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US 6,747,402 B2Granted
EL element lighting unit employing the same EL element
AssigneeMatsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
InventorsMinoru Hato, Yoshiharu Abe
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An EL element includes plural light transmitting front-electrodes forming plural lines by wiring and plural back-electrodes forming plural lines by further wiring. The front-electrodes are angled relative to the back-electrodes and a light-emitting layer is disposed between the front-electrodes and the back-electrodes. The EL element combined with a controller works as a lighting unit, which controls light emission at any place, so that a variety of lighting is realized by the lighting unit.
Claims23
An electro-luminescent (EL) element comprising:
- (a) a light transmitting base;
- (b) a front electrode layer formed on said base, and including a plurality of light transmitting front electrodes each coupled together by respective front wiring electrodes to form a plurality of front lines, respectively;
- (c) a back electrode layer including a plurality of back electrodes coupled together by back wiring electrodes to form a plurality of back lines;
- (d) a light-emitting layer disposed between said front electrode layer and said back electrode layer, and
- (e) another light transmitting front electrode independent of the plurality of front lines, and another back electrode independent of the plurality of back lines;
- wherein said plurality of front lines are placed above and angled relative to said plurality of back lines.
3 more elements
An electro-luminescent (EL) element comprising:
- (a) a light transmitting base;
- (b) a front electrode layer formed on said base, and including a plurality of light transmitting front electrodes each coupled together by respective front wiring electrodes to form a plurality of front lines, respectively;
- (c) a middle electrode layer including a plurality of light transmitting middle electrodes coupled together by middle wiring electrodes to form a plurality of middle lines facing said front electrodes;
- (d) a back electrode layer including a plurality of back electrodes coupled together by back wiring electrodes to form a plurality of back lines;
- (e) a first light-emitting layer disposed between said front electrode layer and said middle electrode layer;
- (f) a second light-emitting layer disposed between said middle electrode layer and said back electrode layer, and
- (g) another light transmitting front electrode independent of the front wiring electrodes, and another back electrode independent of the plurality of back lines;
- wherein the plurality of front lines are placed above the plurality of back lines in parallel, and placed above and angled relative to the plurality of middle lines.
5 more elements
An electro-luminescent (EL) element comprising:
- (a) a light transmitting base;
- (b) a front electrode layer formed on said base, and including a plurality of light transmitting front electrodes each coupled together by respective front wiring electrodes to form a plurality of front lines, respectively;
- (c) a middle electrode layer including a plurality of light transmitting middle electrodes coupled together by middle wiring electrodes to form a plurality of middle lines facing said front electrodes;
- (d) a back electrode layer including a plurality of back electrodes coupled together by back wiring electrodes to form a plurality of back lines;
- (e) a first light-emitting layer disposed between said front electrode layer and said middle electrode layer;
- (f) a second light-emitting layer disposed between said middle electrode layer and said back electrode layer, and
- wherein the plurality of front lines are placed above the plurality of back lines in parallel, and placed above and angled relative to the plurality of middle lines,
- wherein the EL element is disposed on one of an upper face and a lower face of a plurality of switch contacts disposed under a pushbutton.
5 more elements
A lighting unit comprising:
- (a) a plurality of pushbuttons;
- (b) a plurality of switch contacts disposed under said pushbuttons for performing electrical switching;
- (c) an electro-luminescent (EL) element disposed on one of an upper face and a lower face of one of said switch contacts;
- said EL element including:
- (d) a light transmitting base;
- (e) a front electrode layer formed on said base, and including a plurality of light transmitting front electrodes each coupled together by respective front wiring electrodes to form a plurality of front lines, respectively;
- (f) a back electrode layer including a plurality of back electrodes coupled together by back wiring electrodes to form a plurality of back lines;
- and
- (g) a light-emitting layer disposed between said front electrode layer and said back electrode layer,
- wherein said plurality of front lines are placed above and angled relative to said plurality of back lines,
- (h) a controller for being coupled to said switch contacts and said EL element,
- wherein said controller controls light emission from said EL element at a given place while preventing emission from said EL element away from said given place, so that a pushbutton corresponding to the given place is illuminated.
9 more elements
A lighting unit comprising:
- (a) a plurality of pushbuttons;
- (b) a plurality of switch contacts disposed under said pushbuttons for performing electrical switching;
- (c) an electro-luminescent (EL) element disposed on one of an upper face and a lower face of one of said switch contacts;
- said EL element including:
- (d) a light transmitting base;
- (e) a front electrode layer formed on said base, and including a plurality of light transmitting front electrodes each coupled together by respective front wiring electrodes to form a plurality of front lines, respectively;
- (f) a back electrode layer including a plurality of back electrodes coupled together by back wiring electrodes to form a plurality of back lines;
- and
- (g) a light-emitting layer disposed between said front electrode layer and said back electrode layer,
- wherein said plurality of front lines are placed above and angled relative to said plurality of back lines,
- (h) a controller for being coupled to said switch contacts and said EL element,
- wherein said controller controls light emission from said EL element at a given place while preventing emission from said EL element away from said given place, so that a pushbutton corresponding to the given place is illuminated, and
- wherein said controller has a detecting function of detecting a press of a given pushbutton, and a controlling function of controlling light emission from an EL element designated by the given pushbutton at a given place, and said controller detects the press of the given pushbutton and illuminates a pushbutton assigned by the given pushbutton.
10 more elements
A lighting unit comprising:
- (a) a plurality of pushbuttons;
- (b) a plurality of switch contacts for performing electrical switching by depressing at least one of said pushbuttons;
- (c) an electro-luminescent (EL) element disposed on one of an upper face and a lower face of one of said switch contacts:
- said EL element including:
- (d) a light transmitting base;
- (e) a front electrode layer formed on said base, and including a plurality of light transmitting front electrodes each coupled together by respective front wiring electrodes to form a plurality of front lines, respectively;
- (f) a middle electrode layer including a plurality of light transmitting middle electrodes coupled together by middle wiring electrodes to form a plurality of middle lines;
- (g) a back electrode layer including a plurality of back electrodes coupled together by back wiring electrodes to form a plurality of back lines;
- (h) a first light-emitting layer disposed between said front electrode layer and said middle electrode layer;
- (i) a second light-emitting layer disposed between said middle electrode layer and said back electrode layer,
- wherein the plurality of front lines are placed above the plurality of back lines in parallel, and placed above and angled relative to the plurality of middle lines
- (j) a controller for being coupled to said switch contacts and said EL element,
- wherein said controller controls light emission from said EL element at a given place, so that a pushbutton corresponding to the given place is Illuminated.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.