JP2007200230A - Touch panel, electro-optical device and electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a touch panel, an electro-optical device and electronic equipment which have high position detecting ability. <P>SOLUTION: Since the touch panel is so configured that only surface acoustic waves Wx and Wy propagated from a contact part 39 between a touch panel substrate 31 and a counter substrate 32 are detected, successful detection of the surface acoustic waves Wx and Wy allows XY coordinates of a position (depression position) of the contact part 39 to be specified irrespective of waveforms of the surface acoustic waves. Thus, a high detecting ability can be secured. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a touch panel, an electro-optical device, and an electronic apparatus.

  A surface acoustic wave (SAW) touch panel is generally composed mainly of a flexible touch panel substrate and a counter substrate facing the touch panel substrate. A transmitting-side transducer that generates surface acoustic waves and a receiving-side transducer that receives the surface acoustic waves are provided on the opposing surface of one of the opposing substrates (for example, the opposing substrate).

  The surface acoustic wave transmitted from the transmission side transducer propagates on the counter substrate and is received by the reception side transducer. If there is an obstacle that inhibits the propagation of surface acoustic waves on the opposing substrate, the surface acoustic wave is weakened at that part, and the waveform of the surface acoustic wave received by the receiving transducer is in a state where the part of the obstacle is attenuated. Become.

  When the user touches the touch panel substrate, the touch panel substrate bends and contacts the counter substrate. The touch panel substrate in contact with the counter substrate becomes an obstacle to surface acoustic waves, and the surface acoustic waves are attenuated at this portion. The receiving-side transducer measures the time from the received surface acoustic wave waveform until the attenuation waveform appears, calculates the XY coordinates on the panel based on the measured value, and detects the position touched by the user. .

  The SAW touch panel configured as described above is combined with a display panel and mounted as a display unit of various devices such as a word processor and an ATM. It is considered to be mounted as a display unit of a type electronic device.

On the other hand, portable electronic devices are frequently subjected to vibration and shock. Since the SAW touch panel has a structure in which the panel is exposed, there is a problem that the panel is easily chipped or broken due to vibration or impact, thereby causing the glass to scatter. For this problem, a SAW touch panel having a structure in which a protective film is provided on the surface of the touch panel, for example, a surface touched by the user, for protecting the panel and preventing fragments from scattering is known (for example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 1). (See Patent Document 2).
JP 2004-348686 A Japanese Patent No. 3010669

However, in the configurations described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, depending on the material of the resin film, it does not function sufficiently as an obstacle when the user touches, and the surface acoustic wave cannot be sufficiently attenuated. There is. For this reason, it becomes difficult to measure the time until the attenuation waveform appears, and there is a problem that the position detection capability is lowered.
In view of the circumstances as described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a touch panel, an electro-optical device, and an electronic apparatus having a high position detection capability.

  In order to achieve the above object, a touch panel according to the present invention includes a pair of substrates that are arranged so as to face each other and at least one of them is flexible and can be brought into contact with each other when deformed by the flexibility. A surface acoustic wave generating means for generating a surface acoustic wave on a surface of one of the pair of substrates facing the other substrate; and the surface acoustic wave generating means that generates the surface acoustic wave from the one substrate to the other. A surface acoustic wave detecting means for detecting the surface acoustic wave propagated to the substrate, and the pressed positions of the pair of substrates are detected based on the surface acoustic wave waveform detected by the surface acoustic wave detecting means. And a position detection means.

  According to the configuration of the present invention, when a flexible substrate of a pair of substrates is pressed, the pressed substrate is bent, and one substrate and the other substrate are in contact with each other. At this time, the surface acoustic wave generated on the opposing surface of one of the pair of substrates by the surface acoustic wave generating means propagates to the other substrate through the contact portion, and is detected by the surface acoustic wave detecting means. Will be. That is, in the present invention, only the surface acoustic wave from the contact portion is detected by the surface acoustic wave detection means.

  In the conventional touch panel, it was necessary to store the waveform data of the surface acoustic wave without any obstruction and to detect the attenuation part of the waveform by comparing with the waveform data. There was a possibility that it could not be detected. On the other hand, in the present invention, since only the surface acoustic wave propagating from the contact portion between one substrate and the other substrate of the pair of substrates is detected, if the surface acoustic wave can be detected, the surface elasticity The position (pressed position) of the contact portion can be specified regardless of the waveform of the wave. Thereby, a high detection capability can be ensured.

The surface acoustic wave generating means is a transmission-side transducer provided on a surface of the one substrate facing the other substrate, and the surface acoustic wave receiving means is the one of the other substrates. It is preferable that it is a receiving side transducer provided on the surface facing the substrate.
According to the present invention, the transmitting-side transducer that is the surface acoustic wave generating means is provided on one substrate, and the receiving-side transducer that is the surface acoustic wave receiving means is provided on the other substrate. And the receiving-side transducer can be arranged so as to overlap in plan view. Conventionally, since the transmission-side transducer and the reception-side transducer are arranged on the same substrate, it is necessary to dispose them both in a plane, but in the present invention, both are overlapped in a plan view. Therefore, a large space in the substrate can be secured.

Moreover, it is preferable to further provide a reflective electrode for propagating the surface acoustic wave generated from the surface acoustic wave generating means to the central part of the pair of substrates.
According to the present invention, since the reflection electrode for propagating the surface acoustic wave generated from the surface acoustic wave generating means to the central portion of the pair of substrates is further provided, the surface acoustic wave is easily propagated to the central portion of the substrate. Can be made.

Moreover, it is preferable that the resin film is provided in the surface pressed by a pair of said board | substrate.
According to the present invention, since the resin film is provided on the pressed surfaces of the pair of substrates, it is possible to prevent the fragments from scattering even when one or both of the pair of substrates are damaged. it can.

Moreover, it is preferable that a polarizing plate is provided on the surface to be pressed of the pair of substrates.
According to the present invention, since the polarizing plate is provided on the surfaces to be pressed of the pair of substrates, for example, even if the substrate facing the pressed substrate is damaged, the fragments are prevented from scattering. Can do.

An electro-optical device according to the present invention includes the above-described touch panel and a display panel that is provided to face the touch panel and displays an image.
According to the present invention, an electro-optical device provided with a touch panel having high position detection capability can be obtained.

Further, it is preferable that one of the pair of substrates constituting the touch panel also serves as the substrate of the display panel.
According to the present invention, since one of the pair of substrates constituting the touch panel also serves as the display substrate, it is not necessary to provide a separate substrate. Thereby, the electro-optical device can be thinned.

An electronic apparatus according to the present invention includes the above-described electro-optical device.
According to the present invention, an electronic device having a touch panel with high position detection capability can be obtained.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following drawings, the scale is appropriately changed to make each member a recognizable size.
[First Embodiment]
First, a liquid crystal device with a touch panel according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a liquid crystal device 1 with a touch panel.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the liquid crystal device 1 is mainly configured by a liquid crystal panel 2 and a touch panel 3, and the liquid crystal panel 2 and the touch panel 3 are bonded to face each other. In the present embodiment, an active matrix type liquid crystal device using a thin film transistor (hereinafter referred to as TFT) element as a switching element for driving the liquid crystal device 1 will be described as an example. In this embodiment, a chevron transducer type touch panel will be described as an example of the touch panel 3.

  First, the configuration of the liquid crystal panel 2 will be described. The liquid crystal panel 2 has a configuration in which a TFT array substrate 4 and a color filter substrate 5 are bonded together by a sealing material 7, and a liquid crystal layer 6 is enclosed in a region partitioned by the sealing material 7. A gap material 8 is provided inside the seal material 7, and a gap is formed between the TFT array substrate 4 and the color filter substrate 5 by the gap material 8. A region surrounded by the sealing material 7 is a display region 9 for displaying an image, a moving image, or the like.

  The TFT array substrate 4 is mainly composed of a base material 4a formed of a material having high translucency such as glass or quartz, and a pixel electrode 18 and the pixel are provided on the liquid crystal side of the base material 4a. The TFT element 17 that drives the electrode 18, a data line (not shown) that transmits an electrical signal to the TFT element 17, and the scanning line 15, and the pixel electrode 18, the TFT element 17, the data line, and the scanning line 15 are covered. An alignment film 16 formed as described above is provided. The pixel electrode 18 is formed of a transparent conductive material such as ITO (Indium Tin Oxide). A polarizing plate 19 is attached to the outer surface of the TFT array substrate 4 (the side opposite to the liquid crystal layer 6).

  Similar to the TFT array substrate 4, the color filter substrate 5 is mainly composed of a base material 5 a made of a highly translucent material such as glass or quartz. On the liquid crystal 6 side of the base material 5a, for example, a color filter layer 20 composed of three color layers of a red layer, a green layer, and a blue layer is formed, and a black matrix 21 is formed around the color filter layer 20. ing. A common electrode 28 is formed so as to cover the color filter layer 20 and the black matrix 21, and the alignment film 26 covers the common electrode 28. Similar to the pixel electrode 18, the common electrode 28 is formed of a transparent conductive material such as ITO. A polarizing plate 29 is attached to the outer surface of the color filter substrate 5.

  The liquid crystal layer 6 is composed of liquid crystal molecules such as a fluorine-based liquid crystal compound or a non-fluorine-based liquid crystal compound, and is in contact with both the alignment film 16 on the TFT array substrate 4 side and the alignment film 26 on the color filter substrate 5 side. So as to be sandwiched between both substrates. The alignment of the liquid crystal molecules is regulated by the alignment film 16 and the alignment film 26 so as to be oriented in a predetermined direction when a non-selection voltage is applied.

  Although not shown in the present embodiment, a backlight is provided on the TFT array substrate 4 side, and the light from the backlight passes through the TFT array substrate 4, the liquid crystal layer 6, and the color filter substrate 5. Thus, an image (including characters and moving images) is displayed on the color filter substrate 5 side. That is, in this embodiment, the color filter substrate 5 side is the display surface side.

  Next, the configuration of the touch panel 3 will be described. The touch panel 3 is a surface acoustic wave reflective electrode type touch panel, and has a configuration in which a touch panel substrate 31 and a counter substrate 32 are bonded together by a sealing material 33. The touch panel 3 is disposed on the display surface side (color filter substrate 5 side) of the liquid crystal panel 2 and is attached so as to face the display surface of the liquid crystal panel 2. A spacer 36 is disposed between the touch panel substrate 31 and the counter substrate 32, and the substrate is held at a predetermined interval.

  The touch panel substrate 31 is a substrate that the user touches directly or with a pen or the like, and has a degree of flexibility that can be bent by the user's touch. The touch panel substrate 31 is formed in a film shape, for example, from a highly translucent resin material. A resin film 40 formed of a transparent resin material such as polyimide is attached to the outer surface 31a of the touch panel substrate 31.

  The counter substrate 32 is a substrate formed of a highly translucent material such as glass, quartz, or plastic, and is provided to face the touch panel substrate 31. Further, the outer surface 32a of the counter substrate 32 is in a state of being stuck on the polarizing plate 29 on the display surface side of the liquid crystal panel.

  On the inner surface 31 b of the touch panel substrate 31 and the inner surface 32 b of the counter substrate 32, a transmission side transducer 34 and a reception side transducer 35 are provided. One transmitting transducer 34 is provided on each of the inner surface 31b and the inner surface 32b, and one receiving transducer 35 is provided on each of the inner surface 31b and the inner surface 32b. The transmission-side transducer 34 is surface acoustic wave generating means for generating surface acoustic waves on the inner surface 31b and the inner surface 32b. The receiving-side transducer 35 is surface acoustic wave detection means that detects surface acoustic waves.

  FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a planar arrangement of the transmission side transducer 34 and the reception side transducer 35. In the figure, the touch panel 3 will be described with the longitudinal direction as the X direction and the short direction as the Y direction. Also, the solid line portion in the figure indicates the configuration on the touch panel substrate 31 side, and the broken line portion in the drawing indicates the configuration on the counter substrate 32 side.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a total of two transmission-side transducers 34 are provided, one at the upper left corner and one at the lower right corner of the touch panel 3 in FIG. 2 is provided on the inner surface 31b (see FIG. 1) of the touch panel substrate 31. The transmission-side transducer 34x generates a surface acoustic wave Wx that propagates downward in FIG. 2 on the inner surface 31b of the touch panel substrate 31. The surface acoustic wave Wx is reflected by the reflective electrode 37a arranged on the left side of the touch panel substrate 31, and propagates in the propagation region 50 at the center of the touch panel 3 in the X direction toward the right side in the figure.

  2 is provided on the inner surface 32b of the counter substrate 32 (see FIG. 1). The transmission-side transducer 34y generates a surface acoustic wave Wy propagating leftward in FIG. 2 on the inner surface 32b of the counter substrate 32. The surface acoustic wave Wy is reflected by the reflective electrode 38a arranged on the lower side of the counter substrate 32 in FIG. 2, and propagates in the propagation region 50 at the center of the touch panel 3 in the Y direction toward the upper side in the drawing.

  Further, two receiving-side transducers 35 are provided at the upper right corner of the touch panel 3 in FIG. Among these, the receiving-side transducer 35 x is provided on the inner surface 31 b of the touch panel substrate 31, and the receiving-side transducer 35 y is provided on the inner surface 32 b of the counter substrate 32. The receiving-side transducer 35x and the receiving-side transducer 35y are arranged so that a part thereof overlaps in plan view.

As shown in FIG. 1, the transmission-side transducer 34 (34x, 34y) and the reception-side transducer 35 (35x, 35y) are electrically connected to the control circuit 41.
The configuration of the control circuit 41 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the control circuit 41 is composed mainly of a CPU 42, an A / D conversion circuit 43, a signal amplification unit 44, and a burst waveform driver 45.

  The burst waveform driver 45 is connected to the transmission-side transducers 34x and 34y of the touch panel 3, respectively, and controls the surface acoustic wave waveform generated by the transmission-side transducers 34x and 34y and the timing for generating the surface acoustic wave. The signal amplifier 44 (44x, 44y) amplifies signals from the receiving side transducers 35x, 35y. The A / D conversion circuit 43 (43x, 43y) performs A / D conversion on the signal from the signal amplifier 44 and sends it to the CPU.

  The CPU 42 controls the A / D conversion circuit 43 and receives a signal transmitted from the receiving-side transducer 35 via the A / D conversion circuit 43 and is pressed on the touch panel 3 based on the signal. Is detected. Further, a signal is sent to the burst waveform driver 45 to control the burst waveform driver 45.

Next, an operation when the user touches the touch panel 3 will be described.
For example, as shown in FIG. 4, when the user touches the touch panel substrate 31 with the pen P or the like through the resin film 40, the touch panel substrate 31 is bent downward in FIG. 4, and the inner surface 31 b of the touch panel substrate 31 is the counter substrate 32. It contacts the inner surface 32b. Hereinafter, a portion where the inner surfaces 31b and 32b of both the substrates are in contact is referred to as a “contact portion 39”. The surface acoustic wave Wx generated on the inner surface 31b of the touch panel substrate 31 by the transmitting-side transducer 34x propagates to the inner surface 32b of the counter substrate 32 through the contact portion 39.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the surface acoustic wave Wx propagated to the inner surface 32 b of the counter substrate 32 propagates the inner surface 32 b from the contact portion 39 to the right side in FIG. 2 and is a reflective electrode arranged on the right side of the counter substrate 32. It is reflected by 37b and propagates on the right side upward in FIG. This surface acoustic wave Wx is detected by a receiving-side transducer 35x provided on the counter substrate 32 side.

  Further, the surface acoustic wave Wy generated on the inner surface 32 b of the counter substrate 32 by the transmission-side transducer 34 y propagates to the inner surface 31 b of the touch panel substrate 31 through this contact portion 39. As shown in FIG. 2, the surface acoustic wave Wy propagated to the inner surface 31b propagates the inner surface 31b of the touch panel substrate 31 from the contact portion 39 to the upper side in FIG. 2, and the reflective electrode 38b arranged on the upper side of the touch panel substrate 31. Is propagated to the right side in FIG. This surface acoustic wave Wy is detected by a receiving-side transducer 35y provided on the touch panel 31 side.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating envelope waveforms of the surface acoustic waves Wx and Wy detected by the receiving-side transducers 35x and 35y. The horizontal axis of the graph indicates time, and the vertical axis indicates the strength of the surface acoustic wave.
As shown in the figure, in the graph of the envelope waveform of the surface acoustic waves Wx and Wy, the signal S having the magnitude A1 is generated over a certain time t1. The CPU 42 of the control circuit 41 described above measures the time Tg from when the user touches the touch panel 3 until the signal S is received, and based on the time Tg, the position in the X direction and the Y direction on the touch panel substrate 31 is measured. Calculate and specify the XY coordinates of the touched location.

  Thus, in this embodiment, when the touch panel substrate 31 is pressed, the touch panel substrate 31 bends and contacts the counter substrate 32. At this time, the surface acoustic waves Wx and Wy generated by the transmission-side transducer 34 propagate to the other substrate via the contact portions 39 and are detected by the reception-side transducer 35 disposed on the other substrate side. become. That is, in this embodiment, only the surface acoustic wave propagated from the contact portion 39 to the other substrate is detected.

  In the conventional touch panel, as shown in FIG. 6, the transmission-side transducer 64 and the reception-side transducer 65 are disposed on the inner surface of the same substrate (for example, the counter substrate 62). For this reason, in the contact part 69 which contacted the opposing board | substrate 62 when the user touched the touch panel board | substrate 61, the touch panel board | substrate 61 becomes an obstruction of a surface acoustic wave, and the surface acoustic wave which propagates this part attenuates. The attenuated surface acoustic wave is detected as an attenuation portion S0 shown in FIG. The CPU 52 of the control circuit 51 shown in FIG. 8 measures a time Tgg from when the user touches the touch panel until the signal S0 is received, and based on the time Tgg, positions of the X direction and the Y direction on the touch panel substrate are measured. It was configured to calculate and specify the XY coordinates of the touched location.

  In this case, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, the waveform data of the surface acoustic wave in the absence of an obstacle is stored in the memory 56, and the waveform of the waveform is compared by comparing the waveform of the waveform data with the received waveform by the comparison circuit 57. Since it was necessary to detect the attenuation portion, the configuration of the control circuit 51 was complicated. Further, as shown in FIG. 7, even if there is no obstacle, the shape of the received waveform is not flat, and there is a possibility that it cannot be sufficiently detected when the attenuation portion is small.

  On the other hand, according to the present embodiment, since only the surface acoustic waves Wx and Wy propagating from the contact portion 39 between the touch panel substrate 31 and the counter substrate 32 are detected, the surface acoustic waves Wx and Wy are detected. Can be detected, the XY coordinates of the position (pressed position) of the contact portion 39 can be specified. Thereby, a high detection capability can be ensured.

  Further, conventionally, as shown in FIG. 6, since the transmission-side transducer 64 and the reception-side transducer 65 are all on the same substrate, the reception-side transducer 65 cannot be placed on the corner of the substrate. It was necessary to shift and arrange. For this reason, for example, the reflective electrode 67 on the right side in FIG. 6 and the reflective electrode 68 on the upper side in FIG. 6 have to be arranged inside the substrate.

  On the other hand, according to the present embodiment, the receiving-side transducer 35x and the receiving-side transducer 35y are arranged so as to overlap each other in plan view, so that the reflective electrodes 37 and 38 are arranged along the outer side of the touch panel. be able to. Thereby, a wide propagation region 50 can be secured.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. Similar to the first embodiment, in the following drawings, the scale is appropriately changed to make each member a recognizable size. The description of the same components as those in the first embodiment is omitted.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of the liquid crystal device 101 with a touch panel according to the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 9, the liquid crystal device 101 is mainly composed of a liquid crystal panel 102 and a touch panel 103, and the liquid crystal panel 102 and the touch panel 103 are opposed to each other as in the first embodiment.

  In the present embodiment, the polarizing plate of the liquid crystal panel 102 is attached to the touch panel substrate 131 of the touch panel 103 instead of the resin film. The counter substrate of the touch panel 103 also serves as the color filter substrate 105a of the liquid crystal panel 102. Other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the polarizing plate of the liquid crystal panel 102 is attached to the touch panel substrate 131 of the touch panel 103, that is, the resin film of the first embodiment also serves as the polarizing plate. Since it is configured, even if the touch panel substrate 131 is damaged, it is possible to prevent the fragments from scattering. Accordingly, it is not necessary to provide a resin film separately, and the liquid crystal device 101 can be thinned.

  In addition, since the counter substrate of the touch panel 103 also serves as the color filter substrate 105a of the liquid crystal panel 102, it is not necessary to provide either the counter substrate or the color filter substrate in the first embodiment. . Thereby, the liquid crystal device 101 can be further reduced in thickness.

[Electronics]
Hereinafter, specific examples of the electronic apparatus including the above-described electro-optical device will be described.
FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a handy terminal 1000 which is an example of the electronic apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 10, reference numeral 1001 denotes a touch panel as an input device of the present invention, reference numeral 1002 denotes a function key, and reference numeral 1003 denotes a power input switch. The handy terminal 1000 of this example directly indicates the position on the touch panel while looking at the icon printed on the function key 1002 and the screen of a liquid crystal panel (not shown) arranged under the touch panel 1001. Input. Since the handy terminal 1000 includes the touch panel of the present invention described above as an input device, the handy terminal 1000 becomes an electronic device having a high position detection capability.

The technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and appropriate modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
For example, in the above-described embodiment, the reflective electrode type touch panel has been described as an example of the touch panel 3, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a staircase type transducer type touch panel, a chevron type transducer type touch panel, etc. It can also be applied to a SAW touch panel.

  In the above embodiment, the liquid crystal panel has been described as an example of the display panel. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, an organic EL, PDP, CRT, or the like may be used.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the two transmission-side transducers 34 and the two reception-side transducers 35 are arranged on the touch panel substrate 31 and the counter substrate 32 respectively, but this is not a limitation. No. For example, the present invention can be applied to a configuration in which both of the transmission-side transducers 34 are disposed on the touch panel substrate 31 and both of the reception-side transducers 35 are disposed on the counter substrate 32. In this case, the reflective electrodes 37a and 38a may be arranged on the touch panel substrate 31 side. Alternatively, both of the reception-side transducers 35 may be disposed on the touch panel substrate 31, and both of the transmission-side transducers 34 may be disposed on the counter substrate 32. In this case, the reflective electrodes 37b and 38b may be arranged on the touch panel substrate 31. In these cases, the reflective electrodes 37a, 37b, 38a, and 38b can be arranged along the outer edge of the substrate by arranging the transmitting transducer 34 and the receiving transducer so as to overlap in plan view. The propagation region 50 can be secured widely.

1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a liquid crystal device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a configuration of a liquid crystal device according to the embodiment. The figure which shows the structure of the control circuit of the touchscreen which concerns on this embodiment. The figure which shows a mode when a user touches a touch panel. The figure which shows the waveform of the surface acoustic wave in the touchscreen which concerns on this embodiment. The top view which shows the structure of the conventional touch panel board | substrate. The figure which shows the waveform of the surface acoustic wave in the conventional touch panel. The figure which shows the structure of the control circuit in the conventional touch panel. Sectional drawing which shows the structure of the liquid crystal device which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 11 illustrates a structure of an electronic device.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1, 101 ... Liquid crystal device 2, 102 ... Liquid crystal panel 3, 103 ... Touch panel 31, 131 ... Touch panel substrate 32 ... Opposite substrate 34, 134 ... Transmission side transducer 35, 135 ... Reception side transducer 1000 ... Handy terminal

Claims (8)

A pair of substrates that are arranged to face each other and at least one of them is flexible, and arranged so as to come into contact with each other when deformed by the flexibility;
A surface acoustic wave generating means for generating a surface acoustic wave on a surface of the one of the pair of substrates facing the other substrate;
Surface acoustic wave detection means for detecting the surface acoustic wave generated by the surface acoustic wave generation means and propagated from the one substrate to the other substrate;
A touch panel comprising: position detection means for detecting the pressed positions of the pair of substrates based on the waveform of the surface acoustic wave detected by the surface acoustic wave detection means. The surface acoustic wave generating means is a transmission-side transducer provided on a surface of the one substrate facing the other substrate,
The touch panel according to claim 1, wherein the surface acoustic wave receiving unit is a receiving-side transducer provided on a surface of the other substrate facing the one substrate.   The touch panel as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a reflective electrode for propagating the surface acoustic wave generated from the surface acoustic wave generating means to a central portion of the pair of substrates. The touch panel according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a resin film is provided on surfaces to be pressed of the pair of substrates.   The touch panel according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a polarizing plate is provided on surfaces to be pressed of the pair of substrates. A touch panel according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
An electro-optical device comprising: a display panel provided to face the touch panel and displaying an image. The electro-optical device according to claim 6, wherein one of the pair of substrates constituting the touch panel also serves as a substrate of the display panel. An electronic apparatus comprising the electro-optical device according to claim 6.

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