RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a National Phase of PCT Patent Application No. PCT/CN2020/087713 having International filing date of Apr. 29, 2020, which claims the benefit of priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 202010168803.3 filed on Mar. 12, 2020. The contents of the above applications are all incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein in their entirety.

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is related to the field of display technology, and specifically, to an array substrate, a display panel, and a manufacturing method of the display panel.

In recent years, display industry has developed rapidly, especially in China's display industry, which has undergone tremendous changes. Through introduction of technology, talents, and advanced equipment and innovation of core technology, China has become the world's largest display manufacturing country, with display level reaching world-leading level, not only ending a dilemma of lack of displays in China, but also leading trends of the display industry.

In the display industry, competition is becoming more and more fierce, and update cycle is shortening. Competition between liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) is particularly fierce. With maturity of OLED technology and materials and increase of yield, the LCDs have gradually lost their market advantage in small size, especially in mobile phone market, and the OLEDs have gradually replaced a status of the LCDs. In recent years, many new display technologies have emerged, such as QLED displays, E-inks, flexible LCDs, PE displays, mini-LEDs, micro-LEDs, etc. These new technologies are not yet mass-producible due to problems such as cost, lifespan, and reliability. The micro-LEDs have been vigorously promoted by many companies due to their advantages of wide color gamut, high contrast, quick response times, high resolution, and long life, and at a same time, they are regarded as the most promising new display technology for a next generation.

There are still many defects in light-emitting devices of the micro-LEDs, such as uneven brightness, reliability, low transfer yield, poor TFT uniformity, cross color, color mixing, and poor contrast. The micro-LEDs have problems of cross color, color mixing, and poor contrast because a micro-LED chip is a multi-faceted luminous body. Only light emitted from a top of the micro-LED chip is needed. When adjacent micro-LED chips emit light at a same time, the light emitted from side surfaces will interfere with each other, causing the problems such as cross color, color mixing, and poor contrast. Furthermore, poor contrast is also related to panel metals of the micro-LEDs reflecting ambient light. Therefore, we can start from two aspects of controlling light-emitting directions of the micro-LED chips and reducing reflectivity of the panel metals to solve the problems of cross color, color mixing, and poor contrast of the micro-LEDs. Currently, a common method for improving the problems of cross color, color mixing, and poor contrast of the micro-LEDs are as follows: a first method is to use a micro-LED chip with higher luminous efficiency to increase contrast, which has disadvantages of large power consumption and poor uniformity; a second method is to dispose a black matrix (BM) between the micro-LED chips for light-shielding to reduce cross color, color mixing, and poor contrast, which has disadvantages in that a black matrix process is difficult and the black matrix is likely to remain on copper electrodes; a third method is to encapsulate the side surfaces of the micro-LED chips to block light on the side surfaces, thereby reducing the problems of cross color, color mixing, and poor contrast, which has disadvantages of a reduction in brightness of the micro-LED chips and a great increase in power consumption; and a fourth method is to dispose a polarizer to increase contrast, which has a disadvantage of an increase in costs.

Therefore, it is indeed necessary to develop a new array substrate, a display panel, and a manufacturing method of the display panel to overcome defects in the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A purpose of the present invention is to provide an array substrate, a display panel, and a manufacturing method of the display panel. By forming a cover layer on the array substrate, the cover layer can not only absorb ambient light and light emitted by a light-emitting element, but also greatly improves problems of cross color, color mixing, and poor contrast of the display panel without disposing a polarizer. This makes a dark state of the display panel darker, thereby increasing the contrast. Also, a process of forming the cover layer is simple, which reduces manufacturing costs.

In order to solve the above purpose, an embodiment of the present invention provides an array substrate including a substrate layer, a driving circuit layer, and a cover layer stacked in order from bottom to top. The cover layer is a gray light-absorbing material for absorbing ambient light and reflected light of the driving circuit layer.

Furthermore, the driving circuit layer includes a light-shielding layer, a buffer layer, an active layer, a gate insulating layer, a gate metal layer, an interlayer insulating layer, a source/drain metal layer, a planarization layer, and a conductive layer. Specifically, the buffer layer is disposed on the light-shielding layer. The active layer is disposed on the buffer layer. The gate insulating layer is disposed on the active layer. The gate metal layer is disposed on the gate insulating layer. The interlayer insulating layer is disposed on the buffer layer and fully covers the active layer, the gate insulating layer, and the gate metal layer. The source/drain metal layer is disposed on the interlayer insulating layer. The planarization layer is disposed on the interlayer insulating layer and fully covers the source/drain metal layer. The conductive layer is disposed on the planarization layer.

Furthermore, the source/drain metal layer includes a source, a drain, and a floating wiring layer. The source and the drain are electrically connected to a doped region of the active layer. The conductive layer includes an anode segment and a cathode segment. The anode segment is electrically connected to the drain. The cathode segment is electrically connected to the floating wiring layer.

Furthermore, the cover layer is provided with a groove. The groove exposes the anode segment and the cathode segment.

The present further provides a display panel including the above array substrate and a light-emitting element. The light-emitting element is disposed in a groove on the cover layer. The light-emitting element includes an anode and a cathode. The anode is electrically connected to the anode segment. The cathode is electrically connected to the cathode segment.

Furthermore, a depth of the groove is less than or equal to a height of the light-emitting element.

Furthermore, the light-emitting element includes an LED lamp bead or a micro-LED chip.

Furthermore, the display panel further includes an encapsulation layer disposed on the cover layer and fully covering the light-emitting element.

The present invention further provides a manufacturing method of a display panel including steps of:

forming an array substrate, wherein the array substrate includes a substrate layer, a driving circuit layer, and a cover layer stacked in order from bottom to top, the driving circuit layer includes a conductive layer, the conductive layer includes an anode segment and a cathode segment, the cover layer is a gray light-absorbing material for absorbing ambient light and reflected light of the driving circuit layer, the cover layer is provided with a groove, and the groove exposes the anode segment and the cathode segment; and

disposing a light-emitting element, wherein the light-emitting element is embedded in the groove on the cover layer, the light-emitting element includes an anode and a cathode, the anode is electrically connected to the anode segment by solder paste welding, and the cathode is electrically connected to the cathode segment by solder paste welding.

Furthermore, the step of forming the array substrate includes steps of:

forming the substrate layer;

forming the driving circuit layer on the substrate layer; and

forming the cover layer on the driving circuit layer and forming the groove at positions corresponding to the anode segment and the cathode segment through an exposure process, a development process, and a curing process, wherein a depth of the groove is less than or equal to a height of the light-emitting element.

The beneficial effect of the present invention is to provide the array substrate, the display panel, and the manufacturing method of the display panel. By forming the cover layer on the array substrate, the cover layer can not only absorb the ambient light and light emitted by the light-emitting element, but also greatly improves problems of cross color, color mixing, and poor contrast of the display panel without disposing a polarizer. This makes a dark state of the display panel darker, thereby increasing contrast. Also, a process of forming the cover layer is simple, which reduces manufacturing costs and greatly increases competitiveness of products.

