Display system with distributed LED backlight
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsMichael D. Hillman, Gregory L. Tice, William Sauway Law, Sean Bailey, Ann Torres, Efrain Alcorta, Perry Anderson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A display system with a distributed LED backlight includes: providing a plurality of tile LED light sources, each tile LED light source having a tile and a plurality of similar LED light sources on each tile connected for emitting light therefrom; orienting the plurality of tile LED light sources for illuminating a display from the back of the display; and integrating the plurality of tile LED light sources into a thermally and mechanically structurally integrated distributed LED tile matrix backlight light source.
Claims20
A display system comprising:
- a liquid crystal display subassembly;
- a backlight assembly comprising a plurality of tiles, each tile comprising a substrate having an attachment member extending therefrom and a thermally conductive and electrically insulating layer disposed directly below a plurality of LED light sources;
- an array tray that supports the plurality of tiles and that has at least one opening, wherein the attachment member of at least one of the plurality of tiles extends into the at least one opening to attach the at least one tile to the array tray;
- and
- a thermal transfer module connected to the backlight assembly and adapted to transfer heat away from the backlight assembly.
A method of forming a distributed light-emitting diode assembly comprising:
- forming a plurality of light-emitting elements directly atop a thermally conductive and electrically insulating substrate;
- affixing a plurality of metal tiles behind the thermally conductive and electrically insulating substrate, such that heat generated by the light-emitting elements can be dissipated through the substrate and into the metal tiles;
- affixing the plurality of metal tiles and the thermally conductive and electrically insulating substrate to at least one substrate structure, such that heat dissipated by the plurality of metal tiles is transferred between separate tiles of the plurality of metal tiles, wherein the at least one substrate structure comprises a rail that extends at least partially through at least one of the plurality of metal tiles;
- affixing the plurality of metal tiles to a thermally conductive support structure, the thermally conductive support structure dissipating heat generated by the distributed light-emitting diode assembly and;
- affixing a thermal transfer module to the thermally conductive support structure to dissipate heat from the thermally conductive support structure.
A backlight assembly comprising:
- a plurality of tiles, each tile comprising:
- a metal substrate comprising a top surface;
- a separating layer disposed onto the top surface and formed from a thermally conductive and electrically insulating material;
- a plurality of light emitting elements on the separating layer, each light emitting element comprising a bottom surface electrically insulated from but thermally coupled to the metal substrate;
- and
- a thermal transfer module thermally coupled to each metal substrate of each of the plurality of tiles, the thermal transfer module operative to distribute heat away from the backlight assembly, wherein a first portion of a first one of the plurality of tiles is tilted to overlap a second portion of a second one of the plurality of tiles such that respective top faces of the first and second tiles are substantially parallel, wherein the first and second overlapping portions of the first and second tiles are fastened together by a fastening member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.