Electric lamp and discharge devices – With luminescent solid or liquid material – Solid-state type
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-18
2003-09-09
Wong, Don (Department: 2821)
Electric lamp and discharge devices
With luminescent solid or liquid material
Solid-state type
C315S169300, C345S076000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06617785
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electroluminescence display unit formed by connecting a plurality of electroluminescence display panels to each other and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, a CRT (cathode-ray tube), a PDP (plasma display panel), a liquid crystal projector and the like are developed as large-sized display units. When these display units are increased in size, however, the CRT has heavy weight, the PDP also has heavy weight although the weight is smaller than that of the CRT, and the liquid crystal projector has low luminance and low resolution.
On the other hand, a thin and lightweight liquid crystal display unit having none of the aforementioned problems is increasingly developed in size. In order to increase the size of the liquid crystal display unit, a structure obtained by pasting a plurality of small panels to each other or a structure obtained by forming one of a pair of electrodes on a large-sized substrate with a wire connection part for an external circuit or the like while pasting the other electrode with a small substrate is mainly employed. However, the junction defining a non-display part such as a liquid crystal sealing part is conspicuous in the former structure while it is difficult to control a space for filling liquid crystals in the latter structure, leading to irregular display in both cases. Further, the liquid crystal display unit employing non-luminescent liquid crystals is a photoreceptor type display unit requiring a light source. Therefore, the liquid crystal display unit disadvantageously has viewing angle dependency, hardly attains high luminance, and has a low contrast.
Under such circumstances, an electroluminescence (hereinafter abbreviated as EL) display unit is watched with interest as a self-luminescent display unit, and an organic EL display unit employing an organic thin film formed on a glass substrate as an emission layer is particularly noted as a thin and lightweight display unit similarly to the liquid crystal display unit. The organic EL display unit may also be increased in size through a structure obtained by forming elements on a large-sized substrate or a structure obtained by pasting a plurality of small panels to each other, similarly to the liquid crystal display unit.
In the former structure, however, it is difficult to increase the size of a substrate formed with TFTs (thin-film transistors) as switching elements for respective elements or to uniformly form an organic EL emission layer on the overall surface of a large-sized substrate, disadvantageously leading to irregular luminance. In the latter structure, the junction between the plurality of small panels merely pasted to each other is conspicuous to result in a non-uniform display screen although irregular luminance can be reduced. While Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 5-205875 (1993), for example, discloses a method of connecting small panels and electrically connecting adjacent ones of the small panels with each other in order to increase the size of an organic EL display unit, this gazette discloses no method of rendering the junction between the small panels inconspicuous.
In relation to the liquid crystal display unit, on the other hand, there is reported a method of defining a single pixel by three display dots of R (red), G (green) and B (blue) and matching the distance between pixels located on ends of adjacent small panels with the width of black stripes in order to render the junction between small panels inconspicuous (Sharp Giho No. 69, December 1997, pp. 81-84). However, this method is specific to a liquid crystal display unit sealing ends of panels for preventing leakage of liquid crystals with long distances between pixels located on ends of the panels and the ends of the panels, and cannot be directly applied to an EL display unit requiring no such sealing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an electroluminescence display unit capable of rendering the junction between adjacent ones of a plurality of electroluminescence display panels inconspicuous when the electroluminescence display panels are connected to each other for forming a single display unit and a method of fabricating the same.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electroluminescence display unit capable of rendering the junction between adjacent ones of a plurality of electroluminescence display panels inconspicuous without deteriorating emission parts when the electroluminescence display panels are connected to each other for forming a single display unit and a method of fabricating the same.
According to an aspect of the present invention, an electroluminescence display unit is formed by connecting a plurality of electroluminescence display panels to each other, while each of the plurality of electroluminescence display panels is formed with a plurality of emission parts arranged along a first direction at a first pitch and emission parts opposed to each other through the junction between the electroluminescence display panels adjacent to each other along the first direction are arranged at a second pitch equal to the first pitch.
In the electroluminescence display unit, the plurality of emission parts are arranged on each of the plurality of electroluminescence display panels in the first direction at the first pitch, while the emission parts opposed to each other through the junction between the electroluminescence display panels adjacent to each other along the first direction are arranged at the second pitch equal to the first pitch.
The electroluminescence display panels can be formed in the aforementioned manner since the electroluminescence display panels store no liquid crystals requiring sealing dissimilarly to the liquid crystal display unit and hence the distance between emission parts located on endmost portions of the panels and ends of the panels can be extremely reduced as compared with the liquid crystal display unit. In other words, the present invention has been proposed by noting the features of the aforementioned electroluminescence display panels and reducing the distance between the emission parts located on the endmost portions of the panels and the ends of the panels for arranging the emission parts adjacent to each other over the panels also at the pitch equal to the pitch for those located on the panels.
Therefore, it follows that not only the emission parts located on the panels but also the emission parts adjacent to each other over the panels are arranged at the same pitch, whereby the emission parts are arranged on the overall display unit at a constant pitch. Also when connecting a plurality of electroluminescence display panels to each other for forming a single display unit, therefore, the junction between adjacent ones of the electroluminescence display panels can be rendered inconspicuous.
The second pitch is preferably within ±20% of the first pitch. In this case, fabrication variations in component size can be allowed to some extent within a range not rendering the junction conspicuous, whereby fabrication steps are simplified.
The plurality of emission parts preferably include a plurality of color emission parts emitting light of different colors, the plurality of color emission parts are preferably arranged on each of the plurality of electroluminescence display panels along the first direction at the first pitch, and the color emission parts opposed to each other through the junction between the electroluminescence display panels adjacent to each other along the first direction are preferably arranged at the second pitch.
In this case, the color emission parts enable color display such as full-color display, and it follows that not only the color emission parts located on the panels but also those adjacent to each other over the panels are arranged at the same pitch, so that the color emission parts are arranged at a constant pitch on the overall display unit. Also when co
Haku Hisao
Hashimoto Haruhisa
Shibata Kenichi
Usuki Tatsuro
Yoneda Kiyoshi
Sanyo Electric Co,. Ltd.
Tran Thuy Vinh
Wong Don
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