JPH0926852A - Touch panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To inspect normal/defective condition decision without connecting a post-fitted connector by forming a key signal fetch terminal at a part of an electrode formed on one electrode board and providing a notched part at a part confronting with the key signal fetch terminal of the other electrode board. SOLUTION: An electrode circuit 8 consisting of silver ink is formed at the peripheral part of a resistance coating film 6 formed on the surface of a lower electrode board 1, and a key signal fetch terminal 9 part is formed at a part of the electrode circuit 8. The notched part 12 of an upper electrode board 2 adhered on the surface of the lower electrode board 1 with a double coated adhesive tape 3 is provided at a part confronting with the key signal fetch terminal 9 part. Thereby, a bared state is set without hiding a touch panel behind the upper electrode board 2, and the normal/defective condition decision is inspected without connecting the post-fitted connector 5.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a touch panel used for a portable information terminal, an electronic notebook, etc., and more specifically to the structure thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as for a display device having an input function using a touch panel, for example, as shown in FIG.
Generally, a touch panel 21 is laminated on the front surface of the liquid crystal panel 20, and a part of the display screen of the touch panel 21 is touched with a pen 22 or the like to input a character or a figure 23, and the information is stored. It is detected by a computer 24 connected to a display device, the coordinates of the input position are calculated based on the detected values, and the characters and figures 23 are displayed on the display screen of the liquid crystal panel 20 according to the calculated coordinates. is there.

As shown in FIG. 6, the touch panel 21 has a lower electrode substrate 31 and an upper electrode substrate 3 which are transparent.
2, the electrode circuits 38 and 41 are formed using silver ink or the like, and the key signal take-out terminal 39 is formed in a part of the electrode circuit 38 made of the silver ink. Are formed so as to be opposed to each other and are bonded to each other with a frame-shaped double-sided tape 33 in which air holes for preventing dew condensation are formed.

At the key signal output terminal 39,
As shown in FIG. 7, a retrofit connector 35 is inserted and connected. It is important that the post-connector 35 is electrically and mechanically connected. Therefore, the surface of the post-connector 35 is coated with an anisotropic conductive adhesive 34.

The connection of the retrofit connector 35 to the touch panel 21 is performed by attaching the lower electrode substrate 31 and the upper electrode substrate 32 with the double-sided tape 33, and then in the gap portion previously formed on the double-sided tape 33. Insert the retrofit connector 35, and the key signal extraction terminal 3
After the alignment with 9, the heat-sealing press machine 46 applies heat and pressure to the anisotropic conductive adhesive formed on the surface of the post-installed connector 35, as shown in FIG. An electrical and mechanical connection is made by 34.

As such a retrofit connector, the one in which an electrode for connection with an external circuit is provided on the same surface of a transparent switch through an external connector composed of independent parts is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 4-15127. Is disclosed.

[0007]

In the touch panel 21 as described above, as shown in FIG. 7, it is necessary to measure the inter-terminal resistance and the insulation resistance of the touch panel 21 to make a pass / fail judgment. . This is N in the quality judgment
This is because connecting the retrofitting connector 35 as described above to the G (defective) touch panel wastes material costs and labor costs.

Therefore, it is preferable to first inspect the touch panel 21 and then electrically and mechanically connect the retrofit connector 35 to the non-defective product by the heat seal press machine 46 as described above.

However, when the quality of the touch panel 21 is inspected, the retrofit connector 35 is used.
Need to be connected to the touch panel 21, so that the retrofit connector 35 is connected to the lower electrode substrate 3.
1 between the upper electrode substrate 32 and the upper electrode substrate 32, only the load 47 is applied from above the upper electrode substrate 32, and the probe 45 such as the automatic inspection / measuring machine 44 is applied to the touch panel 21 in a state of being temporarily connected by pressure welding. I was conducting an inspection.

Typical inspection items at this time include resistance between terminals of the touch panel 21, insulation resistance, linearity of key input, key input load, etc., but all of these inspections are performed as described above. Load 4 from above the electrode substrate 32
It is necessary to perform in a temporary connection state in which only 7 is applied.

Further, these inspections require a large number of devices and jigs required for the inspections, and require a lot of work, so that they cannot be mechanized or automated.
Therefore, it is general that a worker 48 manually inserts and removes the retrofit connector 35 between the lower electrode substrate 31 and the upper electrode substrate 32. In particular, when both the lower electrode substrate 31 and the upper electrode substrate 32 are made of a film material, it was a very difficult work.

As a measure against these, by applying heat and pressure to the post-attachment connector 35 only to the lower electrode substrate 31 by the heat seal press machine 46, the anisotropically formed on the surface of the post-attachment connector 35. It is also conceivable to connect electrically and mechanically with the conductive conductive adhesive 34.

However, in the method as described above,
If damage or the like occurs in the next step, there is a problem that all material costs including the touch panel 21 and labor costs are wasted.

The next step in this case is a step of bonding the common transition, which means that electrical conduction is obtained between the lower electrode substrate 31 and the upper electrode substrate 32. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 6, after the double-sided tape 33 for bonding the upper and lower electrode substrates is attached on the electrode circuit 38 formed on one substrate, the double-sided tape 33 is formed on the double-sided tape 33. Recess 49 or round hole 5
0 is to discharge a certain amount of silver ink 51 for common transfer with a dispenser, and then to bond it to the other substrate. By bonding the upper and lower electrode substrates 32 and 31, the common transfer That is, the silver ink 51 is crushed and the upper and lower electrode terminals are electrically connected.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the prior art, and its object is to take out the key signal in the electrode substrate on the side where the key signal taking out terminal is not formed. An object of the present invention is to provide a touch panel that can be inspected for pass / fail judgment without connecting a retrofit connector by forming a configuration in which a portion facing a terminal is cut out.

[0016]

A touch panel according to the present invention is a touch panel in which at least two electrode substrates are attached at a predetermined interval, and a key is formed on a part of the electrodes formed on the one electrode substrate. The signal extracting terminal is formed, and a notch is provided in a portion of the other electrode substrate facing the key signal extracting terminal. Is achieved.

Further, it is preferable that the cutout portion provided on the electrode substrate has substantially the same shape as a key signal takeout terminal portion formed on the other electrode substrate.

Further, it is preferable that the coordinate detection system of the touch panel uses a resistive film system.

According to the present invention, by providing a notch in a portion of the electrode substrate on the side where the post-attached connector is not formed, facing the post-attached connector, the post-attachment can be performed even after the two electrode substrates are bonded together. Since the key signal output terminal connected to the connector is exposed,
When inspecting the quality of the touch panel, it is possible to directly contact a probe such as an automatic inspection measuring instrument with the key signal extraction terminal, the inter-terminal resistance of the touch panel, the insulation resistance, the linearity of the key input, The key input load etc. can be easily measured and the inspection speed can be improved.

As a result of the above inspection, if it is found that the touch panel is defective, it is not necessary to carry out the subsequent steps. Specifically, it is not necessary to connect the retrofit connector, and the cost and labor cost of the retrofit connector are not wasted.

When a defective product is found, the inspection data is usually connected to the production line, and therefore online QC by a statistical method also helps improve the non-defective product rate in the production process.

Further, thermocompression bonding with an anisotropic conductive adhesive is required when connecting the retrofit connector,
At this time, according to the present invention, since the heater head for thermocompression bonding can be brought into direct contact with the retrofit connector, the thermal efficiency of the heater head for thermocompression bonding can be remarkably improved.

That is, according to the present invention, since the touch panel inspection process, thermocompression bonding process (heat sealing) and the like can be processed by an automatic machine as described above, compared to the conventional manual work by an operator. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently operate the material cost, the labor cost, the time, and the like.

[0024]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a touch panel according to this embodiment. In the touch panel according to this embodiment, a lower electrode substrate 1 and an upper electrode substrate 2 are bonded together with a double-sided adhesive tape 3. , And is connected to a post-installed connector 5 having an anisotropic conductive adhesive 4 formed on its surface.

First, the lower electrode substrate 1 will be described.
Lower electrode substrate 1 made of glass material (length 90 mm, width 1
A resistance film 6 made of ITO (indium tin oxide) having a uniform surface resistance is formed on the surface of 30 mm and a thickness of 1100 μm, and a circuit pattern is formed by etching the resistance film 6, and then a dot spacer is formed. 7 was produced.

It is well known that a photo process method (resist: AZ-1300 manufactured by Hoechst Japan) is used as a method for producing the dot spacers 7.
In this example, the screen printing method (printing ink: UVCF-82 manufactured by Shikoku Kasei) was used.

At this time, the dot spacers 7 have a pitch interval of 0.2 mm to 2.0 mm (preferably 0.3 m).
m-1.5 mm) and the diameter is 20 μm-75
μm (preferably 30 μm to 50 μm), height 3 μm
It was produced by setting the thickness in the range of -30 μm (preferably 4 μm-8 μm). Although the dot spacers 7 are provided on the surface of the lower electrode substrate 1 in this embodiment, they may be provided on the surface of the upper electrode substrate 2.

Next, an electrode circuit 8 made of silver ink (LS-415C manufactured by Osaka Asahi Chemical Co., Ltd.) is formed around the resistance film 6 formed on the surface of the lower electrode substrate 1.
In addition, a key signal extraction terminal 9 portion was formed on a part of the electrode circuit 8 made of the silver ink.

After that, a double-sided tape 3 (Sumitomo 3M # 4501: vertical 9 on the surface of the lower electrode substrate 1 manufactured as described above for bonding with the upper electrode substrate 2 is formed.
0 mm, width 130 mm, thickness 100 μm) was attached. At this time, in the portion of the double-sided tape 3 corresponding to the key signal extraction terminal 9 portion, a gap portion 17 for a later-installed connector to be connected later and 1 mm to 3 mm for preventing dew condensation.
An air hole 18 of about mm is formed.

Next, the upper electrode substrate 2 will be described.
Since the upper electrode substrate 2 needs to bend when the key is turned on and return to the original state when the key is turned off, it is common to use a film material.

In this embodiment, the upper electrode substrate 2 made of a polyester film (length 90 mm, width 130 m) is used.
m, thickness 125 μm), and a resistance film 10 made of ITO (indium tin oxide) having a uniform surface resistance.
After forming, the electrode circuits 11 made of silver ink (LS-415C manufactured by Osaka Asahi Chemical Co., Ltd.) were formed on both sides of the resistance film 10.

At this time, the key signal extraction terminal 9 is formed in a portion of the upper electrode substrate 2 manufactured as described above that faces the key signal extraction terminal 9 formed in a part of the electrode circuit 8 on the lower electrode substrate 1. A notch 12 having substantially the same shape as the terminal 9 is provided.

After that, the upper electrode substrate 2 and the lower electrode substrate 1 were attached to each other with the double-sided tape 3 attached on the surface of the lower electrode substrate 1 to produce the touch panel 13. At this time, the electrode circuit 8 on the lower electrode substrate 1
The key signal output terminal 9 formed on a part of the above is formed by the cutout portion 12 provided on the upper electrode substrate 2.
It was exposed without being hidden by the upper electrode substrate 2.

Next, the inspection for determining the quality of the touch panel 13 manufactured as described above will be described. As shown in Fig. 2, resistance between terminals, insulation resistance, linearity of key input,
Automatic measuring machine 14 which measures key input load etc. and judges pass / fail
The probe 15 was directly contacted with the key signal extraction terminal 9 formed on the lower electrode substrate 1 of the touch panel 13 for measurement.

At this time, for each measurement item described above,
Even one exceeding the standard value (those judged to be defective)
With regard to the above, the subsequent measurement was not performed, and the sample was removed from the subsequent steps on the spot and moved to a predetermined place. In addition, with respect to each of the above-mentioned measurement items, those which were all within the standard values (those judged to be non-defective) were directly sent to the heat sealing step which is the next step.

In the heat-sealing step, the automatic tower mounter mounts the post-connector connector 5 (thickness 60) made of polyimide on which the copper wiring 19 is provided on the key signal take-out terminal 9.
(3 μm) alignment and then mounted on the tower, and as shown in FIG. 3, by applying heat and pressure directly by the heat seal press device 16, an anisotropic conductive material formed on the surface of the post-installed connector 5 Effective adhesive 4 electrically,
A mechanical connection was made. The heat seal at this time is 1
It was conducted under the conditions of 40 ° C., 40 Kg / cm ² , and 20 seconds. In this way, the touch panel 13 as shown in FIG. 4 was produced.

In the operation of the touch panel 13 having the above-described structure, as is well known, the display surface is pressed by a pen or the like, so that the upper electrode side substrate is pressed, and the resistive coating at the pressed position is moved to the lower part. Contact with the resistive coating on the electrode side substrate. When touched with such a pen or the like, the current value (analog value) flowing in the circuit at the contact position is converted into a digital value by the A / D converter, and the position coordinate is calculated by this, and the calculated coordinate is converted into the calculated coordinate. Accordingly, it becomes possible to display characters and figures on the display screen on the display.

(Example 2) In this example, the same procedure as in Example 1 was performed except that a polyester film was used for both the lower electrode substrate and the upper electrode substrate.
I made a touch panel.

At this time, the film material for forming the upper and lower electrode substrates is not particularly limited to the polyester film, and for example, polyether sulfone, polycarbonate or the like can be used.

[0041]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, after the two electrode substrates are bonded together, the quality of the touch panel can be checked and then the connection of the retrofit connector can be performed. Therefore, it is not necessary to connect the post-installed connector to the one determined to be defective, and it is possible to significantly improve the cost and labor cost of the post-installed connector.

Further, even after the two electrode substrates are bonded together, the key signal extraction terminal connected to the retrofit connector is still exposed, so that the probe of the inspection / measuring machine or the like can extract the key signal. Since it is possible to directly contact the terminal, the quality determination test can be easily measured, and the speed of the test can be improved.

Moreover, at the time of heat sealing for connecting the touch panel having undergone the quality inspection and the retrofit connector, heat can be directly pressed on the retrofit connector, so that uniform heating with good temperature efficiency can be achieved. In addition, the set temperature can be kept low, and the process using an automatic mounting machine can be automated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a touch panel according to this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an inspection method for determining the quality of a touch panel according to this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a connection of a retrofit connector by a heat-sealing press device for a touch panel in this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a touch panel manufactured in this example.

FIG. 5 is an overall perspective view of a conventional display device having an input function using a touch panel.

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view showing a conventional touch panel.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a conventional touch panel inspection method for quality determination.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing connection of a retrofit connector by a conventional heat seal press device for a touch panel.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 31 Lower electrode substrate 2, 32 Upper electrode substrate 3, 33 Double-sided tape 4, 34 Anisotropic conductive adhesive 5, 35 Retrofit connector 6, 10 Resistive film 7, 37 Dot spacer 8, 11, 38, 41 Electrode Circuit 9, 39 Key signal extraction terminal 12 Notch 13, 21 Touch panel 14, 44 Automatic measuring machine 15, 45 Probe 16, 46 Heat sheet pressing device 17 Double-sided tape gap 18 Double-sided tape Air hole 19 Retrofit connector Copper wiring 20 Liquid crystal Panel 22 Pen 23 Characters and figures 24 Computer 47 Load 48 Worker's finger 49 Seal material recess 50 Seal material round hole 51 Silver ink

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A touch panel in which at least two electrode substrates are adhered to each other with a predetermined gap, and a part of the electrodes formed on the one electrode substrate is:
A touch panel, wherein a key signal extraction terminal is formed, and a cutout portion is provided in a portion of the other electrode substrate facing the key signal extraction terminal. 2. The cutout portion provided in the electrode substrate has substantially the same shape as a key signal takeout terminal portion formed on the other electrode substrate. Touch panel. 3. The touch panel according to claim 1, wherein a resistive film method is used as a coordinate detecting method of the touch panel.