JP3217788U - Transparent capacitive touch sensor structure - Google Patents

Abstract

Kind Code: A1 A transparent capacitive touch sensor structure is provided.
A transparent capacitive touch sensor structure includes at least one touch sensing layer, the touch sensing layer having a plurality of sensing traces (21, 41), wherein the sensing traces are arranged in series. It is composed of a plurality of sensing units (21a, 41a), and a connection point (21b, 41b) is formed at one end of each sensing trace. Conductors (23, 43) are provided in the touch sensing trace and are electrically connected to the bonding point and the plurality of sensing units. Conductive wire is a nano-level thin wire, and by setting the conductive wire, the surface resistance value of the touch sensing trace can be greatly reduced, and the transparent capacitive touch sensor is improved in consideration of transmittance Can do. By improving the sensitivity of the touch signal sensor and the transmission efficiency of the touch signal, it is easy to design and manufacture a large-area touch panel.
[Selection] Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to an improved transparent capacitive touch sensor, and more particularly, to a transparent capacitive touch sensor structure capable of increasing the sensitivity of the touch signal sensor and the transmission efficiency of the touch signal.

  A conventional transparent touch panel structure includes a transparent touch sensor and a transparent substrate. A touch sensor, such as a capacitive touch sensor, has a plurality of touch sensing electrodes arranged in the visible area of the touch panel. Each touch sensing electrode is electrically connected to an electrical contact or lead disposed in the edge shield area. According to this, the touch signal sensed by the touch sensing electrode can be transmitted to the signal processing circuit for operation. As is well known, a touch pad used as an input device arranged in front of a display screen must have excellent light transmittance so as not to affect the visibility of the screen. Therefore, the current touch sensor is made of a transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) film, and a plurality of touch sensing electrodes and a signal guide are drawn on the transparent ITO film. However, in recent years, with the enhancement of functionality of electronic products, the dimensions of touch sensing electrodes and signal paths of touch sensors are also becoming smaller. Miniaturized ITO sensing electrodes and signal paths create high impedance, resulting in attenuation of the transmitted signal, which is detrimental to signal transmission, making it extremely difficult in large touch panel design and manufacturing process development It is a problem.

  The main object of the present invention is to provide an improved transparent capacitive touch sensor structure. It provides highly conductive nano-level conductors on the touch sensing trace, resulting in a significant reduction in the surface resistance value of the touch sensing trace, and the transparent capacitive touch sensor is a touch signal that takes into account the light transmittance. The sensitivity of the sensor and the conduction efficiency of the touch signal can be improved.

  The second object of the present invention is to provide a transparent capacitive touch sensor structure suitable for large-scale applications. The touch sensing trace has a low surface resistance value, high sensitivity to the touch sensor, excellent touch signal transmission efficiency, can avoid attenuation of the transmission signal, and is useful for designing and manufacturing a large area touch panel.

  In order to achieve the above object, a transparent capacitive touch sensor structure provided by the present invention includes a transparent first sensing layer, a transparent second sensing layer, and a transparent insulating layer. A transparent insulating layer is disposed between the first sensing layer and the second sensing layer, and the two sensing layers are insulated from each other and separated by the transparent insulating layer. The first sensing layer has a plurality of first sensing traces, and the first sensing traces are configured by arranging a plurality of first sensing units along a first direction trace. A first connection point is disposed at an end of each first sensing trace, and a first conductor is disposed along the first direction on the first sensing trace, and the first connection point and the plurality of first sensing points are arranged. It is electrically connected to the unit. The first conductor is a nano-level thin line, the second sensing layer has a plurality of second sensing traces, and the second sensing traces are composed of a plurality of second sensing units arranged in a line along the second direction. Has been. A second connection point is disposed at one end of each second sensing trace, and a second conductor is disposed in the second sensing trace along the second direction to electrically connect the second connection point and the plurality of second sensing units. It is connected to the. The second conductive wire is a nano-level thin wire, and the plurality of first sensing traces and the plurality of second sensing traces are arranged so as to cross each other, whereby the plurality of first sensing units and the plurality of second sensing units are arranged. Complementary and correspondingly arranged to form a continuous grid-like sensing unit matrix. A plurality of first connection points and a plurality of second connection points are respectively connected to the signal conductors. The sensing signal captured by the first sensing layer and the second sensing layer can be transmitted to the next signal processing circuit via the signal conductor.

  The first and second sensing layers are light-transmitting conductive thin film layers, and the material thereof is selected from transparent materials such as metal oxide films and graphene thin films. The material of the metal oxide film is selected from indium tin oxide (ITO), indium zinc oxide (IZO), aluminum zinc oxide (AZO), and antimony tin oxide (ATO). The material is not limited.

  The first and second conductive wires are highly conductive fine metal wires, and their resistivity is less than 8 × 10 −8 Ω · m. Although selected from gold, silver, copper, aluminum, molybdenum and nickel or alloys made of the aforementioned materials, the scope of implementation is not limited to the aforementioned materials. The fine metal wire has a width of less than 25 μm, preferably less than 5 μm.

  Here, the first and second conductors may be continuously extending straight lines, corrugated curves, regular lines, or irregular lines, but the realization range is not limited to the above-described line pattern.

  Here, the 1st and 2nd conducting wire is comprised by the some line segment which opened the space | interval.

  The first and second conductive wires are composed of a plurality of high-conductivity nano-level metal fine wires arranged in parallel to each other.

  Here, the material of the transparent insulating layer is selected from a solid optical adhesive film (OCA) or a liquid optical resin (OCR), but the application range is not limited to the above materials.

  The present invention can be realized by further clarifying other features and technical features of the present invention below and by learning the explanation of the present invention from engineers in this field.

  The lead wire of the present invention is a nano-level thin wire, and by setting the lead wire, the surface resistance value of the touch sensing trace can be greatly reduced, and the transparent capacitive touch sensor is considered in consideration of the transmittance. Can be improved. By improving the sensitivity of the touch signal sensor and the transmission efficiency of the touch signal, it is easy to design and manufacture a large-area touch panel.

It is a schematic diagram which shows the laminated structure of the touch sensor of 1st Embodiment. It is a front view of the touch sensor of a 1st embodiment. It is a rear view of the touch sensor of 1st Embodiment. It is a top view of the 1st sensing layer of a 1st embodiment. It is a top view of the 2nd sensing layer of a 1st embodiment. FIG. 6 is a plan view of a second sensing layer of the second embodiment showing that a curved lead is connected on the sensing trace. FIG. 6 is a plan view of a second sensing layer of the third embodiment showing that a plurality of spaced apart conductors are connected to a sensing trace. It is a top view of the 2nd sensing layer of a 4th embodiment which shows that a plurality of conducting wires arranged in parallel with each other are connected to a sensing trace.

  1 to 3 show a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to this.

  1 to 5 show a transparent capacitive touch panel structure according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention. The transparent capacitive touch panel structure includes a base layer 10, a first sensing layer 20, an insulating layer 30, a second sensing layer 40, and a covering layer 50.

  The base layer 10 is a thin glass plate having high transmittance and excellent mechanical strength, and a color frame 11 made of an insulating black matrix (BM) is provided on the peripheral edge of the surface of the base layer 10. Yes. The color frame 11 is used to define a peripheral frame-shaped shielding area 11 a and a central visible area 11 b in the base layer 10.

In this embodiment, the first sensing layer 20 is set as an X-axis direction sensing layer, and as shown in FIG. 4, the first sensing layer 20 is disposed in the visible area 11 b of the substrate, and a plurality of rows of the first sensing traces 21. Each of the first sensing traces 21 is arranged in series along a first direction (ie, X-axis direction) from the plurality of rhomboid first sensing units 21a. ing. A first connection point 21 b is provided at one end of each row of the first sensing trace 21. The first sensing trace 21 has a first conductive wire 23 disposed along the first direction, and is electrically connected to the first connection point 21b and each first sensing unit 21a.
The first connection point 21 b can be connected to the signal output contact 25 via the signal conductor 24, and the signal conductor 24 is arranged along the edge of the base layer 10 in the shielding area 11 a and is in front of the signal conductor 24. The rear two ends are electrically connected to the first connection point 21b and the signal output contact, respectively.

  In this embodiment, the second sensing layer 40 is configured as a Y-axis direction sensing layer, and as shown in FIG. 5, the second sensing layer 40 is disposed in the visible area 11b of the substrate and includes a plurality of rows of second sensing layers. Each of the second sensing traces 41 is arranged in series along the second direction (ie, the Y-axis direction) by a plurality of diamond-shaped second sensing units 41a. It is configured. A second connection point 41 b is provided at each end of the second sensing trace 41. Each second sensing trace 41 further includes a second conductor 43 disposed along the second direction and electrically connected to the second connection point 41b and each second sensing unit 41a. The second connection point 41 b can be connected to the signal output contact 45 through the signal conductor 44. The signal conductor 44 is disposed along the edge of the base layer 10 in the shielding area 11a, and the front end and the rear end of the signal conductor 44 are electrically connected to the second connection point 41b and the signal output contact 45, respectively. .

  The signal output contacts 25 and 45 are electrically connected to a signal cable (not shown) and can be operated by transmitting a touch signal to a signal processing circuit (not shown).

The first sensing layer 20 and the second sensing layer 40 are made of a transparent conductive film, and the material of the first sensing layer 20 and the second sensing layer 40 is a metal oxide film such as indium tin oxide (ITO).
The first and second conductive wires 8 and 43 are made of a material having high conductivity and low resistivity, such as a copper wire, and the resistivity is less than 8 × 10 −8 Ω · m. Since the metal material of the first and second conductors 23 and 43 has a lower impedance value than the metal oxide film of the first and second sensing layers 20 and 40, the first and second conductors 23 and 43 are thus connected to the first and second conductors 23 and 43. In addition, electrically connecting to the second sensing traces 21 and 41 has an effect of improving the transmission of the touch signal. Impedance values between each first sensing unit 21a and the first connection point and between the second sensing unit 41a and the second connection point 41b can be effectively reduced, and the attenuation rate of the touch signal during transmission is reduced. can do. The first and second conductive wires 23 and 43 have a width of 5 μm or less. Since the nano-sized fine metal wire is not visually recognized even if it is an opaque material, it is suitable for being placed in the visible area 11 without damaging the entire transparent touch sensor.

  The first sensing layer 20 and the second sensing layer 40 are separated by a transparent insulating layer 30 and insulated from each other, and the first sensing unit 21a and the second sensing unit 41a on the two sensing layers are complementary to each other. Arranged to form a diamond-shaped sensing unit matrix. The transparent insulating layer 30 is a solid optical adhesive film (OCA) or a liquid optical resin (OCR), and the two sensing layers 20 and 40 can be combined and integrated so that the two sensing layers 20 and 40 can be insulated and separated. .

  Further, the coating layer 50 is bonded to the outer surface of the transparent conductive film sensing layer to protect the wiring on the sensing layer. The coating layer 50 is made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), cycloolefin polymer (COP), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyether ether ketone (PEEK), polysulfone (PSF), polyether. (PES), polycarbonate (PC), polyamide, polyimide, acrylic, vinyl series resin or trivinyl cellulose (TAC), but is not limited thereto.

  In summary, it can be seen that the present invention reduces the impedance value of the touch signal transmission path by connecting the first and second conductors 23, 43 to the first and second sensing traces 21, 41. Thereby, not only can the transmission quality of the touch signal be improved, but also the design of a large touchpad can be facilitated, and the thickness of the conductive film of the touch sensing layer can also be reduced. As a result, material costs can be saved and the transparency of the touch sensitive layer can be improved. The first and second conductive wires 23 and 43 are nanometer-level fine metal wires that are not recognized by normal visual observation. Its distribution rate is less than 0.3% of the total area, the light shielding ratio is very low, and most of the area of the entire touch sensing layer is a light-transmitting hollow area with excellent light transmission . Therefore, disposing such a thin metal wire on the sensing trace can not only significantly reduce the impedance value of the sensing trace but also improve the signal transmission rate. There is almost no influence on the visibility, and the above advantages are obtained.

  In the second embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 6, the second conductive wire 43 of the second sensing layer 40 has a continuous wavy curve. In 1st Embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the 1st and 2nd conducting wires 23 and 43 are the straight lines extended continuously. However, since the transparent touch panel is usually used on the front surface of the liquid crystal screen, the thin metal wires arranged in a linear shape may cause moire that affects the display quality of the screen. Therefore, in practical application of the present invention, in addition to the linear configuration of the conductors, in order to reduce the problem of light interference, continuously wavy curves, other regular or irregularly extending lines Can be used.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the second conducting wire 43 can be configured by arranging a plurality of line segments 43a at intervals. Depending on the design requirements, the impedance value of the sensing trace connected to the conductor can freely adjust the requirements set by the signal processing circuit. Further, the above-described line segment configuration has an effect of reducing the problem of optical interference and improving visibility.

  FIG. 8 illustrates a fourth embodiment of the present invention, and a plurality of second conductors 43 can be arranged in parallel with each other to ensure highly efficient signal transmission performance.

  Although the present invention has been fully described in connection with specific embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are merely illustrative for the convenience of further description. The embodiments of the present invention are not limited to this description, and those skilled in the art will appreciate various changes and modifications. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as being included within the scope of the present invention as defined by the scope of the appended utility model claims.

10 Base layer 11 Color frame 11a Shielding area 11b Visible area 20 First sensing layer 21 First sensing trace 21a First sensing unit 21b First connection point 23 First conductor 24 Signal conductor 25 Signal output contact 30 Insulating layer 40 Second sensing Layer 41 second sensing trace 41a second sensing unit 41b second connection point 43 second conductor 44 signal conductor 45 signal output contact 50 coating layer

Claims (10)

A transparent capacitive touch sensor structure, including a transparent first sensing layer, a transparent second sensing layer, and a transparent insulating layer;
The transparent first sensing layer includes a plurality of first sensing traces, and the first sensing traces are configured by arranging a plurality of first sensing units along a first direction trace, and each of the first sensing traces. A first connection point is disposed at an end of the trace, and a first conductor is disposed along the first direction on the first sensing trace, and the first connection point and the plurality of first sensing units are disposed on the first sensing point. Electrically connected, the first conductor is a nano-level fine wire,
The transparent second sensing layer has a plurality of second sensing traces, and the second sensing traces are composed of a plurality of second sensing units arranged in a line along a second direction. Disposed at one end of each of the second sensing traces, and a second conductor is disposed in the second sensing trace along a second direction to electrically connect the second connection point and the plurality of second sensing units. And the second conductive wire is a nano-level thin wire,
The transparent insulating layer is disposed between the transparent first sensing layer and the transparent second sensing layer, and the transparent first sensing layer and the transparent second sensing layer are insulated and separated from each other by the transparent insulating layer. ,
The plurality of first sensing traces and the plurality of second sensing traces are arranged so as to cross each other, so that the plurality of first sensing units and the plurality of second sensing units correspond in a complementary manner. A touch sensor structure, characterized in that it is arranged to form a continuous grid-like sensing unit matrix.   The touch according to claim 1, wherein the first sensing layer and the second sensing layer are translucent conductive thin films, and the material thereof is selected from a metal oxide film or a graphene film. Sensor structure.   The material of the metal oxide film is selected from indium tin oxide (ITO), indium zinc oxide (IZO), aluminum zinc oxide (AZO), and antimony tin oxide (ATO). Item 3. The touch sensor structure according to Item 2.   2. The touch sensor according to claim 1, wherein the first conductive wire and the second conductive wire are thin metal wires having high conductivity, and a resistivity of the thin metal wire is less than 8 × 10 −8 Ω · m. Construction.   5. The touch sensor structure according to claim 4, wherein the material of the thin metal wire is selected from gold, silver, copper, aluminum, molybdenum, nickel, or an alloy made of the above-mentioned materials.   The touch sensor structure according to claim 1, wherein a width of the first conductive wire and the second conductive wire is less than 5 μm.   The touch sensor structure according to claim 1, wherein the first conductive wire and the second conductive wire are a continuously extending straight line, a wavy curve, a regular line, or an irregular line.   The touch sensor structure according to claim 1, wherein the first conducting wire and the second conducting wire are configured by a plurality of line segments spaced apart from each other.   2. The touch sensor structure according to claim 1, wherein the first conductive wire and the second conductive wire are configured by a plurality of metal thin wires provided in parallel to each other.   The touch sensor structure according to claim 1, wherein a material of the transparent insulating layer is selected from a solid optical adhesive film or a liquid optical resin.

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