In our previous blog, we explored different display enhancements that improve visibility and user experience. In the second blog of our display enhancement series, we focus on display module durability and ruggedization.

Why Enhance Display Durability?

Once a display design meets visual and user experience specifications, it is important to ensure that it performs optimally throughout the life of the device. Displays are often subject to heavy use, drop shock, sudden impact, extreme weather, a variety of possible contaminants, and other hazards that can damage essential components and lead to malfunction.

From strengthening the housing to tempering the cover glass, there are many enhancements to help displays weather impact and heavy use without impeding function. This is especially important for devices in eMobility, medical, aerospace, or defense applications, where malfunction or device failure can negatively impact user safety.

Some of the most common types of display module durability enhancement at Boyd include:

1. Optimizing Bezels and Enclosures: Different types of plastic and metal can have a significant impact on the durability of housings and the enclosed display. Materials like acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and engineered polymers such as polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) have excellent impact resistance and strength, making them durable choices for display enclosures. Even for bezel-less frames, our display design experts can offer guidance for new or existing housings and bezel designs that optimize material selection and display protection.
2. LOCA Bonding: The method used to bond display module components together can have a massive impact on durability. Liquid Optical Clear Adhesive (LOCA) bonding offers the most robust and best overall performance of any bonding technology. Because the display layers are bonded together with a liquid adhesive instead of a framed air gap or adhesive tape, it resists extreme temperatures, condensation, and significantly improves overall impact strength. This bonding technology is particularly useful for devices that may be exposed to a rugged environment or repeated heavy use, such as consumer electronics.
3. Gasketing and Sealing: Display gaskets are flexible, resilient, and often utilized to ruggedize screens and improve durability. These include front frame gaskets and seals, foam adhesive tapes and gaskets, bezel bonding seals, foam spacers, cushions, or dampers, touch display mount tapes, housing seals, and other solutions. They absorb shock and vibration to prevent screen cracking and dust ingress while also enabling heat dissipation, and acoustic or mechanical energy damping. Gaskets also protect sensitive internal display electronics and sustain long term optical clarity against dust, water, heat, oil, or other contaminants. Boyd can integrate multiple engineered materials and thermal technologies into single, efficient display gasket solutions for greater efficiency, easier assembly, and even better durability.
4. Tempering Cover Glass: Tempering glass is a popular enhancement using heat or chemicals to increase cover glass strength by changing the compression and tension of the glass. This enables display structures to withstand more force and significantly improves impact resistance. Depending on the thickness and strength requirements for the cover glass, Gorilla Glass™ or Dragontrail™ are both tempered aluminosilicate glass commonly used for consumer devices that require the highest level of impact protection.
5. Display Protection Films: Protection films provide an optically transparent barrier to improve display resistance to scratches, impact, UV, and water, while maintaining maximum optical transmittance. Protective films can be designed for long- or short-term use. Long-term applications are intended for use throughout device lifespans to protect sensitive components like cover glass, screens, and other surfaces from scratching or cracking during frequent and repeated use. Short-term applications temporarily protect screens through manufacturing, build, and sales processes to be removed by the owner. There are many options available depending on the level of protection needed, including anti-shatter and cover glass reinforcement solutions.

Boyd has decades of experience providing different display technologies to OEMs and Tier 1 partners for a wide variety of industries. Our supplier relationships and access to advanced engineered materials allow us to streamline your supply chain and combine multiple display enhancements into a single integrated display solution.

Not sure about the best way to enhance your display module, or curious about all the different options that Boyd offers? Request a consultation with our experts today to find the right solution for your next project.

Boyd offers several different display enhancements to improve visibility and user experience.

One size does not fit all when it comes to deciding on the specific display for your product. Displays often need to meet stringent visual standards that differ across industries. Boyd has several ways to enhance display performance to suit your unique user interface needs without adding weight, bulk, or increasing power demand.

Why Enhance Display Visibility and User Experience?

Visual display enhancements improve user experience, customer satisfaction, and market adoption by increasing sunlight readability, maximizing display vivacity and clarity, and optimizing power efficiency by minimizing display light leak loss.

Some of the most common types of display module enhancements to improve visibility and user experience

1. AF or AS Coating: Anti-fingerprint (AF) coating and anti-smudge (AS) coating are two of the most common front surface display enhancements utilized today. These coatings protect surfaces where visibility decreases with repeated use. Applied via spray coating, these enhancements protect displays in applications where the front surface is subject to oil and contaminant deposits from repeat user touch, interaction, and operation.
2. AR or AG Coating:Anti-reflective (AR) coating and anti-glare (AG) coating are frequently used in outdoor applications or those with varying light exposure. Mitigating glare and reflection is important in industries such as automotive or agricultural industries where visibility is critical, and users are subject to both natural and artificial light. Both are applied to the front surface of the display for better visibility in direct sunlight or other harsh lighting conditions. These coatings boost apparent luminance and contrast of a display by mitigating light loss via reflection or glare. Users see more vibrant images across a variety of use environments.
3. Decorative Cover Lens or Glass:The front surface of a display module is the first thing a user sees, making it an ideal place for device information, instruction, and function. Decorating the cover lens or glass entails printing colored graphics, logos, or other notes directly onto the rear surface of the lens or glass. These markings can be designed to highlight specific areas of the display, enhance display aesthetics, indicate warnings, or promote brands, combining both form and function. This process is versatile, making it suitable for a wide range of applications.
4. Enhancing the Backlight Assembly:Many display modules include a small strip of light emitting diodes (LEDs) that surround the LCD to illuminate the display. These LEDs are typically housed in a thin metal railing called a light rail, which has a variety of enhancement options. LEDs can be replaced by brighter or dimmer LEDs depending on visibility requirements. Alternatively, Boyd can install a dual-mode light rail, which alternates the LED types to include multiple lighting forms along the same light rail. Brightness enhancement films improve the viewing angle of the display and recycle light generated by the backlighting toward the user, improving vivacity, visibility, and backlight efficiency.Many display modules include a small strip of light emitting diodes.
5. Reflector Films: Reflector films are integrated into displays to improve efficiency and brightness by reducing waste light directed to the sides or back of the display. Reflector films reflect light through the display, concentrating all generated display module light toward the viewer. More light reaching the user maximizes energy efficiency, vivacity, and color trueness.
6. Optically Clear Adhesives: Bond display module components together and minimize refractive loss with refractive index matched optically clear adhesives (OCAs). The optically clear adhesive provides a consistently thin bond across the display with maximum optimal clarity. OCAs are optimized to match the refractive index of display module components, maximizing light transition to the user for better display contrast, vibrancy, and vivacity.

Different visual and user experience display enhancements can be mixed and matched depending on product’s visual and performance requirements. In our next blog, we take a look at different enhancements for ruggedizing and protecting your display.

Optically clear adhesive (OCA) bonding adheres display layers together with a sheet adhesive to maximize optical clarity.

In our previous blogs in the display bonding technology series, we discussed air gap bonding and liquid optical clear adhesive (LOCA) bonding. In the final blog of our three-part bonding technologies series, we focus on the most widely used display bonding capability at Boyd: optically clear adhesive (OCA) bonding.

What is the Process Behind Optically Clear Adhesive (OCA) Bonding?

Optically clear adhesive bonding is an innovative technology that allows Boyd to provide thinner bond lines, resulting in thinner overall display stack-ups. OCA bonding utilizes a dry film pressure-sensitive adhesive to join layers together. OCA is laminated to a substrate using pressure to eliminate air gaps from the assembly. This can bond a rigid component to other rigid components or a flexible component (such as an overlay) to a rigid component.

• Rigid-to-Rigid OCA Bonding: A vacuum chamber removes all air from between the layers, closely adhering two or more rigid components.
• Flexible OCA Bonding: A roller pushes all the air out from between the flexible component and substrate (either flexible or rigid) with a manual roller or automated in-line rotary precision converting.

Preventing all bubbles or air gaps maximizes optical clarity, making OCA ideal for applications where readability is critical. We generally handle, process, and assemble OCA in Class 100 clean rooms to assure zero foreign object debris (FOD) or contamination. We have both UV or UV–sensitive environments depending on the material and application.

Why Choose Optically Clear Adhesive (OCA) Bonding?

The main advantage of optically clear adhesive bonding technology is thinner bond lines. Where liquid optically clear adhesive (LOCA) bonding can achieve a bond line between 0.015″ to 0.030″, OCA bonding can get even thinner, achieving a 0.005″ to a 0.008″ bond line. This bonding capability is well-suited for components where thickness is critical, including cover glass, touchscreens, and frameless LCDs.

Another advantage of optically clear adhesive bonding is that the sheet adhesive does not require curing, making it faster than other bonding processes. Using a sheet adhesive also provides tighter tolerance, more consistent flat bond lines, and higher yield rates when compared to liquid adhesives. No special dispensing equipment is needed.

While there are several benefits to using optically clear adhesive, it may not be suitable for all applications. Unlike LOCA bonding, optically clear adhesive results in a bonded adhesive that cannot be reworked, which requires a more rigorous inspection and testing process to ensure high manufacturing yields.

Boyd offers a wide variety of bonding options to meet unique project needs, providing the best-fit solution for your application. To learn more about the process behind our display bonding technologies, read our other blogs listed below or reach out to our experts.

What is Air Gap Bonding?

What is Liquid Optically Clear Adhesive (LOCA) Bonding?

 

In our previous blog, we discussed the benefits and drawbacks of air gap bonding. In the second blog of our three-part display bonding technologies series, we focus on liquid optically clear adhesive (LOCA) bonding.

What is the Process Behind Liquid Optically Clear Adhesive (LOCA) Bonding?

As the name suggests, liquid optically clear adhesive bonding involves bonding layers of the stack-up together with a liquid adhesive. Instead of leaving an air gap between components, the clear adhesive fills the entire space between display layers. Primarily used when bonding together two rigid materials, LOCA bonding is typically chosen for its increased impact resistance, sunlight readability, and optical clarity.

For each display, Boyd’s engineers develop custom fixturing to fit the precise dimensions of the components. Highly precise metering equipment dispenses a consistent amount of liquid adhesive specific to the display design. Our engineers design a program to measure out the proper amount of adhesive in the optimal dispensing pattern unique to each assembly.

The adhesive is cured with UV light in a class 10,000 clean room. Boyd tests and inspects each display with sophisticated methods and equipment to ensure the highest quality assemblies.

Why Choose Liquid Optically Clear Adhesive (LOCA) Bonding?

Liquid optically clear adhesive bonding is used for its strong overall performance and elevated level of impact resistance. Another major benefit of LOCA bonding is high optical clarity, as the liquid adhesive prevents air gaps from forming within the stack-up. LOCA bonding is a popular solution because it is a re-workable process. If needed, the liquid adhesive can be removed and components can be salvaged and re-used, increasing overall manufacturing yields.

LOCA bonding is a robust technology that Boyd has provided to a variety of industries for over a decade. Boyd’s experts leverage proprietary processes and adhesives to provide optimal bonding solutions for specific display requirements. To learn about the other display bonding technologies at Boyd, read the other blogs in this series below:

What is Air Gap Bonding?

What is Optically Clear Adhesive (OCA) Bonding?

 

As performance requirements for integrated touchscreens and displays continue to evolve, effectively bonding display components together is critical. A typical display is composed of many layers such as cover glass, a touchscreen, and/or an LCD that are all integrated to ensure the display functions optimally under its intended conditions. Boyd combines these separate components together using high-grade adhesives and unique bonding technologies.,

As a front panel integrator, Boyd offers three main bonding technologies to help customers develop the ideal display construction and component stack-up: air gap (or framed adhesive), rigid-to-rigid liquid optically clear adhesive (LOCA), and optically clear adhesive (OCA) bonding. These bonding solutions serve a wide range of industries, including consumer, medical, military, automotive, instrumentation, and industrial controllers.,

We discuss the benefits and challenges of each of these bonding technologies in this three-part blog series. To begin, we review one of the original display bonding capabilities at Boyd: air gap bonding.

What is the Process Behind Air Gap Bonding?

Air gap bonding uses a framed adhesive gasket around the perimeter of the display layers, leaving behind a small air gap within the stack-up. As there are no liquid adhesives to dispense and no cure time, air gap bonding is significantly less expensive than other bonding options.

Why Choose Air Gap Bonding?

Air gap constructions are cost-effective and lightweight, so they are popular solutions for applications with no readability or impact-resistance requirements.

While the lower cost is a benefit, this construction can present a few challenges. The air gap can affect screen clarity in bright light due to additional light refraction. Displays with air gaps are also more susceptible to moisture damage and breakage, so they are not ideal for outdoor applications or harsh environments.

Boyd has decades of experience creating custom display bonding technologies for the ideal stack-up in your display. To learn about the other bonding technologies available at Boyd, read the other blogs in our series below.,

Liquid Optical Clear Adhesive (LOCA) Bonding

Optically Clear Adhesive (OCA) Bonding

In the second edition of our Ask an Expert blog series, we asked our followers to submit questions about how to integrate displays, touchscreen technology, optical bonding, or other display topics on LinkedIn. We received interesting questions spanning many topics, and sat down with one of our display integration experts, Jim Badders, to answer them all.

What components make up an “Integrated Display”?

Normally, when we say Integrated Display, it incorporates some type of display module like an LCD, OLED, or E-Paper. It could also include a touchscreen, either Resistive or PCAP, or just a cover glass. Integrated displays include some type of adhesive to adhere the cover glass or touchscreen to the display module, such as an air-gap gasket or an optically clear adhesive (LOCA or OCA) bond. There are other options that could also be part of an integrated display. We’ve included other components like injection-molded plastic housings, machined metal bezels, EMI/RFI shielding, gasketing, frame bonding, heat spreading, protective films and coatings (such as anti-glare or anti-reflective), driver boards and single board computers, graphic overlays, and membrane and capacitive touch switches, to name more common ones. It really depends on what the requirements are, because there are a lot of options.

What makes automotive displays different from other types of display modules?

Automotive displays are generally considered more rugged and have wider temperature performance ranges. Being part of a vehicle exposes the display to extreme road vibration and environmental conditions like direct sunlight, extreme hot and cold. Automotive displays also need increased brightness for sunlight readability compared to something like a medical display, where it has more consistent lighting. Display mounting is very important for the automotive industry. Automotive display mounts often have custom bezels that enclose the liquid crystal structure and light guide within the display with different mounting features incorporated into the protective metal frame. There can also be special connectors for automotive attachment, quick module installation, and replacement.

How do you decide on what type of touchscreen to use?

We look at a few factors if the type of touchscreen is not specified. First, we must determine if they need a resistive touchscreen or a project capacitive (PCAP) touchscreen. Once we know that, we can determine the touchscreen interface type. This can be “passive architecture”, where the flex tails coming off the touchscreen don’t have their own controller chips or, what’s more common is “Chip-on-Flex”, where the touchscreen has all the interface and controller firmware and circuitry mounted on the flex tails. Glass thickness can also play a big part in the determination of the touchscreen, as well as any front surface finishes, since these can influence optical performance and cost. Plain cover glass is less expensive than a chemically strengthened glass that has anti-reflection (AF), anti-glare (AG), or anti-fingerprint (AF) coatings, or any combination.

How do you choose what bonding to use?

The most important consideration is the environment in which the touchscreen will operate along with how it will be used and mounted. Is it a military or aerospace application where it may be subject to harsh impact? If so, Liquid Optically Clear Adhesive (LOCA) or Optically Clear Adhesive (OCA) bonding has a much higher impact resistance and durability than something like air-gap bonding. Another consideration is sunlight readability. If it is an automotive display, or a display for an agricultural application where it may be under direct sunlight, we would likely go with LOCA bonding or a dry-film optical bond, which provides significantly higher sunlight readability and optical clarity. We are always happy to look at device requirements and suggest the optimal way to bond, so the best course of action is to talk to our experts about your specific display needs.

How much do Display Integration techniques vary between industries?

It really boils down to how a display will be mounted and used, but there are other factors such as weight restrictions that can change how displays are integrated. For an industrial application, we might injection mold a plastic bezel for the display, which could just be mounted on a piece of equipment. In contrast, for a military or an aerospace application, the display may need to be installed into a much more durable, more complex structured housing or bezel. This could also require several different coatings and treatments to the cover glass. Shock and vibration also plays a part. If the display is for an automotive application, it might need specific gasketing to help prevent buzz, squeak, and rattle (BSR) for user experience or to ensure that the module does not move around and damage critical components. We always evaluate any project requirements from the customer to determine an efficient way to integrate their display.

How can I protect my display?

Boyd offers several different ways to protect displays. If the cover glass needs to be protected on the outer edges, we can machine metal bezels or injection mold plastic housings. For preventing moisture and particulate ingress, we have a variety of gasketing and sealing solutions. Segmented frame gaskets waterproof and dustproof display assemblies while maximizing raw material yield, performance, and cost. We’ve sealed the most advanced display assemblies for leading brands for the last decade with bezel bonds and front frame gaskets for IP rated waterproof, vibration damping, and exceptional push-out performance. If we are protecting just the front surface of a display, then there are a few different approaches. There are strong protective materials, such as polyester films with a hard coating, or different chemically strengthened types of cover glass. AF, AG, and AS coatings are also useful, and while they do not necessarily protect the display itself, they do help optimize user experience.

What is the most exciting display application that you have worked on?

The most exciting applications are usually new display programs where a customer comes to us and just says “we need a display and a touchscreen,” because we can help define exactly what they need. Boyd offers so many different solutions and we can incorporate different technologies into a display module that it is always exciting to figure that out. It is also exciting when people learn about everything we can do. We can injection mold the plastic housings, machine metal bezels, create custom gaskets and shields, add thermal technologies, enhance brightness and contrast, and we integrate all these solutions together as a vertically integrated manufacturer. That is the best part: being able to help our customers with a unique, integrated solution that enhances their customers’ user experience while optimizing energy demand and cost.

What do you think is the future of Display Integration?

A few years ago, I might have said that the future would be displays coming out with in-cell or on-cell touch where the PCAP touch sensor is built directly into the LCD structure. There is some of that out there, but for most applications, it is still a requirement to have the LCD and touchscreen be separate components. Nowadays, I see a lot more Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays and micro-LED displays versus the widely used thin-film-transistor (TFT) LED displays. We are also seeing more desire for applications that have multiple displays mounted behind a single piece of cover glass, or curved glass in the automotive industry. Touchscreen technology is always improving, so PCAP displays are getting sensitive enough to work even if you are wearing your thickest ski or driving gloves. Displays certainly have an exciting future ahead! Thank you to everyone who sent us questions! To learn more about our Display Integration capabilities, visit our website or schedule a consultation with our experts.