JP7627716B2 - Display Speaker - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a display speaker.

In recent years, display panels made of liquid crystal, OLED, etc. have been manufactured to be thinner, and are now widely used not only for televisions and PC monitors, but also for tablet and smartphone screens. As televisions and monitors have become larger, there is a strong demand for thinner and smaller speakers to be installed, and for smartphones and tablets, there is an increasing demand for speakers to be installed in a simple and compact device configuration.
For example, in OLED TVs, actuators that use the structure of electrodynamic speakers are installed on the back of the display panel, and sound is reproduced by vibrating the panel itself. However, these actuators are currently several tens of times thicker than the OLED panel.

In response to this situation, Patent Document 1 discloses an electroacoustic conversion film that can be attached to the back surface of a display. This document describes an electroacoustic conversion film that is designed to stably reproduce the sound of human voices and musical instruments by carefully selecting the film structure, the types of materials used, and the characteristics of the combinations of these materials.

International Publication No. 2013/047875

In the technical field of sound output by attaching a thin film-like vibrator to a device, such as the electroacoustic conversion film described above, one of the technical challenges is whether or not low-frequency sounds can be output with sufficient strength. With the electroacoustic conversion film described in Patent Document 1, even if good characteristics are obtained in an experimental environment by examining the characteristics of the film structure, the selection of materials used, and the combination of these, there is a risk that these characteristics may not be fully demonstrated depending on the state of the device in which it is implemented. In other words, since there are various possible configurations and structures of the display to be vibrated, there is a risk that the output characteristics cannot be reproduced to the same level as in the experimental stage. Thus, there are multiple items to consider in order to implement this electroacoustic conversion film, and it may be difficult to obtain the desired characteristics through simple trials.

The present invention was made in consideration of the above-mentioned circumstances, and aims to provide a display speaker that can output sufficient low-frequency sounds with a simple configuration.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs the following means.
That is, the display speaker of the present invention comprises a display panel, a vibrator, and one or more vibration weights, the vibrator being surface-bonded to the display panel, and the vibration weight being coupled to the vibrator.
According to this invention, the vibrator is surface-bonded to the display panel, and the vibration weight is connected to the vibrator, so that a display speaker capable of sufficiently outputting low-frequency sounds can be realized.

Moreover, the display speaker of the present invention comprises a display panel, a vibrator, one bonding member, and one or more vibration weights, a portion of the vibrator being bonded to the display panel via the bonding member, and the vibration weight being coupled to the vibrator.
According to this invention, a part of the vibrator is joined to the display panel via a joining member, and the vibration weight is connected to the vibrator, so that a display speaker capable of sufficiently outputting low-frequency sounds can be realized.

In one aspect of the present invention, in the front-stage display speaker, the vibrator is joined to the display panel near the center thereof via the joining member, and the vibration weight is coupled to the vibrator near the periphery thereof.
According to this configuration, the vibrator is joined near its center to the display panel via a joining member, and the vibration weight is coupled near its periphery, so that the output of the vibrator can be efficiently transmitted to the display panel.

The display speaker of the present invention comprises a display panel, a vibrator, a pressure support structure positioned away from the rear surface of the display panel, and one or more pressure members, the vibrator being surface-bonded to the display panel, and the pressure members being coupled between the pressure support structure and the vibrator.
According to this invention, the vibrator is surface-bonded to the display panel, and the pressing member is coupled between the pressing support structure and the vibrator, so that a display speaker capable of sufficiently outputting low-frequency sounds can be realized.

In addition, the display speaker of the present invention comprises a display panel, a vibrator, one bonding member, a pressure support structure positioned away from the rear surface of the display panel, and one or more pressing members, and a portion of the vibrator is bonded to the display panel via the bonding member, and the pressing member is coupled between the pressure support structure and the vibrator.
According to this invention, a part of the vibrator is joined to the display panel via a bonding member, and a pressing member is coupled between the pressing support structure and the vibrator, thereby realizing a display speaker that can output sufficient low-frequency sounds.

In one aspect of the present invention, in the front-stage display speaker, the vibrator is joined to the display panel near the center thereof via the joining member, and the pressing member is coupled to the vibrator near the periphery thereof.
According to this configuration, the vibrator is joined near its center to the display panel via a joining member, and the pressing member is coupled near the periphery of the vibrator, so that the output of the vibrator can be efficiently transmitted to the display panel.

In one aspect of the present invention, the display panel is an OLED (organic LED) panel.
With this configuration, the present invention can be effectively realized.

The present invention provides a display speaker that can output sufficient low-frequency sounds with a simple configuration.

1 is a plan cross-sectional view of a main portion of a display speaker according to an embodiment of the present invention. 5 is a graph for explaining the effect of the display speaker according to the embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an overall configuration of a display speaker according to an embodiment of the present invention; 1 is a plan cross-sectional view of a main portion of a display speaker according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a plan cross-sectional view of a main portion of a display speaker according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a plan cross-sectional view of a main portion of a display speaker according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a plan cross-sectional view of a main portion of a display speaker according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a plan cross-sectional view of a main portion of a display speaker according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
First Embodiment
FIG. 1 shows a plan sectional view of a main part of a display speaker according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
The display speaker 1 according to this embodiment includes a display panel 2, a vibrator 3, and a vibration weight 4. The vibrator 3 is surface-bonded to a rear surface 21 of the display panel 2, and the vibration weight 4 is coupled to a rear surface 31 of the vibrator 3.

In FIG. 1, an enlarged cross-sectional view of a portion of the display panel 2 where the vibrator 3 is surface-bonded is shown. The vibrator 3 is an element that converts an electrical signal into physical vibration, and in this embodiment, a piezoelectric element is used. A piezoelectric element is an element that utilizes the piezoelectric effect, whereby the shape of the element changes when an electric field is applied. When an electrical signal is applied to the vibrator 3, a physical vibration in accordance with the signal waveform, i.e., a change in thickness is generated in the vibrator 3. The electrical signal is a signal that causes the vibrator 3 to generate sounds in the human audible range, including human voices, musical instruments, or environmental sounds, and the purpose of applying this electrical signal to the vibrator 3 is to reproduce a desired sound source.

The physical vibrations generated in the vibrator 3 by the application of an electric signal are transmitted to the display panel 2, to which the vibrator 3 is surface-bonded, causing the display panel 2 itself to vibrate. In other words, the entire display panel 2 also functions as a vibrating surface, such as the cone paper of a conventional speaker. At this time, the vibration weight 4 is connected to the back surface of the vibrator 3, so with this configuration, the vibrator 3 receives a reaction force from the heavy vibration weight 4, and efficiently transmits the physical vibrations transmitted from the vibrator 3 to the display panel 2, thereby achieving the effect of making it possible to output low-frequency sounds that could not be output conventionally.

Figure 2 is a graph 5 of experimental data to explain the above-mentioned effect. In this experiment, first, an evaluation microphone is placed at a distance from the display speaker 1 (not shown). Next, an electrical signal is applied to the transducer 3, causing the display speaker 1 to output a sound of a predetermined frequency with a constant amplitude, and the magnitude of the electrical signal generated in the microphone placed at a distance from the display speaker 1 when the microphone receives the sound generated from the display speaker 1 is recorded. Graph 5 in Figure 2 shows the data of this experiment, with the frequency of the sound output from the display speaker 1 on the horizontal axis 51 and the output of the microphone on the vertical axis 52.

Graph 5 plots data 53, 54, and 55 for three types of display speakers 1, showing output data 53 of a display speaker 1 without a vibration weight 4, output data 54 of a display speaker 1 coupled with a vibration weight 4, and output data 55 of a display speaker 1 coupled with a vibration weight 4 that is heavier than data 54.

As can be seen from graph 5, data 53 of the display speaker 1 without the vibration weight 4 does not provide any output in the frequency range below 500 Hz (56). Also, for the output at the frequency of 500 Hz (56), data 53 provides an output of about 10, whereas data 54 and 55 of the display speaker 1 to which the vibration weight 4 is connected provide an output of 50 or more. Furthermore, data 54 and 55 provide an output even at the even lower frequency of 200 Hz (57). From these results, it can be seen that by connecting the vibration weight 4, it is possible to clearly improve the sound output of the display speaker 1 so that it becomes louder.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram showing the overall configuration of such a display speaker 1. Here, the display speaker 1 has vibrators 32, 33, and 34 with vibration weights 4 surface-bonded at three locations across the display panel 2. A stereo L signal (left sound source) 61 and an R signal (right sound source) 62 are input as electrical input signals to the display speaker 1. The L signal 61 and the R signal 62 are each separated into two input systems for filtering with a high-pass filter (HPF) and a low-pass filter (LPF).

Here, the signal 63 that has passed through the high-pass filter (HPF) of the L signal 61 is applied to the vibrator 32 located to the left of the display panel 2, and the signal 64 that has passed through the high-pass filter (HPF) of the R signal 62 is applied to the vibrator 34 located to the right of the display panel 2. The signal 65 that has passed through the low-pass filter (LPF) of the L signal 61 and the signal 66 that has passed through the low-pass filter (LPF) of the R signal 62 are mixed in a mixer 67, and the output 68 is applied to the vibrator 33 located in the center of the display panel 2. With this configuration, left and right stereo sound is realized by the vibration of the vibrators 32 and 34, and low-frequency sounds are output from the vibrator 33 located in the center of the display panel, realizing the function of a low-frequency speaker woofer.

As described above, in this embodiment, the vibrator 3 is surface-bonded to the display panel 2, and the vibration weight 4 is coupled to the vibrator 3, so that the physical vibration of the vibrator 3 can be efficiently transmitted to the display panel 2 by applying a reaction force to the vibration weight 4. In other words, the simple configuration of coupling the vibration weight 4 to the vibrator 3 makes effective use of the function of the display panel 2 as a diaphragm, and realizes a display speaker that can output sufficiently even in the low-frequency range.

In this embodiment, the transducers 3 are provided at three locations on the surface of the display panel 2, but this is not limited thereto, and any number of transducers may be provided on the surface of the display panel 2, taking into consideration the output characteristics. In this case, filtering of the band of sound applied to each transducer 3 and gain adjustment (not shown) may be configured as desired.

Second Embodiment
FIG. 4 shows a plan sectional view of a main part of a display speaker according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
The display speaker 10 according to this embodiment includes a display panel 2, a vibrator 3, and a plurality of vibration weights 4. This embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that a plurality of vibration weights 4 are coupled to the rear surface 31 of the vibrator 3, instead of one vibration weight 4. In this embodiment, a vibration weight 4 of an optimal weight can be coupled to an optimal position while taking into consideration the characteristics of the display speaker 10. For example, a heavy vibration weight 4 is coupled to the center portion of the vibrator 3 where the vibration force is strong in order to increase the reaction force, and a vibration weight 4 that is lighter than the center is coupled to the peripheral portion where the vibration force is weaker. Therefore, in addition to the action and effect of the first embodiment, the vibration weight 4 can be used to adjust the characteristics of the display speaker 10 in more detail.

Third Embodiment
FIG. 5 shows a plan sectional view of a main part of a display speaker according to a third embodiment of the present invention.
The display speaker 11 according to this embodiment includes a display panel 2, a vibrator 3, a bonding member 6, and a vibration weight 4. A part of the vibrator 3 is bonded to the display panel 2 via the bonding member 6, and the vibration weight 4 is coupled to the vibrator. As shown in Fig. 5, in this embodiment, the vibrator 3 is bonded near the center of the vibrator 3 to the display panel 2 via the bonding member 6, and the vibration weight 4 is coupled to the vicinity of the periphery of the vibrator 3. The vibrator 3 according to this embodiment is a thin plate having a rectangular planar shape, and warps mainly along the longitudinal direction of the rectangle when an electric signal is applied.

In this embodiment, a portion of the vibrator 3 near its center is joined to the display panel 2 via a joining member 6, and the vibration weight 4 is connected near the longitudinal end of the vibrator 3, so in addition to the effects and advantages of the first embodiment, the vibration of the vibrator 3 can be transmitted to the display panel 2 more efficiently.

Fourth Embodiment
FIG. 6 shows a plan sectional view of a main part of a display speaker according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.
The display speaker 12 according to this embodiment includes a display panel 2, a vibrator 3, a pressure support structure 71 located at a distance from the rear surface of the display panel 2, and a pressing member 72, the vibrator 3 being surface-bonded to the display panel 2, and the pressing member 72 being coupled between the pressure support structure 71 and the vibrator 3. The vibrator 3 according to this embodiment is one in which a change in thickness occurs mainly in response to the application of an electrical signal, similar to the vibrators 3 according to the first and second embodiments.

The pressing support structure 71 and the pressing member 72 constitute a pressing mechanism 7. The pressing support structure 71 is formed of a rigid surface provided at a distance from the rear surface of the display panel 2, and the pressing member 72 is formed of an elastic member. In this embodiment, the pressing mechanism 7 applies a force to press the vibrator 3 against the display panel 2, and is configured to obtain the same effect as the vibration weight 4 of the first embodiment. Since the pressing mechanism 7 is thus adopted, in this embodiment, in addition to the action and effect of the first embodiment, it is not necessary to use the weight of the vibration weight 4 of the first embodiment, and the display speaker 12 can be made lighter.
In this embodiment, the pressing support structure 71 is formed by a rigid surface, but is not limited thereto, and may be any structure capable of applying a pressing force to the vibrator 3 by the pressing member 72. For example, it may be formed by a lattice-shaped frame.

Fifth Embodiment
FIG. 7 shows an enlarged cross-sectional view of a display speaker according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.
The display speaker 13 of this embodiment comprises a display panel 2, a vibrator 3, a pressure support structure 71 positioned at a distance from the rear surface of the display panel 2, and a pressing member 72, where the vibrator 3 is surface-bonded to the display panel 2, and the pressing member 72 is coupled between the pressure support structure 71 and the vibrator 3.

The pressing support structure 71 and the pressing member 72 constitute the pressing mechanism 7. This embodiment differs from the fourth embodiment in that, instead of one pressing member 72, multiple pressing members 72 are connected between the pressing support structure 71 and the vibrator 3. In this embodiment, multiple pressing members 72 can be connected to the optimal position with optimal elasticity while taking into account the characteristics of the display speaker 13. For example, in the central part of the vibrator 3 where the vibration force is strong, a pressing member 722 with high elasticity is connected to increase the pressing force, and in the peripheral part where the vibration force is weak, a pressing member 721 with weaker elasticity than the center is connected. Therefore, in addition to the action and effect of the fourth embodiment, the pressing member 72 can be used to adjust the characteristics of the display speaker 13 in even more detail.

Sixth Embodiment
FIG. 8 shows a plan sectional view of a main part of a display speaker according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.
The display speaker 14 according to this embodiment includes a display panel 2, a vibrator 3, a bonding member 6, a pressing support structure 71 located away from the rear surface of the display panel 2, and a pressing member 72. A part of the vibrator 3 is bonded to the display panel 2 via the bonding member 6, and the pressing member 72 is coupled between the pressing support structure 71 and the vibrator 3. The vibrator 3 according to this embodiment is a thin plate having a rectangular planar shape, and warps mainly along the longitudinal direction of the rectangular shape when an electric signal is applied, as in the vibrator 3 according to the third embodiment. As shown in FIG. 8, in this embodiment, the vibrator 3 is bonded near the center of the vibrator 3 to the display panel 2 via the bonding member 6, and the pressing member 72 is coupled to the periphery of the vibrator 3. The pressing support structure 71 and the pressing support member 72 form a pressing mechanism 7, and apply a pressing force to press the vibrator 3 against the display panel 2 via the bonding member 6.

In this embodiment, a portion of the vibrator 3 near its center is joined to the display panel 2 via the joining member 6, and the pressing member 72 is coupled to the vibrator 3 near its longitudinal end, so that in addition to the effects and advantages of the fourth embodiment, the vibration of the vibrator 3 can be transmitted to the display panel 2 more efficiently.

In the above-described embodiment, a piezoelectric element is used as the vibrator, but the present invention is not limited to this, and any element that can vibrate the display panel can be used in the present invention. For example, the present invention can be implemented by using a dielectric elastomer, an electro-responsive polymer gel, an ion-conductive polymer gel, or the like.
As the display panel, a liquid crystal panel, an OLED (organic LED) panel, or the like can be used.

1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 Display speaker 2 Display panel 3 Vibrator 4 Vibration weight 6 Joint member 71 Pressing support structure 72, 721, 722 Pressing member

Claims (9)

A display panel;
A vibrator;
a pressure support structure separated from a rear surface of the display panel;
a plurality of pressing members between the pressing support structure and the vibrator ;
The plurality of pressing members have different elastic forces,
A speaker , wherein the elastic force of a pressing member coupled near the center of the vibrator is stronger than the elastic force of a pressing member coupled near the periphery of the vibrator . The speaker of claim 1, wherein the vibrator is surface-bonded to the display panel. The speaker of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pressure members are coupled between the pressure support structure and the vibrator. The speaker of claim 1, wherein the pressure support structure is composed of a rigid surface. The speaker of claim 1, wherein the pressure support structure is composed of a lattice-shaped frame. The speaker of claim 1, wherein the multiple pressing members are made of elastic material. The speaker of claim 1, wherein the vibrator is a piezoelectric element. The speaker of claim 1, in which the vibration force near the center of the vibrator is stronger than the vibration force near the periphery of the vibrator. 9. A speaker according to claim 1 , wherein the display panel is an OLED panel.

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