Manufacture of a curved electronic device using differential heating and curved electronic device

A curved electronic device formed by deforming a stack to render a deformed stack having:

• a curved substrate comprising a thermoplastic material, and
• at least one electronic component connected to an electronic circuit disposed on the substrate,
• wherein a component area of the substrate surface around the electronic component comprises a first material providing relatively low absorption to light,
• wherein a surrounding area of the substrate, outside the component area, comprises a second material providing relatively high absorption of the light, wherein the first material comprises a reflective coating with a higher reflection coefficient to the light than the thermoplastic material of the substrate beneath and/or the second material comprises an absorptive coating having a higher absorption coefficient to the light than the thermoplastic material of the substrate beneath, and
• wherein the surrounding area fully surrounds the component area.

A method of manufacturing a curved electronic device, the method comprising:

• providing a stack having:
• a substrate comprising a thermoplastic material, and
• at least one electronic component connected to an electronic circuit disposed on the substrate;
• illuminating a substrate surface of the substrate with light to heat at least part of the thermoplastic material above a glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic material;
• and
• applying a deformation process to the at least partially heated substrate to deform the stack into the curved electric interface;
• wherein a component area of the substrate surface localized around the electronic component comprises a first material providing relatively low absorption of the light,
• wherein a surrounding area of the substrate surface, outside the component area, comprises a second material providing relatively high absorption of the light,
• wherein the first material comprises a reflective coating with a higher reflection coefficient to the light than the thermoplastic material of the substrate beneath and/or the second material comprises an absorptive coating having a higher absorption coefficient to the light than the thermoplastic material of the substrate beneath,
• wherein, during a time of the illuminating, a difference in absorption causes buildup of a differential temperature profile in the thermoplastic material along a surface coordinate of the substrate such that the component area around the electronic component maintains a lower temperature than the surrounding area,
• wherein at a time of the applying the deformation process:
• the thermoplastic material at the surrounding area has a relatively high temperature above the glass transition temperature to provide a relatively low resistance to the deformation process, and
• the thermoplastic material at the component area around the electronic component has a relatively low temperature below the glass transition temperature to provide a relatively high resistance to deformation process for preventing excess stress on the electronic component and/or a connection of the electronic component to the electronic circuit, and
• wherein the illuminating the substrate surface comprises uniformly illuminating both the component area of the substrate surface localized around the electronic component and the surrounding area.