TWM445219U - Touch panel - Google Patents

Abstract

? The present invention is directed to a touch panel. The touch panel includes an optical layer disposed on a bottom surface of at least one peripheral edge of a transparent substrate. A light shielding layer is disposed on at least a portion of a bottom surface of the optical layer. A touch sensing layer is disposed below the transparent substrate and the light shielding layer.

Description

Touch panel

The present invention relates to a touch panel, and more particularly to a touch panel having a highly adhesive optical layer.

The touch display is an input/output device formed by combining sensing technology and display technology, and is commonly used in electronic devices, such as portable and handheld electronic devices.

A capacitive touch panel is a commonly used touch panel that utilizes a capacitive coupling effect to detect a touch position. When the finger touches the surface of the capacitive touch panel, the capacitance of the corresponding position is changed, and the touch position is detected.

The first A and the first B respectively show a top view and a cross-sectional view of a conventional touch panel. A black matrix (BM) 12 is disposed around the lower surface of the glass substrate 11, and a touch sensing layer 13 is provided on the lower surfaces of the glass substrate 11 and the black matrix 12. The touch sensing layer 13 includes a sensing portion 131 and a routing portion 132. The sensing portion 131 is not covered by the black matrix 12, and the routing portion 132 is located directly below the black matrix 12. The black matrix 12 or the sensing portion 131 defines an active area or a touchable range 14. However, since the adhesion between the black matrix 12 and the glass substrate 11 is weak, the peeling of the black matrix 12 is liable to occur. Moreover, since the touch sensing layer 13 is thin, the peripheral region 15 of the sensing portion 131 (that is, the region between the touchable range 14 and the range 16) may be broken.

In view of the fact that the black matrix 12 of the conventional touch panel may fall off, it is necessary to propose a novel touch panel to improve the shortcomings of the conventional touch panel.

In view of the above, the present invention provides a touch panel that uses a highly adhesive optical layer to improve the peeling off of the light shielding layer of the touch panel, and uses a beveled light shielding layer to improve the touch range of the touch panel. .

According to the present invention, the touch panel includes a transparent substrate, an optical layer, a light shielding layer, and a touch sensing layer. The optical layer is disposed on at least one periphery of a lower surface of the transparent substrate. The light shielding layer is disposed on at least a portion of the lower surface of the optical layer. The touch sensing layer is disposed under the transparent substrate and the light shielding layer.

2A and 2B show top and cross-sectional views, respectively, of the touch panel of the first embodiment of the present invention. For ease of explanation, the drawings only show the elements associated with the present embodiment.

As shown in the second A/B diagram, a transparent substrate 21 is first provided, which is made of a high transmittance insulating material such as glass, polycarbonate (PC), polyethylene terephthalate (Polycarbonate, PC). Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) or Cyclic olefin copolymer (COC).

An optical layer 22 is provided on at least one periphery of the lower surface of the transparent substrate 21. The optical layer 22 of this embodiment is transparent and has a high refractive index, such as greater than 1.5. The material of the optical layer 22 of this embodiment may be a light transmissive organic material such as a photoresist or a light transmissive inorganic material such as a cerium oxide (for example, cerium oxide) or a metal oxide. There are various methods of forming the optical layer 22, such as physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, coating, printing, or spinning. In this specification, the orientation is directed to the touch surface of the touch panel, and the orientation is opposite to the direction of the touch surface.

A light shielding layer 23 is provided on the lower surface of the optical layer 22. The light shielding layer 23 of the present embodiment may be a general black matrix (BM), but is not limited thereto, and may be any conductive or non-conductive material having a light shielding function. According to one of the features of the present embodiment, the adhesion of the light shielding layer 23 to the optical layer 22 is greater than the adhesion of the light shielding layer 23 to the transparent substrate 21, and thus the light shielding layer 23 is not easily peeled off.

According to another feature of this embodiment, the light shielding layer 23 has an inclined side surface (abbreviated as a slope). In one embodiment, the slope of the light shielding layer 23 and the bottom surface of the transparent substrate 21 have an angle A which is less than 50 degrees. As will be described later in the specification, the slope of the light shielding layer 23 will increase the touch range of the touch panel of the present embodiment from the original active area 24B to the enlarged active area 24A.

As shown in FIG. 2B, the lower surface of the light shielding layer 23 and the transparent substrate 21 is provided with a touch sensing layer 25, which may be made of a transparent conductive material (such as indium tin oxide (ITO) or indium zinc oxide (IZO)). However, it is not limited to this. In the schematic diagram shown in FIG. 2B, only one layer of the touch sensing layer 25 is displayed, however it may comprise a plurality of sub-layers, which may use a single-sided single layer, a single-sided multilayer, or a double-sided multilayer. The touch sensing layer 25 includes a sensing portion 251 and a routing portion 252. The boundary between the sensing portion 251 and the wiring portion 252 is located below the non-slope surface of the light shielding layer 23 . Thereby, the sensing portion 251 defines the enlarged active area or the enlarged touchable range 24A of the present embodiment. Compared with the conventional touch panel (for example, the first A/B diagram), the black matrix 12 has steep sides, and the light shielding layer 23 of the embodiment has a slope, so that the vicinity of the slope (ie, the active area is enlarged) In the region between the 24A and the original active region 24B, the sensing portion 251 does not have a disconnection situation and increases the touchable range of the touch panel.

As shown in the second A/B, the touch panel of the present embodiment may further include an anti-reflection layer 26 disposed on the upper surface of the transparent substrate 21 to reduce reflection of light and prevent the transparent substrate 21 from being contaminated. . In addition, the touch panel of the present embodiment may further include an overcoating layer 27 disposed on the lower surface of the touch sensing layer 25 for protecting the touch sensing layer 25 . The touch panel described above can be used alone in an electronic device, or can be further combined with a display panel (not shown) to form a touch display.

The third figure shows a cross-sectional view of the touch panel of the second embodiment of the present invention, the upper view of which is similar to that shown in the second A, and thus omitted. The embodiment is similar to the first embodiment (second B). The difference is that the optical layer 22A of the embodiment covers the lower surface of the transparent substrate 21, and the touch sensing layer 25 covers the light shielding layer 23. And the lower surface of the optical layer 22A. Compared with the first embodiment (second A/B diagram), the optical layer 22A having a high refractive index is directly or indirectly disposed above the touch sensing layer 25, so that it is located in the touch sensing layer. The touch electrodes of 25 or the gaps between adjacent touch electrodes have little difference in the reflected light when viewed from above when the touch panel is viewed from above (that is, the reflectance is substantially the same), thereby improving the optics of the touch panel. characteristic.

The fourth figure shows a cross-sectional view of the touch panel of the third embodiment of the present invention, the upper view of which is similar to that shown in the second A, and thus omitted. This embodiment is similar to the second embodiment (third figure), except that the first optical layer 22B is disposed between the transparent substrate 21 and the light shielding layer 23, and the light shielding layer 23 and the first layer are disposed. The lower surface of the optical layer 22B is provided with a second optical layer 22C.

The above description is only for the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the patent application; any equivalent changes or modifications made without departing from the spirit of the present invention should be included in the following. Within the scope of the patent application.

11‧‧‧ glass substrate
12‧‧‧Black matrix
131‧‧‧Induction Department
132‧‧‧Drop department
13‧‧‧Touch sensing layer
14‧‧‧active area
15‧‧‧The peripheral area of the sensory department
16‧‧‧Scope
21‧‧‧Transparent substrate
22‧‧‧Optical layer
22A‧‧‧Optical layer
22B‧‧‧First optical layer
22C‧‧‧Second optical layer
23‧‧‧Lighting layer
24A‧‧‧Expanding the active area
24B‧‧‧original active area
25‧‧‧ touch sensing layer
251‧‧‧Induction Department
252‧‧‧Drop department
26‧‧‧Anti-reflective layer
27‧‧‧ Coverage
A‧‧‧ angle

The first A and the first B respectively show a top view and a cross-sectional view of a conventional touch panel.
2A and 2B show top and cross-sectional views, respectively, of the touch panel of the first embodiment of the present invention.
The third figure shows a cross-sectional view of the touch panel of the second embodiment of the present invention.
The fourth figure shows a cross-sectional view of the touch panel of the third embodiment of the present invention.

21‧‧‧Transparent substrate

22‧‧‧Optical layer

23‧‧‧Lighting layer

25‧‧‧ touch sensing layer

251‧‧‧Induction Department

252‧‧‧Drop department

26‧‧‧Anti-reflective layer

27‧‧‧ Coverage

A‧‧‧ angle

Claims (14)

A touch panel comprising:
a transparent substrate;
An optical layer disposed on at least one periphery of a lower surface of the transparent substrate;
a light shielding layer disposed on at least a portion of the lower surface of the optical layer; and a touch sensing layer disposed under the transparent substrate and the light shielding layer. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the adhesion of the light shielding layer to the optical layer is greater than the adhesion of the light shielding layer to the transparent substrate. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the transparent substrate is made of a light transmissive insulating material, such as glass, polycarbonate (PC), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). ), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) or cyclic olefin copolymer (COC). The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the light shielding layer comprises a black matrix (BM). The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the light shielding layer has a slope. The touch panel of claim 5, wherein the slope of the light shielding layer and the bottom surface of the transparent substrate have an angle of less than 50 degrees. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the optical layer has a refractive index greater than 1.5. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the optical layer is made of tantalum oxide. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the optical layer is entirely disposed on a lower surface of the transparent substrate. The touch panel of claim 9, further comprising a second optical layer disposed on the optical layer and a lower surface of the light shielding layer. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the touch sensing layer is made of a transparent conductive material. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the touch sensing layer comprises a sensing portion and a routing portion, wherein a boundary between the sensing portion and the routing portion is located on a non-beveled surface of the shielding layer Below. The touch panel of claim 1, further comprising an anti-reflection layer disposed above the transparent substrate. The touch panel of claim 1, further comprising a cover layer disposed on a lower surface of the touch sensing layer.