KR100894250B1 - Capacitive Input and Display Device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a capacitive input / display device which is particularly suitable for use as an input and display device of various portable terminals such as mobile phones. The input / display device 1 according to the present invention comprises: a display module 10 in which predetermined input contents are displayed; The first electrode plate 21 disposed along the outer edge of the upper surface of the display module 10 and the elastic layer 22 stacked on the first electrode plates 21 and having a variable thickness so as to be elastically restored by pressure. ), And a second electrode plate 23 stacked on the elastic layer 22 at a distance d corresponding to the thickness of the elastic layer 22, wherein the first electrode plate 21 and the second electrode plate 23 are disposed on the elastic layer 22. At least one of the electrode plates 23 includes an input module 20 including a plurality of electrode plates; And a window 30 stacked on the upper surface of the input module 20. And a capacitance according to a change of the distances d generated at overlapping positions of the first electrode plate 21 and the second electrode plate 23 by an external pressure applied to the window 30. Different input signals are generated from the differences in the patterns of the changes.

Description

Capacitive Input and Display Device

1 is a block diagram of a portable terminal to which an input / display device according to the present invention is applied;

2 is a conceptual diagram of an input / display device according to the present invention;

3 is a layered exploded view of an exemplary input / display device according to the present invention;

4 is a stacked sectional view of an exemplary input / display device according to the present invention;

5 is an operation diagram of an exemplary input / display device according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

1: Input / display device of the present invention

2: portable terminal

3: CPU

4. Input contents

10: display module

20: input module

21, 21a: first electrode plate

22: elastic layer

23: second pole plate

30: Windows

(Technology)

The present invention relates to an input / display device, and more particularly, to a capacitive input / display device particularly suitable for use as an input and display device of various portable terminals such as mobile phones.

(Background)

Various portable terminals such as mobile phones, MP3, PDAs, PMPs, portable game consoles, and DMB receivers are equipped with input devices for inputting predetermined operations and data, and the menus mounted on these portable terminals are diversified and functions are integrated. As a result, the operation of the input device is more diversified and the number of operations is increased by that much.

Dome switches have been widely used for keypads used as input devices for portable terminals, but capacitive input devices have been introduced instead of dome switches, especially in slim models. Various applications have been provided while providing a desirable environment.

As is widely known, the capacitive input device applied to a portable terminal is configured to apply a voltage to these pole plates by arranging a plurality of pole plates (active plates, for example, copper plates) corresponding to the input keys at regular intervals on the substrate. When the human hand is in contact with the pole plate (i.e., the sensing point for detecting the touch of the hand), it detects the parasitic capacitance according to the dielectric constant between the hand and the pole plate to determine which pole plate is selected, and determines the input signal. It is operated in such a way that the input corresponding to the corresponding input signal is executed by transmitting to the CPU of the portable terminal.

With the trend toward miniaturization of portable terminals, the button spacing of keypads becomes narrower, and as a result, an increase in the possibility of malfunction, such as undesired operation of other adjacent buttons when operating buttons, increases the capacitance as an input device of the portable terminal. With the provision of an input device, the problem of malfunction due to the miniaturization of a portable terminal has been alleviated.

However, the conventional capacitive input device applied to the portable terminal can only determine which electrode (electrode) the hand is in contact with, and each of the electrode plates inputs only a single operation. The capacitive input device only has the function of inputting the operation of moving the position of the selection menu, and the input of the required operation of the moved menu has a dual structure using a conventional dome switch, and thus the dome switch type input. It was not completely beyond the limits of the device.

In order to solve the problems of the conventional capacitive input devices as described above, the 'input device of a portable electronic device' of Korean Patent Registration No. 661,000 (registered Dec. 18, 2006) owned by the present inventors has been proposed. The input device of heading 661,000 does not detect the parasitic capacitance generated by contacting a conductor such as a hand with a pole plate to generate an input signal, but various input signals from the change in capacitance generated differently according to the magnitude of the contact pressure. It is an input device that adopts a structure that can be used to create a digital device. This enables various and sophisticated types of operation to be input without malfunction.

On the other hand, a number of devices incorporating an input device and a display device have been widely proposed, for example, "Touch panel integrated with a flat panel display" of Republic of Korea Patent No. 10-0493921 (2005. 06. 10. registration announcement), An electro-optical display device integrated with a touch panel of Korean Patent No. 10-0487355, and Korean Patent Publication No. 2001-0091312 (display assembly integrated with a touch panel).

These conventional input / display integrators are based on a structure in which input devices (touch pads, touch screens, etc.) are stacked on the entire upper surface of a display device (display), although a transparent material is used as a material of the input device. However, since the input device covers the entire surface of the display device, the light transmittance from the display device is reduced so that the amount of light from the display device can only be reduced by the input device stacked thereon. The problem is that the sharpness is lowered.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to improve the problems of the conventional input / display integrated device as described above, and although the input device (module) is stacked on the display device (module), the sharpness of the display content of the display device ( Transmissivity) is not affected by the input device at all, so that the input device is clearly displayed to the same extent as the input device is not stacked on the display device, and the manufacturing process is simple and suitable for application to a portable terminal which can reduce the manufacturing cost. It is to provide an input / display device.

According to the present invention there is provided a capacitive input / display device suitable for application to a portable terminal.

A capacitive input / display device according to the present invention comprises: a display module for displaying predetermined input contents; A first electrode plate disposed along an outer edge of the upper surface of the display module, an elastic layer stacked on the first electrode plates and having a variable thickness to be elastically restored by pressure, and a distance corresponding to a thickness of the elastic layer An input module including a second electrode plate laminated on the elastic layer, wherein at least one of the first electrode plate and the second electrode plate comprises a plurality of electrode plates; And windows stacked on an upper surface of the input module. It includes.

The capacitive input / display device of the present invention is characterized by the pattern of capacitance changes according to the change of the distances generated at overlapping positions of the first pole plate and the second pole plate by an external pressure applied to the window. Generate different input signals from the differences.

Preferably, the first electrode plate is composed of a plurality of electrode plates, and the second electrode plate is a single electrode plate covering the entirety of the first electrode plates or a plurality of electrode plates divided into two or more plates.

Hereinafter, a capacitive input / display device according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following embodiments are merely illustrative of the capacitive input / display device according to the present invention, but are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the capacitive input / display device 1 according to the present invention can be used in various portable terminals 2 such as, for example, a mobile phone, MP3, PDA, PMP, portable game machine, DMB receiver, and the like. An input / display device suitable for use in inputting data or operations and displaying display contents, for example, displaying predetermined contents by a program that is connected to the CPU 3 of the portable terminal 2 and mounted on board. To act as input. The configuration regarding the circuit connection itself between the input / display device 1 and the portable terminal 2 of the present invention is not directly related to the features of the present invention, and the related related art can be referred to, and thus the detailed description thereof is omitted. .

As shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, the input / display device 1 according to the present invention, like the conventional input / display device, has the input module 20 and the window 30 sequentially on the display module 10. It is a laminated structure.

The display module 10 applied to the present invention is a conventional display module 10 suitable for application to various portable terminals such as mobile phones. For example, an LCD or the like widely used as a display means of a portable terminal may be used. Applicable accordingly.

The display module 10 displays various contents related to the use of the portable terminal, including the input contents input by the input module 20, so that the input contents of the input module 20 are displayed on the display module 10. The configuration may be suitably applied to the applications and functions of the device 1 of the present invention, which are widely applied to a known touch screen, which is a typical input / display device.

The specific configuration of the display module 10 itself and the interaction between the display module 10 and the input module 20 are not directly related to the present invention and may refer to related related arts, and thus the detailed description thereof will be omitted. .

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the input module 20 applied to the input / display device 1 of the present invention includes a first pole plate 21, an elastic layer 22, and a second pole plate 23. It consists of a structure containing, and at least one pole plate of the 1st pole plate 21 and the 2nd pole plate 23 consists of several pole plates. The first pole plate 21 and the second pole plate 23 are connected to the controller through a matrix circuit (not shown), and the controller generates an input signal in accordance with the loaded program, so that the terminal equipped with the apparatus 1 of the present invention ( Transfer to CPU 3 of 2).

The first pole plate 21 is a one-side electrode plate applied to a conventional capacitive input device, and is formed of a conductive material such as a copper plate.

According to a feature of the present invention, at least one of the first electrode plate 21 and the second electrode plate 23 is composed of a plurality of electrode plates, in the illustrated embodiment and the following description, the first electrode plate 21 is necessarily It is assumed that a plurality of pole plates and the second pole plate 23 is a plurality of or a single pole plate, but on the contrary, the second pole plate 23 necessarily consists of a plurality of pole plates, and the first pole plate 21 is a plurality or a single pole plate. Of course, even if the pole plate of the present invention should be understood to fall within the scope of the invention.

According to another feature of the present invention, the first electrode plate 21 is not stacked to cover the entire upper surface of the display module 10, but is stacked along the outer edge of the display module 10.

In the input / display device 1 of the present invention, the first pole plate 21 constituting the input module 20, and the elastic layer 22 and the second pole plate 23, which will be described later, are displayed as shown in the related art. The stacking arrangement of only the edges of the display module 10 without the stacking arrangement on the entire upper surface of the display panel 10 is performed by stacking the input module 20 on the entire upper surface of the display module 10. This is to prevent the sharpness of the display contents from deteriorating. The operation of inputting predetermined input contents displayed on the display module 10 will be described later in the same manner as the input module 20 is disposed only on the entire surface of the display module 10 while being disposed only on the edge of the display module 10.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example in which a total of 16 first pole plates 21 (four on each side) are stacked in a rectangular shape around a periphery of the display module 10 illustrated in a quadrangular shape. The shape, size, number of the 21 and the distance between the adjacent first pole plate 21 and the first pole plate 21 and the arrangement method thereof may be used to block the display contents displayed on the display module 10 (the input module may be Since it may be formed of a transparent material, it is not completely blocked, but covers the top surface of the display module and covers the top surface of the display module. The size of the space to be used, the type of input operation required for the apparatus 1 of the present invention, and the sensitivity of the input operation can be appropriately selected.

The elastic layer 22 is laminated on the upper surface of the first electrode plate 21 with a predetermined thickness (d: distance) over the entire first electrode plates 21, so that the elastic layer 22 also has the display module 10. It is not disposed on the entire upper surface of the upper surface of the first electrode plate 21 is laminated only on the upper side of the first electrode plate 21 is disposed.

The elastic layer 22 is present between the two pole plates 21 and 23 to act as a kind of dielectric, and the thickness d is resiliently and elastically variable according to the magnitude of the external pressure applied to the first pole plate 21 and the first pole plate 21. By varying the distance d between the two pole plates 23, the capacitances of the sensing points corresponding to the overlapping positions of the first pole plate 21 and the second pole plate 23 have different sizes depending on the amount of pressure pressed. It acts to change.

As the elastic layer 22, a TPE suitable for the present invention can be selected and used among well-known thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) such as polyolefins, PVCs, polystyrenes, polyesters, polyurethanes, and polyamides. have.

The second electrode plate 23 is formed of a conductive material represented by a copper plate, such as the first electrode plate 21, and as described above, a predetermined distance (above the upper side of the first electrode plate 21 with the elastic layer 22 therebetween ( d) stacked by spaced apart. As a result, the second electrode plate 23 is not disposed on the entire upper surface of the display module 10 like the first electrode plate 21 and the elastic layer 22, but is laminated only on the edge of the elastic layer 22.

In the illustrated embodiment, the first pole plate 21 consists of a plurality of pole plates, while the second pole plate 23 is a single, covering the entire surface of the first pole plate 21, as shown in FIG. 3. It may be formed as a pole plate, may be divided into two or more pieces, and may be formed in the same number as the 1st pole plate 21 by the same number. These pole plates 21 and 23 are connected to a matrix circuit formed according to the number of pole plates.

As the plurality of first electrode plates 21 and the second electrode plates 23 are stacked with the elastic layer 22 interposed therebetween, the second electrode plates 23 may have a distance corresponding to the thickness of the elastic layer 22. d) spaced apart from the first pole plates 21, and the overlapping points of both pole plates 21 and 23 are positions where both the first pole plate 21 and the second pole plate 23 are located. The overlapping points form a sensing point that causes a change in capacitance due to external pressure.

The window 30 is a transparent plate-shaped member covering the entire upper surface of the input module 20, and serves to protect the display module 10 and the input module 20 and directly apply pressure applied from the outside. Receives and acts to deliver to the input module (20).

In describing the input / display device 1 of the present invention, the window 30 is described as having a configuration equivalent to that of the display module 10 and the input module 20, but the window 30 is referred to as the input module 20. It can also be understood that the element included in the input module 20 stacked on the upper side of the second pole plate 23.

According to the characteristic configuration of the input / display device 1 according to the present invention described above, when an external force is applied to a specific position of the window 30 and the specific position of the input module 20 is pressed, below the pressed position At the existing sensing points, the distance d between the first electrode plate 21 and the second electrode plate 23 as the second electrode plate 23 and the elastic layer 22 are pressed to contract the elastic layer 22. Is variable (reduced), and as each of these distances (d) changes, at the sensing point, the formula C = μA / d (where C is the capacitance, μ is the dielectric constant, A is the area, and d is the pole plate Change in capacitance occurs, and the amount of change in capacitance varies depending on the magnitude of the pressing pressure. After the pressing force is removed, the elastic layer 22 and the second electrode plate 23 are returned to their original positions by the elasticity of the elastic layer 22.

Hereinafter, referring to Fig. 5, the operation of inputting specific input contents by the input / display device 1 of the present invention will be described. For convenience, the display module 10 of the device 1 of the present invention displays an input content 4 such as a number 0-9, *, #, up, down, left and right movement, SAND, END, etc. It is assumed that the operation of entering one of them is performed.

In the illustrated embodiment, when the '#' is to be pressed, the window 30 is pressed, but when the window 30 is pressed at the position where the '#' is displayed, the input module 20 located below the window 30 is pressed. Is applied to the first pole plate 21a closest to the '#' among the plurality of first pole plates 21 to which the first pole plate 21a closest to the '#' belongs. As the distance d at the point is shortest, the capacitance change is greatest, and as the distance from the first pole plate 21a closest to the '#' becomes smaller, the applied pressure decreases, so that the change amount of the distance d becomes smaller. Gradually, the pattern of the capacitance change becomes smaller. These patterns of capacitance change appear differently depending on where the pressured window 30 is located.

Thus, in the above manner, the capacitance change patterns of all sensing points with respect to the external pressure of the numerous points on the window 30 are measured in advance and shaped, and the standardized reference patterns and predetermined patterns corresponding to these reference patterns are obtained. In order to store the inputs in the input / display device 1 of the present invention or the terminal 2 in which the device 1 of the present invention is mounted, and to actually input predetermined inputs into the device 1 of the present invention. Comparing the measured pattern of the measured capacitance change when the specific point of the window 30 is pressed with the reference patterns, it is possible to determine which input content is the actual input operation (pressure). do.

As a result, the input / display device 1 of the present invention has only a structure in which the input module 20 is disposed only on the edge of the display module 10, not on the entire upper surface of the display module 10. Similar to the arrangement on the surface, it is possible to determine which position is pressed in the entire surface of the window 30 and input the corresponding input content 4.

At this time, the conventional capacitive input device can detect the parasitic capacitance by touching a conductor such as a hand, but the input module 20 applied to the input / display device 1 of the present invention is the distance d. If it is possible to apply a pressure that can be changed.

In applying the input / display device 1 of the present invention to a portable terminal or the like, only one set of input contents can be input through the input module 20 and the display module 10 has only one set corresponding thereto. Although the input contents may be displayed, the input module 20 and the display module 10 may selectively input and display two or more sets of input contents as necessary.

For example, when the mobile phone 2 to which the input / display device 1 of the present invention is applied is used for a telephone call or the like, as shown in Fig. 5, the numbers 0-9 and the like can be displayed and inputted. When playing a game on the mobile phone 2, it is possible to display and input other input contents required for the game.

Thus, inputting and displaying two or more sets of input contents with the input / display device 1 of the present invention requires the associated circuits of the display module 10, the input module 20, and the portable terminal 2. It is possible to freely realize by building according to the configuration and mounting the necessary program, thereby minimizing the space occupied by the portable terminal 2 of the input / display device 1 of the present invention.

Since the input / display device according to the present invention described above has a structure in which the input modules are not stacked on the entire upper surface of the display module but stacked only on the edge of the display module, most of the contents displayed on the display module are stored in the input module. Since it is not blocked by the input / display device, the sharpness of the content displayed on the display module can be prevented from being lowered by the input module. Also, since the structure of the input module is very hard, the manufacturing cost of the input / display device can be prevented. It is possible to reduce the cost, and also has a desirable effect in the design of a portable terminal in pursuit of miniaturization.

Claims (2)

A display module 10 for displaying a predetermined input content; The first electrode plate 21 disposed along the outer edge of the upper surface of the display module 10 and the elastic layer 22 stacked on the first electrode plates 21 and having a variable thickness so as to be elastically restored by pressure. ), And a second electrode plate 23 stacked on the elastic layer 22 at a distance d corresponding to the thickness of the elastic layer 22, wherein the first electrode plate 21 and the second electrode plate 23 are disposed on the elastic layer 22. At least one of the electrode plates 23 includes an input module 20 including a plurality of electrode plates; And A window 30 stacked on an upper surface of the input module 20; Including: Of patterns of capacitance changes according to the change of the distances d generated at overlapping positions of the first pole plate 21 and the second pole plate 23 by an external pressure applied to the window 30. A capacitive input / display device, characterized in that generating different input signals from the differences. The method of claim 1, wherein the first pole plate 21 is composed of a plurality of pole plates, the second pole plate 23 is divided into a single pole plate or two or more covering the whole of the first pole plate 21. A capacitive input / display device, characterized in that it comprises a plurality of pole plates.

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