Sensors (Apr 2018)

Oil Motion Control by an Extra Pinning Structure in Electro-Fluidic Display

  • Yingying Dou,
  • Biao Tang,
  • Jan Groenewold,
  • Fahong Li,
  • Qiao Yue,
  • Rui Zhou,
  • Hui Li,
  • Lingling Shui,
  • Alex Henzen,
  • Guofu Zhou

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/s18041114
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 4
p. 1114

Abstract

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Oil motion control is the key for the optical performance of electro-fluidic displays (EFD). In this paper, we introduced an extra pinning structure (EPS) into the EFD pixel to control the oil motion inside for the first time. The pinning structure canbe fabricated together with the pixel wall by a one-step lithography process. The effect of the relative location of the EPS in pixels on the oil motion was studied by a series of optoelectronic measurements. EPS showed good control of oil rupture position. The properly located EPS effectively guided the oil contraction direction, significantly accelerated switching on process, and suppressed oil overflow, without declining in aperture ratio. An asymmetrically designed EPS off the diagonal is recommended. This study provides a novel and facile way for oil motion control within an EFD pixel in both direction and timescale.

Keywords