of the pixel circuitry associated with the first group of the pixels is located in the inactive area. 
     
     
       20. The electronic device defined in  claim 16  wherein the pixels in the first group do not include storage capacitors.

Description:
This application is a continuation of patent application Ser. No. 15/257,374, filed Sep. 6, 2016, which claims the benefit of provisional patent application No. 62/247,543, filed Oct. 28, 2015, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     This relates generally to electronic devices, and, more particularly, to electronic devices with displays. 
     Electronic devices often include displays. Displays such as organic light-emitting diode displays have pixels with light-emitting diodes. The light emitting diodes each have electrodes (i.e., an anode and a cathode). Emissive material is interposed between the electrodes. During operation, current passes through the emissive material between the electrodes, generating light. 
     The electrodes in an organic light-emitting diode display are formed from a photolithographically patterned layer of conductive material. Electrodes are organized in a regularly spaced array. This type of arrangement simplifies the layout of thin-film transistor circuits for the display. 
     It may be desirable to incorporate electrical components into a display. If care is not taken, the electrodes and other circuitry in a display may interfere with these components. 
     It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved display arrangements for accommodating the addition of electrical components. 
     SUMMARY 
     A display may have an array of pixels. Each pixel may have a light-emitting diode such as an organic light-emitting diode. The organic light-emitting diodes may each have an anode that is coupled to a thin-film transistor pixel circuit for controlling the anode. 
     Transparent windows may be formed in the display. The windows may be formed by replacing data storage capacitors and other pixel circuit structures in some of the pixels with transparent window structures. If desired, windows may be accommodated by selectively removing portions of the anodes in some of the pixels. Configurations may also be used in which the anodes in some of the pixels are shifted relative to the anodes in the other pixels. 
     An array of electrical components may be aligned with the transparent windows. For example, the display may have an array of light transmitting windows each of which is aligned with a respective light detector that measures light passing through that light transmitting window. 
     Further features will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of an illustrative electronic device having a display in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 2  is a top view of an illustrative display in an electronic device in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 3  is a cross-sectional side view of a portion of an illustrative organic light-emitting diode display in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 4  is a cross-sectional side view of a display with an array of electrical components in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 5  is a top view of an illustrative display with an array of electrical components mounted behind windows that are located within selected pixels in the display in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 6  is a circuit diagram of an illustrative display having modified pixels to accommodate windows for light-based components in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 7  is a circuit diagram of an illustrative display showing how a pixel circuit formed in an inactive display area may be used to control a light-emitting diode in a pixel in which pixel circuitry has been removed to accommodate a light transmitting window in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 8  is a cross-sectional side view of thin-film transistor circuitry of the type that may be associated with normal pixels on a display in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 9  is a cross-sectional side view of thin-film transistor circuitry of the type that may be associated with pixels in which pixel circuitry has been removed to accommodate light transmitting windows in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 10  is a top view of an illustrative display having an array of diamond-shaped pixels showing how pixels may be selectively modified to accommodate light transmitting windows in accordance with an embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     An illustrative electronic device of the type that may be provided with a display is shown in  FIG. 1 . As shown in  FIG. 1 , electronic device  10  may have control circuitry  16 . Control circuitry  16  may include storage and processing circuitry for supporting the operation of device  10 . The storage and processing circuitry may 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. Processing circuitry in control circuitry  16  may be used to control the operation of device  10 . The processing circuitry may be based on one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, baseband processors, power management units, audio chips, application specific integrated circuits, etc. 
     Input-output circuitry in device  10  such as input-output devices  12  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 devices  12  may include buttons, joysticks, scrolling wheels, touch pads, key pads, keyboards, microphones, speakers, tone generators, vibrators, cameras, sensors, light-emitting diodes and other status indicators, data ports, and other electrical components. A user can control the operation of device  10  by supplying commands through input-output devices  12  and may receive status information and other output from device  10  using the output resources of input-output devices  12 . 
     Input-output devices  12  may include one or more displays such as display  14 . Display  14  may be a touch screen display that includes a touch sensor for gathering touch input from a user or display  14  may be insensitive to touch. A touch sensor for display  14  may be based on an array of capacitive touch sensor electrodes, acoustic touch sensor structures, resistive touch components, force-based touch sensor structures, a light-based touch sensor, or other suitable touch sensor arrangements. 
     Control circuitry  16  may be used to run software on device  10  such as operating system code and applications. During operation of device  10 , the software running on control circuitry  16  may display images on display  14  using an array of pixels in display  14 . 
     Device  10  may be a tablet computer, laptop computer, a desktop computer, a display, a cellular telephone, a media player, a wristwatch device or other wearable electronic equipment, or other suitable electronic device. 
     Display  14  may be an organic light-emitting diode display or may be a display based on other types of display technology. Configurations in which display  14  is an organic light-emitting diode display are sometimes described herein as an example. This is, however, merely illustrative. Any suitable type of display may be used, if desired. 
     Display  14  may have a rectangular shape (i.e., display  14  may have a rectangular footprint and a rectangular peripheral edge that runs around the rectangular footprint) or may have other suitable shapes. Display  14  may be planar or may have a curved profile. 
     A top view of a portion of display  14  is shown in  FIG. 2 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , display  14  may have an array of pixels  22  formed on substrate  36 . Substrate  36  may be formed from glass, metal, plastic, ceramic, or other substrate materials. Pixels  22  may receive data signals over signal paths such as data lines D and may receive one or more control signals over control signal paths such as horizontal control lines G (sometimes referred to as gate lines, scan lines, emission control lines, etc.). There may be any suitable number of rows and columns of pixels  22  in display  14  (e.g., tens or more, hundreds or more, or thousands or more). Each pixel  22  may have a light-emitting diode  26  that emits light  24  under the control of a pixel circuit formed from thin-film transistor circuitry such as thin-film transistors  28  and thin-film capacitors). Thin-film transistors  28  may be polysilicon thin-film transistors, semiconducting-oxide thin-film transistors such as indium gallium zinc oxide transistors, or thin-film transistors formed from other semiconductors. Pixels  22  may contain light-emitting diodes of different colors (e.g., red, green, and blue diodes for red, green, and blue pixels, respectively) to provide display  14  with the ability to display color images. 
     Pixels  22  may be arranged in a rectangular array or an array of other shapes. The array of pixels  22  forms an active area AA for display  14  and is used in displaying images for a user. Inactive portions of display  14  such as inactive area IA may run along one or more of the edges of active area AA. Inactive area IA may be free of pixels  22 . 
     Display driver circuitry may be used to control the operation of pixels  22 . The display driver circuitry may be formed from integrated circuits, thin-film transistor circuits, or other suitable circuitry and may be located in inactive area IA. Display driver circuitry  30  of  FIG. 2  may contain communications circuitry for communicating with system control circuitry such as control circuitry  16  of  FIG. 1  over path  32 . Path  32  may be formed from traces on a flexible printed circuit or other cable. During operation, the control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry  16  of  FIG. 1 ) may supply circuitry  30  with information on images to be displayed on display  14 . 
     To display the images on display pixels  22 , display driver circuitry  30  may supply image data to data lines D while issuing clock signals and other control signals to supporting display driver circuitry such as gate driver circuitry  34  over path  38 . If desired, circuitry  30  may also supply clock signals and other control signals to gate driver circuitry on an opposing edge of display  14 . 
     Gate driver circuitry  34  (sometimes referred to as horizontal control line control circuitry) may be implemented as part of an integrated circuit and/or may be implemented using thin-film transistor circuitry. Horizontal control lines G in display  14  may carry gate line signals (scan line signals), emission enable control signals, and other horizontal control signals for controlling the pixels of each row. There may be any suitable number of horizontal control signals per row of pixels  22  (e.g., one or more, two or more, three or more, four or more, etc.). 
     A cross-sectional side view of a portion of an illustrative organic light-emitting diode display that includes a light-emitting diode (diode  26 ) and thin-film transistor circuitry  48  for an associated pixel circuit is shown in  FIG. 3 . As shown in  FIG. 3 , display  14  may include a substrate layer such as substrate layer  36 . Substrate  36  may be a planar layer or a non-planar layer and may be formed from plastic, glass, ceramic, sapphire, metal, or other suitable materials. The surface of substrate  36  may, if desired, be covered with one or more buffer layers (e.g., inorganic buffer layers such as layers of silicon oxide, silicon nitride, etc.). 
     Thin-film transistor circuitry  48  may be formed on substrate  36 . The thin film transistor circuitry may include transistors, capacitors, and other thin-film structures. As shown in  FIG. 3 , a transistor such as thin-film transistor  28  may be formed from thin-film semiconductor layer  60 . Semiconductor layer  60  may be a polysilicon layer, a semiconducting-oxide layer such as a layer of indium gallium zinc oxide, or other semiconductor layer. Gate layer  56  may be a conductive layer such as a metal layer that is separated from semiconductor layer  60  by an intervening layer of dielectric such as dielectric  58  (e.g., an inorganic gate insulator layer such as a layer of silicon oxide). Dielectric  62  may also be used to separate semiconductor layer  60  from underlying structures such as shield layer  64  (e.g., a shield layer that helps shield the transistor formed from semiconductor layer  60  from charge in buffer layers on substrate  36 ). 
     Semiconductor layer  60  of transistor  28  may be contacted by source and drain terminals formed from source-drain metal layer  52 . Dielectric layer  54  (e.g., an inorganic interlayer dielectric layer) may separate gate metal layer  56  from source-drain metal layer  52 . Pixel circuits formed from thin-film transistor circuitry  48  may be shorted to anode  42  of light-emitting diode  26  using a metal via such as via  53 . Via  53  may, for example, be coupled to transistor structures such as source-drain metal layer  52  and may pass through dielectric planarization layer  50 . Planarization layer  50  may be formed from an organic dielectric material such as a polymer. 
     Light-emitting diode  26  is formed from light-emitting diode layers  40  on thin-film transistor layers  48 . Each light-emitting diode has a lower electrode and an upper electrode. In a top emission display, the lower electrode may be formed from a reflective conductive material such as patterned metal to help reflect light that is produced by the light-emitting diode in the upwards direction out of the display. The upper electrode (sometimes referred to as the counter electrode) may be formed from a transparent or semi-transparent conductive layer (e.g., a thin layer of transparent or semitransparent metal and/or a layer of indium tin oxide or other transparent conductive material). This allows the upper electrode to transmit light outwards that has been produced by emissive material in the diode. In a bottom emission display, the lower electrode may be transparent (or semi-transparent) and the upper electrode may be reflective. 
     In configurations in which the anode is the lower electrode, layers such as a hole injection layer, hole transport layer, emissive material layer, and electron transport layer may be formed above the anode and below the upper electrode, which serves as the cathode for the diode. In inverted configurations in which the cathode is the lower electrode, layers such as an electron transport layer, emissive material layer, hole transport layer, and hole injection layer may be stacked on top of the cathode and may be covered with an upper layer that serves as the anode for the diode. Both electrodes may reflect light. 
     In general, display  14  may use a configuration in which the anode electrode is closer to the display substrate than the cathode electrode or a configuration in which the cathode electrode is closer to the display substrate than the anode electrode. In addition, both bottom emission and top emission arrangements may be used. Top emission display configurations in which the anode is located on the bottom and the cathode is located on the top are sometimes described herein as an example. This is, however, merely illustrative. Any suitable display arrangement may be used, if desired. 
     In the illustrative configuration of  FIG. 3 , display  14  has a top emission configuration and lower electrode  42  is an anode and upper electrode  46  is a cathode. Layers  40  include a patterned metal layer that forms anodes such as anode  42 . Anode  42  is formed within an opening in pixel definition layer  66 . Pixel definition layer  66  may be formed from a patterned photoimageable polymer such as polyimide. In each light-emitting diode, organic emissive material  44  is interposed between a respective anode  42  and cathode  46 . Anodes  42  may be patterned from a layer of metal on a planarization layer in the thin-film transistor layers of pixel circuit  48  such as planarization layer  50 . Cathode  46  may be formed from a common conductive layer that is deposited on top of pixel definition layer  66 . Cathode  46  is transparent so that light  24  may exit light emitting diode  26  as current is flowing through emissive material  44  between anode  42  and cathode  46 . 
     Display  14  may have an array of pixels  22  of different colors to provide display  14  with the ability to display color images. The pixels may include red pixels, green pixels, and blue pixels. White pixels, yellow pixels, and pixels of other colors may also be included in display  14 , if desired. The pixels may have rectangular emissive areas (e.g., rectangular anode shapes) and/or may have emissive areas of other suitable shapes (e.g., diamond shapes, etc.). 
     It may be desirable to incorporate electrical components into display  14  and/or device  10 . As shown in  FIG. 4 , for example, electrical components  84  may be incorporated into device  10  under pixels  22 . Components  84  may be discrete components or may be formed as part of a common integrated circuit or other shared component (see, e.g., component  82 , which may be an integrated circuit). If desired, components  84  may be mounted on a common substrate such as a printed circuit (e.g., a component  82  may be a rigid printed circuit board formed from a rigid printed circuit board material such as fiberglass-filled epoxy or a flexible printed circuit formed from a flexible layer of polyimide or other sheet of polymer). Components  84  may be integrated into the layers that make up display  14  and/or may be mounted in alignment with display  14 . 
     Electrical components  84  may be audio components (e.g., microphones, speakers, etc.), radio-frequency components, haptic components (e.g., piezoelectric structures, vibrators, etc.), may be capacitive touch sensor components or other touch sensor structures, may be temperature sensors, pressure sensors, magnetic sensors, or other sensors, or may be any other suitable type of electrical component. With one suitable arrangement, which may sometimes be described herein as an example, electrical components  84  may be light-based components (e.g., components that emit and/or detect visible light, infrared light, and/or ultraviolet light). 
     Light-based components  84  may emit and/or detect light that passes through transparent windows  76  in display  14 . Windows  76  may be formed between the pixel circuitry and emissive areas of pixels  22  and may include transparent materials (e.g., clear plastic, glass, etc.) and/or holes (e.g., air-filled openings or openings filled with transparent material that pass partly or fully through substrate  36  and other display layers  74  of display  14 ). There may be a window  76  between each set of adjacent pixels  22  or, more preferably, blocks of pixels  22  (e.g., blocks of tens, hundreds, or thousands of pixels) may be associated with windows  76  and electrical components  84 . For example, additional space may be created within some of pixels  22  to accommodate windows  76  and components  84 . There may be, as an example, a window  76  associated with each block of 100 pixels  22  or other suitable number of pixels  22  (e.g., each 50 pixels or more, each 200 pixels or more, each 100 pixels or more, each 50 or fewer pixels, each 200 or fewer pixels, etc. If desired, some components may be mounted on the upper surface of display  14  (in which cases windows  76  need not be provided through layers  74  of display  14 ). 
     Examples of light-based components  84  that emit light include light-emitting diodes (e.g., organic light-emitting diodes, discrete crystalline light-emitting diode dies, etc.), lasers, and lamps. Examples of light-based components that detect light include light detectors such as photodiodes and phototransistors. Some components may, if desired, include both light emitters and detectors. For example, components  84  may emit infrared light and may include light detector structures for detecting a portion of the emitted light that has reflected from nearby objects such as object  86 . Components of this type may be used to implement a proximity detector, a light-based fingerprint sensor (e.g., when object  86  is the finger of a user), or other light-based sensor. If desired, light-based sensors such as these may be implemented by illuminating object  86  with light  24  from one or more of pixels  22  and/or light  78  from one or more supplemental light sources such as discrete light-emitting diodes  80 , while using light-detecting components  84  to gather reflected light from object  86 . 
     Control circuitry  16  may be used in controlling the emission of light from light sources such as pixels  22 , components  84 , and/or light sources  80  and may be used in processing corresponding detected light from components  84  (e.g., to generate a proximity sensor signal based on light reflected from object  86 , to generate a fingerprint reading based on light reflected from object  86 , to process a captured digital image of a far-field object, that is captured using components  84 , etc.). 
     Components  84  (and windows  76 , if used) may be interspersed with pixels  22  using any suitable arrangement. With one illustrative configuration, which is shown in  FIG. 5 , windows  76  and components  84  are arranged in an array that has a larger pitch than the array of pixels  22  in display  14 . There may be, for example, one window  76  and one corresponding component  84  for each set of 10-1000 pixels  22 , for each set of 100-10,000 pixels, for each set of more than 500 pixels, or for each set of less than 5000 pixels (as examples). In configurations such as these, pixels  22  are arranged on display  14  with a finer pitch than windows  76  and components  84 . Pixels  22  may, for example, be organized in an array having rows and columns and windows  76  and components  84  may be arranged in an array having a smaller number of rows and columns. Configurations in which windows  76  and components  84  are arranged in patterns other than rectangular arrays may also be used. Arrangements in which windows  76  and components  84  are arranged in rows and columns may sometimes be described herein as an example. Windows  76  may cover all of active area AA or may be confined to a portion of active area AA. If desired, some of windows  76  may extend into inactive area IA. 
     To make room for windows  76  in the pixels of active area AA, it may be desirable to remove some of the normal pixel circuitry of some of these pixels. For example, pixels  22 A of  FIG. 5  may contain complete pixel circuits for controlling corresponding light-emitting diodes  26  (i.e., pixel circuits that contain a full complement of thin-film transistors and capacitors), whereas pixels  22 B may contain incomplete pixel circuits (i.e., circuits similar to the circuits of pixels  22 A from which one or more transistors and/or capacitors or all of the transistors and capacitors of pixels  22 A have been removed and replaced with windows  70 ). By removing some or all of the normal pixel circuitry used in controlling the light-emitting diode of each of pixels  22 B, additional area may be made available in pixels  22 B to accommodate windows  76 . To make up for the removed pixel circuitry of pixels  22 B, ancillary pixel circuits can be formed in inactive area IA along the edge of display  14 . Signal lines may then be used to route signals between the light-emitting diodes of pixels  22 B and the ancillary pixel circuits in the inactive area. 
       FIG. 6  is a diagram of an illustrative display in which pixel circuitry has been removed from pixel  22 B in active area AA and replaced with a window  76 . The functions of the removed pixel circuitry are performed by ancillary pixel circuitry  102  in inactive area IA. 
     As shown in  FIG. 6 , each normal pixel  22 A has a light-emitting diode  24  and an associated pixel circuit  100 . The pixel circuit  100  of each normal pixel  22 A includes a drive transistor that is coupled in series with the light-emitting diode  24  of that pixel for controlling the amount of drive current that passes through that light-emitting diode. Switching transistors and one or more capacitors (e.g., data storage capacitors for storing loaded data signals, etc.) may also be included in each pixel circuit  100 . 
     In windowed pixels such as pixel  22 B of  FIG. 6 , some or all of the thin-film circuitry associated with circuit  100  is removed, thereby creating at transparent area through display  14  for window  76 . During operation of display  14 , data signals for pixel  22 B may be routed to ancillary pixel circuit  102  using ancillary data line  104 . Pixel circuitry  102  may have an ancillary drive transistor and/or other ancillary pixel circuitry (e.g., an ancillary data storage capacitor) that uses the data signal on ancillary data line  104  to produce a corresponding drive current Id for light-emitting diode  24  of pixel  22 B. Ancillary drive current path (line)  106  may route drive current Id to light-emitting diode  24  in pixel  22 B from ancillary pixel circuit  102 . 
     Other techniques may be used for making up for the pixel circuitry removed from pixel  22  under window  76  if desired. The use of ancillary pixel circuitry such as circuitry  102  in inactive area IA and supplemental signal lines such as ancillary data line  104  and ancillary drive current line  106  is merely illustrative. Moreover, other modifications may be made to pixels  22 B to help accommodate windows  76  in addition to or instead of replacing pixel circuitry with windows  76  such as selectively removing portions of anodes  42  and/or shifting anodes  42  in pixels  22 B relative to the anodes  42  in normal pixels  22 A, etc. 
     An example of circuitry that may be used for display  14  is shown in  FIG. 7 . In the  FIG. 7  example, each pixel circuit may contain a drive transistor TD, a data storage capacitor Cst, and a switching transistor SW. Other types of pixel circuits may be used in pixels  22 , if desired. For example, the pixel circuits of pixels  22 A and ancillary circuits  102  may have additional switching transistors, emission control transistors, additional capacitors, etc. The pixel circuitry of  FIG. 7  is merely illustrative. 
     In normal pixels  22 A of  FIG. 7 , a full set of pixel circuit components is present (e.g., drive transistor TD, switching transistor SW, and storage capacitor Cst. In pixels  22 B, some or all of these pixel circuit components may be removed and replaced with window  76 . To make up for the pixel circuit components removed from pixel  22 B, ancillary pixel circuit  102  may be formed in inactive area IA that contains the removed components. For example, in a scenario in which switching transistor SW, drive transistor TD, and storage capacitor Cst have been removed from pixel  22 B, ancillary pixel circuit  102  may include switching transistor SW, drive transistor TD, and storage capacitor Cst. 
     During operation, gate line G may be asserted, thereby turning on switching transistor SW in ancillary pixel circuit  102  and loading data from data line D onto capacitor Cst via ancillary data line  104  and switching transistor SW. This establishes a desired voltage Vg on the gate of drive transistor TD in circuit  102  and thereby establishes a desired value for drive current Id. Ancillary pixel circuit  102  is located in inactive area IA and pixel  22 B is located in active area AA. To ensure that light-emitting diode  24  in pixel  22 B emits a desired amount of light, ancillary drive current line  106  may be used to route drive current Id to light-emitting diode  24  in pixel  22 B from circuit  102 . 
       FIG. 8  is a cross-sectional side view of illustrative thin-film transistor circuitry of the type that may be used in normal pixels  22 A. As shown in  FIG. 8 , pixel circuitry for pixel  22 A may include transistors such as transistor  28 , an anode such as anode  42  for light-emitting diode  24 , and structures for forming storage capacitor Cst. In the example of  FIG. 8 , storage capacitor Cst has a first electrode (electrode  56 ′) that is formed from a portion of the gate metal layer used in forming transistor gate  56  in transistor  28  and a second electrode (electrode  110 ) formed from a second gate metal layer that is interposed between interlayer dielectric layer  54 - 1  and interlayer dielectric layer  54 - 2  of layer  54 . Other storage capacitor arrangements may be used, if desired. Pixel  22 A may be free of transparent window structures. 
     To make room for window  76 , transistor structures and other structures may be removed from some of the pixels in display  14  as described in connection with pixel  22 B of  FIG. 7  (i.e., pixels  22 B may be free of data storage capacitors and may, if desired, be free of switching transistors and/or drive transistors).  FIG. 9  is a cross-sectional side view of illustrative thin-film transistor circuitry of the type that may be used in pixels  22 B that contain windows  76 . As shown in  FIG. 9 , the electrode structures associated with capacitor Cst may be removed, so that region  76  is transparent and can serve as light-transparent window  76  in place of capacitor Cst. In the area normally used for forming transistors, layers such a layer  60  may be patterned to form signal interconnects to route other signals between components in remaining circuitry in pixel  22 ). Supplemental paths  106  (e.g., supplemental drive current lines such as supplemental lines  106  of  FIGS. 6 and 7 ) may be formed from a patterned portion of the gate metal layer (layer  56  of normal pixel circuits  22 A) or may, as illustrated by optional path  106 ′ be formed from a portion of the second gate metal layer (i.e., the layer used to form electrode  110  of  FIG. 8 ). The second gate metal layer may be interposed between interlayer dielectric layers  54 - 1  and  54 - 2 . 
     Pixels  22  may be arranged in an RGB stripe pattern or other suitable pattern. Pixels  22  may include pixels such as red pixels, green pixels, and blue pixels each of which may have anodes of the same size or different sizes (e.g., the red and green anodes may be different in size from the blue anodes). If desired, windows  76  may be formed in displays with diamond shaped emissive areas, as illustrated by the diamond-shaped pixels of  FIG. 10 . In the example of  FIG. 10 , display  14  has an array of diamond shaped emissive areas in red pixels R, green pixels G, and blue pixels B. 
     By deleting some or all of the components of pixel  22 B (e.g., storage capacitor Cst and, if desired, one or more transistors in the pixel circuitry of pixel  22 B) from window regions such as illustrative window region  76  in pixel  22 B, an array of windows  76  may be formed in display  14 . Windows such as window  76  may be formed in blue pixels or in pixels of other colors (e.g., red pixels or green pixels). If desired, a portion of anode  42  such as portion  42 ′ may be removed to enlarge window  76  (i.e., the anodes  42  in pixels  22 B may be smaller than the anodes of the same color in pixels  22 A). Window  76  can also be accommodated and/or enlarged by shifting the location of anode  42  relative to the anodes in normal pixels  22 A, as indicated by arrow  120  and alternate anode location  42 A. Combinations of these approaches (e.g., deletion of one or more pixel circuit components from area  76  adjacent to anode  42 , enlargement of area  76  by removing portion  42 ′ of anode  42 , and/or shifting anode  42  to location  42 A) may be used to accommodate windows in display  14 , if desired. In displays with pixels of different colors (e.g., red, green, blue, etc.), anodes  42  for one or more (or all) of the different colored pixels may be shifted, may be reduced in size, and/or may have associated deleted pixel circuitry, anodes in adjacent pixels may be shifted away from each other to help make space for window  76 , etc. 
     The foregoing is merely illustrative and various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The foregoing embodiments may be implemented individually or in any combination.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20200427
Publication Date: 20220816
Grant Date: 20220816
Priority Date: 20151028
Inventors: CHOI, MINHYUK
LIU, RUI
CHEN, CHENG
LIN, CHIN-WEI
YOUN, SANG Y.
CHANG, SHIH CHANG
TSAI, TSUNG-TING
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "H10F77/40", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10D30/6755", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10D30/6734", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10D86/60", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10D86/441", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10D86/00", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G09G2300/0452", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G06V40/1318", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G09G3/3233", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G09G2300/0842", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G09G2300/0452", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01L27/3265", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01L27/3262", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G09G3/3233", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G09G2300/0842", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01L27/3216", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01L51/5209", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01L27/3276", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01L27/3227", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01L31/0232", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K59/60", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K59/1216", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K59/131", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K59/1213", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G01S17/04", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K50/813", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K59/352", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K59/60", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K59/121", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K59/80515", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 70461526