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Sony patents display layout that saves space in OLED screens

Sony describes a design for OLED display pixels that uses the physical gap between two transistors as a capacitor. This component stores the electrical charge needed to control the brightness of the light-emitting element. By using existing space for this function, the design aims to make the display circuitry more compact.

Why it mattersThis is a technical improvement in display manufacturing that could lead to slightly more efficient or smaller screen components, though it is not a new consumer feature.

In the filing’s own words

A display element includes a light-emitting unit of a current drive type, and a drive unit that drives the light-emitting unit, in which the drive unit includes a capacitance unit, a drive transistor that causes a current corresponding to a voltage held by the capacitance unit to flow through the light-emitting unit, and a write transistor that writes a signal voltage to the capacitance unit, the drive transistor and the write transistor are formed in a state of being separated by an element isolation region, on a semiconductor substrate, and a capacitance generated in a portion where the drive transistor and the write transistor face each other through the element isolation region functions as at least a part of the capacitance unit.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A display device comprising: a light emitting element; a first capacitor; a second capacitor; a sampling transistor configured to supply a data signal voltage corresponding to a data signal to the first capacitor according to a control signal supplied from a control signal line; and a driving transistor configured to supply a driving current from a power potential to the light emitting element according to a voltage stored in the first capacitor, wherein a first electrode of the first capacitor is disposed in a first layer and is electrically connected to a gate of the driving transistor, a second electrode of the first capacitor is disposed in a second layer different from the first layer and is electrically connected to a first source/drain of the driving transistor, a first electrode of the second capacitor is disposed in a third layer different from the first layer and the second layer, and is electrically connected to the first source/drain of the driving transistor, a first source/drain of the sampling transistor is disposed closer to the first source/drain of the driving transistor than to a second source/drain of the driving transistor, the first source/drain of the sampling transistor being electrically connected to the gate of the driving transistor, the first source/drain of the driving transistor being electrically connected to the power potential, and the second source/drain of the driving transistor being electrically connected to an anode of the light emitting element, at least a portion of a wiring path is adjacent, without an intervening wiring line, to at least a portion of the power potential, the wiring path electrically connecting the first source/drain of the sampling transistor and the gate of the driving transistor, and at least a portion of the power potential overlaps the gate of the driving transistor in a plan view.

Facts

Company
Sony (Sony Group Corporation)
Official title
Display element, display device, and electronic device
Patent number
US12770571B2
Application number
19254958
Filed
Jun 30, 2025
Granted
Oct 20, 2026
Inventors
1
Claims
14

Classified under

G09G 3/3258 Physics & computingG09G 3/3266 Physics & computingH10K 59/126 Electricity & electronicsH10K 59/131 Electricity & electronicsG09G 2300/0876 Physics & computingH10K 59/12 Electricity & electronics

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.