Disclosure of Invention
In order to solve the above technical problems, the present invention provides a touch panel and a method for manufacturing the same.
The technical scheme for solving the technical problem is as follows: provided is a touch panel including:
the substrate comprises a first area and a second area, and the second area of the substrate is provided with a recess;
a layer of nanowire metal layers at least covering the recess;
a protective layer disposed on the nanowire layer; and the number of the first and second groups,
and the wiring layer is arranged on the protective layer and is electrically connected with the nano metal wire layer.
Preferably, the protective layer is doped with a conductive polymer.
Preferably, the protective layer in the recess is doped with a conductive polymer.
Preferably, the cross-sectional shape of the recess parallel to the substrate surface is annular or rectangular; the cross section of the recess perpendicular to the surface of the substrate is square, trapezoid, semicircular or triangular.
Preferably, the nano metal wire layer is a nano silver wire layer.
Further, the present invention provides a display device comprising the touch panel.
Further, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a touch panel, comprising
Providing a substrate, wherein the substrate comprises a first area and a second area, and a recess is formed on the second area of the substrate;
forming a nano metal wire layer on the substrate, wherein the nano metal wire layer at least covers the recess;
forming a protective layer on the nano metal wire layer; and
and forming a wiring layer on the protective layer, wherein the wiring layer is electrically connected with the nano metal wire layer. Preferably, the protective layer is doped with a conductive polymer.
Preferably, the protective layer in the recess is doped with a conductive polymer.
Preferably, the conductive polymer is polyvinyl chloride, and after the routing layer is formed, the conductive polymer further includes:
and heating the substrate to make the conductive polymer have conductivity.
Preferably, the temperature of the heating treatment is 100 ℃ to 200 ℃.
In summary, the invention provides a touch panel, which increases the contact area between the nano metal line layer and the routing layer and increases the conductivity between the nano metal line layer and the routing layer by designing the edge of the substrate as a recess, thereby facilitating the realization of the design of a narrow frame. In addition, the protective layer is doped with conductive polymers, so that the conductivity of the nano metal wire layer is further improved.
Detailed Description
As described in the background art, the conventional touch panel is difficult to realize a narrow bezel. The inventors found that, in the manufacturing process of the nano silver wire touch panel, the nano silver wire solution is usually directly coated on the substrate to form the nano silver wire conductive layer, but the nano silver wire conductive layer is only overlapped by weak intermolecular force, so that the bonding strength between the nano silver wire conductive layer and the substrate is poor, slippage is easily generated during bending, and the phenomena of high resistance and unstable resistance of the touch panel occur. Accordingly, the inventors tried to coat a covering layer on the conductive layer of the nano-silver wire, wherein the covering layer is usually a transparent insulating glue layer, such as an optical glue layer, and the coated covering layer can improve the adhesion between the conductive layer of the nano-silver wire and the substrate. However, the applied covering layer reduces the effective contact area between the silver nanowire conductive layer and the routing layer formed on the covering layer, increases the contact resistance between the silver nanowire conductive layer and the routing layer, and reduces the touch effect of the touch panel. Therefore, in addition to the above structure, in order to ensure the touch effect of the touch panel, the contact area between the nano silver wire conductive layer and the routing layer needs to be enlarged, and the contact area determines the size of the second region of the touch panel. Therefore, the touch panel obtained in this way cannot meet the design requirement of the narrow frame, and is difficult to meet the market requirement of the display device.
Based on the research, the edge of the substrate is designed to be concave, so that the contact area between the nano metal wire layer and the wiring is increased, and the conductivity between the nano metal wire layer and the wiring is increased.
In order to make the contents of the present invention more clearly understood, the contents of the present invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The invention is of course not limited to this particular embodiment, and general alternatives known to those skilled in the art are also covered by the scope of the invention.
The present invention is described in detail with reference to the drawings, and for convenience of explanation, the drawings are not enlarged partially according to the general scale, and should not be construed as limiting the present invention.
Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a touch panel according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to fig. 1, the touch panel includes a substrate 101, a metal nanowire layer 102, a passivation layer 103, and a wiring layer 104.
The substrate 101 is typically made of a transparent insulating material. Further, the substrate 101 may be made of a flexible material having a certain strength and a certain flexibility in industry, including but not limited to acryl, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polyacrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), Polyamide (PA), Polyimide (PI), polybenzimidazole Polybutylene (PB), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), Polycarbonate (PC), polyether ether ketone (PEEK), Polyetherimide (PEI), polyether sulfone (PES), Polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), polyethylene oxide, polyglycolic acid (PGA), polymethylpentene (PMP), Polyoxymethylene (POM), polyphenylene ether (PPE), polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS), Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), or the like, Polyurethane (PU), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyvinyl fluoride (PVF), polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN), or the like. The substrate 101 may also be made of a rigid material including, but not limited to, glass, metal, ceramic material, and the like. In this embodiment, the substrate 101 is a flexible substrate made of polyimide.
The substrate 101 generally includes a first region 101a and a second region 101b, the second region surrounds the first region 101a, for example, the substrate 101 is rectangular, and the second region 101b is located at the edge of the substrate 101 and is in a shape of a Chinese character 'hui'. The first region 101a of the substrate 101 is generally used for light transmissive display, and the second region 101b is generally opaque to light to highlight the display content of the first region. The nanowire layer 102 and the protection layer 103 may be formed on the first region 101a and the second region 101b of the substrate 101, and the routing layer 104 is formed only on the second region 101b of the substrate 101.
The nanowire layer 102 may include a matrix and a plurality of nanowires embedded in the matrix, wherein the nanowires are connected by molecular force to form a conductive network, and the matrix is used for protecting the nanowires from corrosion, abrasion and other external environments. The nano metal wire may be a nano wire of gold (Au), silver (Ag), platinum (Pt), copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), palladium (Pd), or the like. Since silver is silver white metal in a general state and is an opaque material, conductivity is excellent, the nano metal wire is preferably a silver nano wire, and fig. 3 is a micro-topography of a nano metal wire provided by an embodiment. The line length of the nano-metal lines in the nano-metal line layer 102 may be between 10 microns and 300 microns, the line diameter (or line width) of the nano-metal lines may be less than 500 nanometers, and the aspect ratio (line length to line diameter) thereof may be greater than 400.
The protective layer 103 is located on the nanowire layer 102. The protective layer 103 is made of a transparent insulating material. Such as silica, epoxy, acrylic polymer, and the like. The protective layer 103 may be formed by printing or coating. The thickness of the protective layer 103 is typically between 90nm and 150nm, preferably 100 nm. The protective layer 103 can enhance the adhesion between the metal nanowire layer 102 and the substrate 101, so that the metal nanowires are better attached to the substrate 101, and therefore the metal nanowires are not easy to move, the lap joint is firmer, and the conductivity and the sensitivity of the touch panel are improved.
The routing layer 104 is located on the protective layer 103. The wiring layer 104 may be made of gold wire or silver wire. The wiring layer 13 may be formed by printing (e.g., gravure printing, letterpress printing, flexography, transfer printing, etc.), sputtering, evaporation, or the like. The routing layer 104 is used as an interconnection line of the touch electrode, and an area of the routing layer 104 corresponds to a second area of the touch panel.
The passivation layer 103 covers the metal nanowire layer 102, but the cured passivation layer 103 and the metal nanowire layer 102 are in an interactive state, the metal nanowires are distributed in the passivation layer, the heights of the passivation layer 103 and the metal nanowire layer 102 are almost the same, the edge trace 104 is printed on the passivation layer 103, and the metal nanowires are exposed on the surface of the passivation layer 103, that is, the trace layer 104 can contact with the metal nanowire layer 103 (not specifically shown in the figure).
Fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of the second region 101b of the touch panel. As shown in fig. 2, the second area 101b of the touch panel is provided with a recess 110. The recess 110 is located within the coverage of the routing layer 104. Due to the presence of the recess 110, the contact area between the nanowire layer 102 and the routing layer 104 is increased.
The recess 110 may be annular in its entirety. The number of the annular recesses may be 1, in a "loop" shape, as shown in fig. 6. The number of the annular recesses may be plural, for example, 2, as shown in fig. 7.
Of course, the recess of the present invention is not limited to the annular recess, and a plurality of recesses may be distributed on the second region independently, as shown in fig. 8. In fig. 8, the cross-sectional shape of the recess is rectangular, and the cross-section herein refers to a cross-sectional shape of the recess 110 as viewed when the recess is cut parallel to the substrate 101.
As shown in fig. 2, the recess 110 may have a structure with a uniform width (i.e., the top and bottom of the recess 110 have the same size), or may have a structure with a different width, for example, it may be narrower from top to bottom (i.e., the top of the recess 110 is larger than the bottom). Specifically, the longitudinal cross-sectional shape of the recess 110 may be rectangular, trapezoidal, inverted trapezoidal, semicircular, or triangular, and the like, and it should be understood that the longitudinal cross-section herein refers to the cross-sectional shape of the recess 110 viewed after being cut perpendicular to the substrate 101.
Further, the protective layer 103 in the region of the recess 110 is doped with a conductive polymer 120, where the conductive polymer 120 is a polar polymer, and dipole polarization is easily released under excitation of external conditions, so as to exhibit a certain conductivity. In this embodiment, the nano-metal wire layer 102 is a nano-silver wire layer, the conductive polymer is preferably polyvinyl chloride (PVC), after the heating treatment, the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) removes HCl and forms a conjugated double bond on the main chain (as shown in fig. 5), and the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) shows a certain conductivity due to the non-localization of pi electrons of the double bond in the molecule, and has a resistivity ρ ═ e9-12Omega cm. The nano metal wires in the nano metal wire layer and the conductive Polymer (PVC) are dispersed in the protective layer, the nano metal wires are mutually overlapped and form a conductive network together with the conductive polymer, and the conductivity of the nano metal wire layer is increased. The temperature of the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) heating treatment is 100-200 ℃, and preferably 170 ℃.
Further, the present invention provides a display device comprising the touch panel.
Further, in this embodiment, a method for manufacturing a touch panel is provided, as shown in fig. 4 and combined with fig. 1 and fig. 2, the method for manufacturing a touch panel provided in this embodiment includes:
step S01: providing a substrate 101, wherein the substrate 101 has a first region 101a and a second region 101b surrounding the first region 101a, and a recess 110 is formed in the second region 101b of the substrate 101;
step S02: forming a nanowire layer 102 on the substrate 101;
step S03: forming a protective layer 103 on the nanowire layer 102; and the number of the first and second groups,
step S04: and forming a wiring layer 104 on the protective layer 103 of the second region, wherein the wiring layer is electrically connected with the nano-metal wire layer.
In step S01, the second region 101b of the substrate 101 is designed to have a recess 110, and the recess 110 is formed by means of photolithography and etching, for example. The recess 110 is located within the coverage of the routing layer 104.
In step S02, a nanowire solution is prepared, coated on the surface of the substrate 101, and cured, thereby forming a nanowire layer 102 on the substrate 101. The nanowire solution is a suspension solution of nanowires dissolved in a specific solvent, such as water, an aqueous solution, an ionic solution, a salt-containing solution, a supercritical fluid, oil, or a mixture thereof, and the solvent may further contain additives such as a dispersant, a surfactant, a cross-linking agent, a stabilizer, a wetting agent, or a thickener. The coating may be ink-jet, broadcast, gravure, letterpress, flexo, nanoimprint, screen printing, blade coating, spin coating, pin drawing (stylus), slot coating, flow coating, or the like. The curing mode can be natural airing, simple baking or heating curing and the like.
In step S03, a protection layer 103 is formed on the surface of the nanowire layer 102. The protective layer 103 is doped with a conductive polymer 120. Preferably, the protective layer 103 in the recess 110 is doped with a conductive polymer 120. The conductive polymer 120 is a polar polymer, and dipole polarization is easily released under external condition excitation, and a certain conductivity is shown. In the embodiment, the conductive polymer is preferably polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and the conductive polymer exhibits certain conductivity when heated at 100 ℃ to 200 ℃.
The protection layer 103 is a transparent insulating material, such as silicon dioxide, epoxy resin, acryl polymer, etc. In this embodiment, a curing adhesive (OC adhesive) made of epoxy resin is preferably used as the protection layer 103, and preferably, the curing adhesive is cured within a predetermined time (for example, 2min to 10min) after the protection layer 103 is coated on the surface of the nanowire layer 102, so that the formation of the protection layer in this embodiment is completed in two steps: firstly, the second area 101b of the touch panel is shielded, and a protective layer 103 is formed on the inner surface of the touch panel and cured; then, the inner surface of the touch panel is masked, and a curing adhesive doped with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) nano powder is coated in the second region 101b, particularly the recess 110 region, and then cured. The curing temperature range of the curing adhesive for manufacturing the protective layer is 100-150 ℃, preferably 130 ℃, the melting temperature of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is more than or equal to 160 ℃, the curing adhesive is in a viscous state at about 170 ℃, the higher the temperature is, the easier the flowing is, and the conjugated double bond structure can better and uniformly play a role in conducting electricity in the edge area. So that no or little decomposition of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) occurs during the preparation of the protective layer 103, i.e. the addition of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) does not affect the formation of the protective layer 103, and the subsequent heat treatment of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) further promotes the curing of the protective layer 103.
In step S04, a wiring layer 104 is formed by sputtering film formation and patterning on the edge of the touch panel. The recess 110 is located within the coverage of the routing layer 104.
Finally, the touch panel is heated at 100-200 ℃, preferably 170 ℃, HCl of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is removed after the heating treatment, conjugated double bonds are formed on a main chain (as shown in figure 3), the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) shows certain conductivity due to the non-localization of pi electrons of the double bonds in molecules, and the resistivity rho ═ e9-12Omega cm. Of course, other means of promoting the decomposition of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) may be used, such as ultraviolet radiation.
The nano silver wires and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in the nano metal wire layer are dispersed in the protective layer 103, and the nano silver wires are mutually lapped and form a conductive network together with the PVC, so that the conductivity of the nano metal wire layer is increased. The recess 110 is disposed in the second region 101b of the touch panel, so that the contact area between the silver nanowires and the edge trace metal is increased, and the conductivity of the second region is increased by adding polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
In summary, the invention designs the substrate edge as a recess to increase the contact area between the nanowire layer and the routing layer, and simultaneously introduces the conductive polymer into the protective layer recessed at the substrate edge to increase the conductive performance between the nanowire layer and the routing layer
The above description is only for the purpose of describing the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and any variations and modifications made by those skilled in the art based on the above disclosure are within the scope of the appended claims.