KR100327310B1 - Device for generating orthogonal electric field being generated alternately - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A device for generating an orthogonal electric field being generated alternately is provided to secure a linearity of an equipotential line of a high reliability by maximizing an effective area and arranging a conductor for an easy manufacturing structure. CONSTITUTION: A conductor is arranged at each edge on a rectangular thin film(1) along four sides of the thin film(1) in parallel, and a plurality of conductor rows are formed. Partial conductors of the conductor rows are connected to each other, and a conductor band is formed. Connection terminals(A, B, C, D) capable of inputting and outputting a signal to the thin film(1) are formed. The first conductor band is connected to each angular point of the thin film(1), disconnected once at the central portion of the thin film(1), and located at the outer end portion from the thin film(1) out of the conductor band. The second conductor band is located at the central portion of each side of the thin film(1) and separated from the angular point of the thin film(1) at a predetermined distance. The end portion of the second conductor band is located toward an edge of the thin film(1) compared with the central portion thereof.

Description

Alternating Quadrature Field Generator

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for generating an alternating orthogonal electric field, and more particularly, to an orthogonal electric field generating device used for determining the position of an object in contact with a touch panel.

BACKGROUND ART A touch input system or a touch input system for determining a position of an object in contact with a contact surface has been variously used in computer graphics, computer design, or computer production system. In addition to the touch input system, the touch input system includes a system that includes a digitizer that responds to a touch or contact at a specific location on the contact surface, and has a transparent cover layer on the conductive surface. The operator can drive the system by touching the lid layer with a finger.

In general, the contact surface in this system has an essentially uniform resistivity, and an electrode made of a material having a higher conductivity than the contact surface is connected to the contact surface.

Such a contact input system includes means for applying a potential across the contact surface in a first direction and then applying a potential across the contact surface in a second direction or a direction perpendicular to the first direction. As a result, when an object such as an operator's finger or a stylus contacts the contact surface, the potential of the contact portion of the object is measured, which corresponds to the position of the object on the contact surface and the distance between the electrode and the object. In addition to providing x-y coordinates, such systems include means for determining and providing z-axis values based on parameters such as pressure or position.

When manufacturing a coordinate input device for a touch input device as described above, orthogonal electric fields are alternately formed by arranging electrodes on a given resistive thin plate along the edge of the plate and applying a voltage to these electrodes in an appropriate time sequence. Be sure to In this case, there is a use of a resistive electrode and a passive element such as a diode.

As described above, in order to form an orthogonal electric field, a plurality of electrodes are required to form an electric field in the horizontal and vertical directions. In order to accurately know the position of the object, an electric field or an equipotential line must be uniformly formed. For this purpose, it is necessary to arrange the electrodes appropriately. To compensate for these difficulties, there are various ways to generate electric fields that are orthogonal to each other.

One example is the method of forming electrodes on two plates instead of forming electrodes on a single plate. In this case, the pair of parallel electrodes is arranged to face the edge of the first plate, and the other pair of electrodes is positioned to face each other at the edge of the other plate which is separated from the previous plate. The electric field in one direction is generated by applying a voltage to the electrodes on the plate in one plate. Orthogonal electric fields occur in the same way in the second plate.

On the other hand, in the case of using an apparatus for forming an orthogonal electric field alternately formed on a single plate, methods for securing high linearity include a method of using a resistive component and a method of using a conductive component. Some examples are given below.

In US Pat. No. 3,798,370 (1974, Mar. 19, Pepper) and US Pat. No. 4,198,539 (1980, Apr. 15, Hurst), sparse resistive components are connected to the substrate or electrode and are located outside the active area. Is located. However, the use of such resistive elements is undesirable because of the lack of persistence and reliability, as well as the need for additional components, making them difficult and expensive.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,655 (April 28, 1987, Gibson et al.) Has made similar attempts. Gibson uses contact electrodes that are connected to discrete resistive elements made of nichrome wire and that can change size and shape. The nichrome wire is distributed along the edge of the plane at the corner of the resistance plane. However, the use of such a resistive component brings additional difficulties in the manufacturing process, requires additional costs, and suffers from poor durability and reliability.

In addition to the method of using the resistance component as described above, there is an attempt to straighten the electric field generated on the contact surface by using the conductive component.

Another approach is to place a diode along the edge of the contact surface to control the direction of the current across the contact surface. Additional drawbacks to this approach are the high cost of the diode and the tendency of the contact input system to stop or become inaccurate when the diode becomes exhausted or inoperable.

Another attempt is to focus on the use of corner electrodes and peripheral areas that have a very low resistivity than resistive contact surfaces, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,232 (March 10, 1987, Nakamura). However, this approach is difficult to properly straighten the contact surface, there is a problem that excessive cost and difficult to produce the correct contact surface.

In contrast, U.S. Pat. No. 4,293, 734 (October 6, 1981 Pepper) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,371,746 (February 1, 1983) uses a method of generating an equipotential region by arranging electrodes in a predetermined pattern on a resistive surface. The shape of the electrode according to Pepper's patent is a structure in which a plurality of electrodes are arranged in parallel parallel shapes along the edge of the substrate as shown in FIG. 1 and the length of the electrode becomes shorter as it goes inward from the edge. Is taking. This approach has a problem in that the electrode is complex, as shown in FIG. 1, and there is a difficulty in manufacturing, and the linearity of the equipotential lines is not so good, thus lacking reliability.

An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, by placing the conductor to have a relatively simple structure, to maximize the effective area and to have a structure that is easy to manufacture, the linearity of the equipotential lines with high reliability An object of the present invention is to provide an orthogonal electric field generating device that is alternately generated.

The present invention to achieve the object as described above, the conductors are arranged parallel to the edge along the four sides of the thin film on a rectangular rectangular thin film to form a plurality of parallel conductor strings and some conductors of the plurality of conductor strings Are connected to each other to form a conductor band, and a connection terminal for inputting and outputting a signal to and from the thin film is formed, and is connected to each vertex of the thin film and includes a conductor band that is broken once in the middle of the thin film. It is an orthogonal field generator.

The conductive strip may further include a conductive strip positioned at the center of each side of the thin film, and the conductive strip may be positioned at an edge portion of the thin film rather than a central portion thereof, and an end of the conductive strip may be bent inward of the foil.

In addition, the thin film may further include a conductive strip positioned between a vertex of the thin film and the center of the thin film, wherein the conductive strip has an end portion located at an edge of the thin film than the center thereof, and an end portion of the conductive strip. Is preferably located inside the membrane rather than the end of the conductor strip located in the center of each side of the membrane.

It may further comprise a conductor strip comprising a conductor of the innermost row of conductors and a conductor of the next row of conductors, the number of which is preferably odd, in particular three or more. The center of the conductor strip belongs to the innermost conductor row, and the area between the center of the conductor band and the area between the center of the conductor band and the vertex of the thin film may include an odd number of insulated conductors. Can be.

The interval between the conductors of the innermost conductor string of the thin film is preferably formed to be narrower as the interval between conductor bands of the thin film is closer to the interval present in the second conductor string from the inside of the thin film.

With reference to the accompanying drawings, a preferred embodiment for easily carrying out the present invention by those skilled in the art according to the above configuration will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 and 3 show the pattern of the conductor according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 shows the device of FIG.

According to the present embodiment, a structure in which conductors are arranged parallel to the edge along four sides on a square or rectangular substrate or thin film 1 is adopted.

It is preferable that the thin film 1 is a resistive thin film and has a uniform specific resistance as a whole. This is because when the resistivity is not uniform, the electric field may be distorted to hinder the linearity of the equipotential lines.

Four corners of the thin film 1 are formed with connection terminals A, B, C, for inputting and outputting signals.

The conductors are arranged along the edge of the thin film 1 and the shape of each conductor is preferably linear. The conductor is usually formed by screen printing a conductive ink such as Ag paste, but in the present invention, a metal, a low resistance organic material, and a low resistance inorganic material having a lower resistance value than the resistance of the thin film 1 are used. It is also possible to make these materials and to screen-print these materials with plating or low-resistance dough.

The distance between the width of the conductor and the conductor row is proportional to the size of the thin film. When used in a touch panel that is the size of a general computer monitor screen, the distance between the conductor strings is preferably about 0.5 mm, and the distance between the conductor rows is about 1 mm.

The conductors form a number of parallel lines parallel to the edges and shall be arranged as follows. That is, when the same potential is applied to the points A and B of FIG. 2 and the potentials lower / higher than the potentials applied to the points A and B are applied to the points C and D-point A and B Is equipotential, and if there is a potential difference along the pattern between points C and D, then the conductors distributed between points A and B and between points C and D are placed with minimum breaks and A and D The conductors between the points and the conductors between the points B and C are preferably arranged so that the breakage is maximized, on the contrary, the same potential is applied to the points A and D and the points A and B at the points B and C. If the lower / higher potentials are equally applied than the potentials applied to-where A and B are equipotential and there is a potential difference along the pattern between B and C, Conductors distributed between point D and point D and between point B and C should be arranged with minimum breaks, and conductors between A and B points and conductors between C and D points placed with maximum break. desirable.

Considering both cases, the conductors should be arranged to have a complex structure.

Once there is a potential difference along the pattern, it is influenced by the detailed shape of the pattern. Therefore, the conductors should be arranged so that the breakage is maximized inside the thin film 1, and the basic value is maintained in the equipotential situation. At the edge of the) the conductors are arranged so that the break is minimized.

With the above method of arranging the conductors in mind, a relocation operation must be performed to efficiently use the space of the thin film 1 and to arrange an intermediate conductor serving as a buffer.

As a result of such work, it was concluded that the arrangement of the conductors as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is very suitable for securing linearity. This structure will be described in detail below.

There are a number of parallel conductor rows along each side of the thin film. 2 and 3 show a structure in which four conductor strings are formed. For example, in a quarter-sized substrate as shown in FIG. 3, the innermost row of conductors contains conductors (19 to 26), and the second row of inner conductors (conductors 15 to 18). And the third row of conductors from the inside includes conductors 12, 13, and 14, and the outermost row of conductors includes only one conductor (11).

The conductors in each row of conductors are connected to each other to form a conductor strip. For example, in Fig. 3, the conductor 15 of the second row of conductors from the inner side connected to the vertex of the thin film is connected to the conductor 12 of the third row of conductors from the inner side by the connecting conductor 33, and the conductor 12 is the first. It is connected to the conductor 11 of the outer row, the conductor 11 is connected to the conductor 13 of the third row of conductors from the inside to form one conductor (100). In addition, the conductor 22 at about one quarter of the sides of the innermost conductor row is then connected to the two conductors 16 and 17 of the conductor row to form one conductor strip 200. The conductor 26 at the center of the side of the innermost conductor row is then connected to the conductor 18 of the next row of conductors, and the conductor 18 is then connected to the conductor 14 of the next row of conductors. It is connected to the connecting conductor 36 to form a single conductor strip 300 is bent inward.

The structure of the conductor strings formed on each side is the same, although they differ in size, and they are symmetrical about the center of each side.

In contrast to the prior art as the most characteristic part of the present invention, the conductive strip 100 connected to the vertex of the thin film is broken only once at the center of each side of the thin film.

The conductor strip includes one or more conductors (11, 12, 13, 15) in each conductor row except for the innermost conductor row of the thin film, in which the vertices of the thin film and each side of the thin film are The conductor 11 between them protrudes more toward the edge of the thin film than the central conductors 15 and 13.

In the center of each side of the thin film, there is one conductor strip 300. In the conductor strip 300, the conductor 14 at the end thereof is positioned at the edge of the conductor row rather than the conductor 26 at the center thereof. The end of the conductive strip 300 is bent into the thin film by the connecting conductor 36. In addition, the conductor strip 300 includes one or more conductors 26, 18, and 14 in each conductor string except for the conductor string located at the edge of each side.

There is one more conductor strip 200 between the vertex of the thin film and the center of the thin film. In the conductor strip 200, the conductors 16 and 17 at the end thereof are edged than the conductor 22 in the middle. It belongs to the side conductor row. The conductor 17 at the end of the conductor strip 200 belongs to the inner conductor row than the conductor 14 at the end of the conductor strip 300 positioned at the center of each side of the thin film.

At this time, the conductor strip 100 connected to each vertex of the thin film is located at the edge of the thin film.

Considering such an apparatus from another aspect, it can be seen that it has the following characteristics.

The quadrature electric field generating device according to the present invention includes a conductor strip (200, 300) including a conductor of the innermost conductor row of the thin film and a conductor of the conductor row next. As described above, the number of the above-described conductor bands including the innermost conductor row of the thin film and the conductor of the subsequent conductor row is preferably odd, and in this embodiment, three per side. The center of the conductor strips 200 and 300 belongs to the innermost row of conductors, the area between the conductors 22 and 26 in the center of the conductor strips 200 and 300, and the center of the conductor strip 200. There is an isolated conductor 23, 24, 25; 19, 20, 21 in the region between the conductor 22 and the vertex A of the thin film. Each number of insulated conductors in each region is odd, with three in this embodiment.

The spacing between the conductors of the innermost conductor row of the thin film is the spacing between the conductor strips of the thin film and the gap present in the second row of conductors from the inside of the thin film-between 15 and 16 of the conductors of the second row of conductors from the inside, 17 The closer to-, the narrower it is.

Looking at this structure in more detail as follows.

The arrangement structure of the conductors at the four edges of the thin film 1 is all the same, and the number of conductors increases as it goes inward from the edge of the thin film 1. That is, the more the inside, the more the conductor is broken. In the case of the structure shown in Fig. 2, the number of conductors in each conductor row is 2, 6, 8, and 15, respectively, from the edge of the conductor row.

The conductors in each conductor row of the thin film 1, on average, gradually decrease in length as they enter the inner conductor row from the edge conductor row. In Fig. 3, the above-mentioned matters hold true, except that the conductor 13 close to the center of the outer second conductor string is shorter in length than the outer third conductor string.

Also, the number of conductors is larger in the area between the center and the corner than the corner or the center. That is, the density of the conductors is higher between them than in the corners or the center. This is one of the differences from Pepper's pattern in which the number of conductors is similar in all areas except the center. This configuration reduces the number of conductors and facilitates manufacturing. In Figure 2, the outermost row of conductors is centered at about a quarter, and the conductors of the second row of outer conductors are not in the center but are distributed one after the other in the corner and some distance from the corner. . 3 shows a conductor 15 connected to a connection terminal at a corner among the conductors of the second row of conductors from the inside. In FIG. 2, only the innermost row of conductors is located at the center of each side of the thin film 1, and the remaining row of conductors is not shown.

The innermost second row of conductor rows on two adjacent sides are connected to each other at the connection terminals A, B, C, and D at each corner. In FIG. 3, the conductor 15 of the 2nd row from the inside is connected with the connection terminal A. FIG.

Among the conductors of the remaining conductor strings except the innermost one, the conductors closest to the corners in each conductor string are connected to each other. This is due to the necessity of minimizing the break in the outside and for the same reason as described above. In FIG. 3, the conductor 11 of the outermost row of conductors and the conductor 12 closest to the corner of the conductors of the second row of conductors outside and the conductor 15 of the outermost row of conductors closest to the corner of the third row of conductors are connected conductors 32. , 33).

In FIG. 3, the innermost conductor row of the central conductor 26 is connected via the connecting conductor 37 to the inner conductor 18 of the inner second row of conductors, and the inner conductor 18 is the conductor of the third row of conductors from the inside. It is connected with the 14 and the connection conductor 34. As shown in FIG.

In FIG. 3, several other connecting conductors 31 and 38 are used to connect the conductors. The conductors in the innermost row of conductors are all isolated except for the conductors 22 and 26 in the middle and quarter.

As described above, the orthogonal electric field generating device alternately generated according to the present invention has a relatively simple structure, maximizes the effective area, and arranges the conductors to have an easy structure to ensure the linearity of the equipotential lines with high reliability. Provide effect.

1 is a conventional device that alternately generates an orthogonal electric field,

2 and 3 illustrate an apparatus for alternately generating an orthogonal electric field according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view in which the thin film of FIG. 2 is divided into four and the upper left part thereof is enlarged.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

1: thin film 11-26: conductor

31-39: Connected conductor 100-300: Conductor strip

Claims (22)

Conductors are arranged parallel to the edge along four sides of the thin film on a rectangular rectangular thin film to form a plurality of conductor strings, and some conductors of the plurality of conductor strings are connected to each other to form a conductor band. In the orthogonal field generator, which can be connected to the terminal, And a first conductor band connected to each vertex of the thin film and broken once in the middle of the thin film and positioned at the edge of the thin film among the conductor bands. The quadrature electric field generating device of claim 1, further comprising a second conductor band positioned at a center of each side of the thin film and spaced apart from a vertex of the thin film. The quadrature electric field generating device of claim 2, wherein an end portion of the second conductor strip is positioned at an edge of the thin film rather than a central portion thereof. The quadrature electric field generating device of claim 3, wherein an end of the second conductor band is bent into the thin film. The quadrature electric field generating device of claim 4, wherein the second conductor strip includes one or more conductors of each conductor string except for the conductor string located at the edge of each side of the thin film. The quadrature electric field generating device of claim 2, further comprising a third conductor band positioned between a vertex of the thin film and a center of the thin film and spaced apart from a vertex of the thin film. The quadrature electric field generating device of claim 6, wherein an end portion of the third conductor strip is positioned closer to the edge of the thin film than the center thereof. The quadrature electric field generating device of claim 7, wherein an end portion of the third conductor strip is located inside the thin film than an end portion of the second conductor strip. 7. The quadrature electric field generating device of claim 6, wherein the second conductor strip includes a conductor of an innermost conductor row of the thin film and a conductor of a subsequent conductor row. 12. The orthogonal electric field generating device of claim 10, wherein the third conductor band has an odd number of conductor bands including a conductor of an innermost conductor row of the thin film and a conductor of a subsequent conductor row. 11. The quadrature electric field generating device according to claim 10, wherein the number of the conductor bands including the innermost conductor row of the thin film and the conductor of the subsequent conductor row is three or more. 12. An orthogonal electric field generating device according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein the center of said conductor strip comprising the conductor of the innermost conductor row of the thin film and the conductor of the subsequent conductor row belongs to the innermost conductor row. . 13. The apparatus of claim 12, comprising a region between the center of the conductor strip including the conductor of the innermost conductor row of the thin film and the conductor of the next conductor row and the conductor of the innermost conductor row of the thin film and the conductor of the next conductor row. And a conductor isolated from a region between the center of the conductor strip and a vertex of the thin film. 14. The quadrature electric field generating device according to claim 13, wherein each number of insulated conductors in each region is odd. 15. The method of claim 14 wherein the innermost conductor row of the thin film is the spacing between the conductors. Orthogonal electric field generating device characterized in that the narrower the interval between conductor bands of the thin film becomes closer to the gap present in the second row of conductors from the inside of the thin film. The quadrature electric field generating device of claim 1, wherein the connection terminal is located at a vertex of the thin film. The quadrature electric field generating device according to claim 1, wherein the gap between the width of the conductor band and the conductor band is proportional to the size of the thin film. The quadrature electric field generating device according to any one of claims 1, 4, 8, and 15, wherein the structure of the conductor strings formed on each side of the thin film is equal. 16. An orthogonal electric field as claimed in any one of claims 1, 4, 8 and 15, wherein the structure of the conductor string formed along one side of the thin film is symmetrical with respect to the center of each side of the thin film. Generating device. The quadrature electric field generating device of claim 1, wherein the first conductor band includes at least one conductor of each conductor string except for the innermost conductor string of the thin film. 23. The orthogonal electric field generating device of claim 22, wherein the first conductor strip protrudes further toward the edge of the thin film therebetween than at the vertex of the thin film and the center of each side of the thin film. The quadrature electric field generating device according to any one of claims 1, 4, 8, and 15, wherein the number of conductors of the innermost conductor row among the conductor rows is odd and the number of conductors of the remaining conductor rows is even. .