| 摘要 |
This invention encompasses a method for the manufacture and rapid assembly of large screen fiber optic displays (1, 2) containing a very large number of individual fibers (thousands to hundreds of thousands, or more). The display surface is modularized into relatively small, thin, interchangeable, injection-molded square or rectangular tiles (3) to simplify manufacture and assembly. The hundreds of fibers (7) required for each tile (3) are machine-configured into a plurality of flat, flexible fiber optic ribbon cables (4), each cable (4) comprised of a planar geometric array of optical fibers (7) embedded in a thin adhesive matrix (8). The image emission end of each flat, flexible fiber optic cable (4) is a fiber manifold (20) joined to an injection-molded thermoplastic array of light guides (11), each fiber terminating in a single light guide or emitter (12). The fiber optic manifold (20) fits into a positioning slot molded into the light guide array (11), such that each optical fiber (7) in the manifold (20) is directed into a corresponding light guide (12). The support substrate for the manifold (20) is affixed to the light guide array (11) by "staking," that is, periodic, controlled, local deformation of the light guide array (11) to lock the manifold (20) into the positioning slot. The image reception ends of the plurality of cables (4) serving each display tile (3) are gathered into ordered arrays (5) to form an input matrix (13) for presentation of the display image. In one embodiment the flat, flexible fiber optic ribbon cables (4) which interconnect the input matrix (13) with the display tiles (3) join directly to the fiber manifolds (20) at the display (1, 2), while in a second embodiment the ribbon cables (4) are connected to the fiber manifolds (20) through fiber optic connectors (6), thus further simplifying assembly of the display (1, 2). The injection-molded light guide arrays (11) attach to the display tiles (3) in a simple and straightforward manner, for example, by a mechanical deformation ("snap-in") mechanism, fast-cure epoxy or other adhesive, or a combination of the two. |
