Improving the performance of advertising LED displays by in-mould integration

Modern manufacturing technologies of flexible electronics and in-mould integration are used to develop advertising backlights that are thin, lightweight, and preferably dynamic. The result is based on in-mould structural electronics in which the flexible electronics is overmoulded with plastics providing additional features to the display. The technique is used to create optical elements on LED backlighting foils. Also, the effect of embedding on thermal management of the LEDs is studied. Measurements done on different tests structures show benefit in both optical and thermal performance by in-mould integration. The light guide element integrated on the backlighting unit in a single processing step demonstrated 17% advantage in optical power in backlighting application. The thermal measurements show that LED temperatures in the inmould integrated panel reduced on average 20% compared to measurements done on LED foil without embedding.