KR101163706B1

KR101163706B1 - Touch panel with both elevation of view trait and printing layer

Info

Publication number: KR101163706B1
Application number: KR1020110008816A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 김병환
Original assignee: (주)리지스
Priority date: 2010-12-29
Filing date: 2011-01-28
Publication date: 2012-07-09

Abstract

The present invention relates to a touch panel having both a visibility improvement and a printed layer.
In the configuration, the glass substrate as the main substrate (10); And depositing a printing layer 21 and a niobium oxide layer 22 on one surface of the substrate 10 in order. A conductive layer for depositing a silicon oxide layer 33 having a low refractive index and an indium tin oxide layer 35 having a high refractive index so as to be formed by depositing a material having a different refractive index in multiple layers on the upper surface of the niobium oxide layer 22 ( 30); wherein the glass substrate 10 is selected from soda lime glass or ring glass, and provided with a chemical strengthening layer 20 on one surface of the substrate 10, the chemical strengthening layer 20 is It is characterized in that it is formed by immersing in potassium nitrate solution at about 400 ~ 500 ℃ for about 2 ~ 8 hours.
Accordingly, in response to the trend of light weight / slim, it is possible to improve the visibility and to be applied to various products, and also to form a printed layer collectively to remove the hassle of additional manufacturing process.

Description

Touch panel with both elevation and printing layer {Touch panel with both elevation of view trait and printing layer}

The present invention relates to a touch panel using a glass substrate, and more particularly, to meet the trend of light weight / slim, to improve visibility and to be applied to various products, and to form a printed layer in a batch to further manufacture process. The present invention relates to a touch panel having both a visibility improvement and a printed layer, which has been eliminated even hassle.

In general, the touch panel is classified into a resistive film type, a capacitive type, an ultrasonic type, an acoustic wave type, an infrared type, and the like, and the resistive type and the capacitive type are mainly used.

The resistive type is widely used in TVs, monitors, notebook PCs, car navigation systems, gaming devices, white appliances, PDAs, electronic dictionaries, mobile phones and camcorders due to its high reliability and stability. However, since the conductive material is coated on the glass or the film coated with the conductive material is laminated structure, the outdoor visibility is poor due to the diffuse reflection phenomenon by the air gap between the upper and lower plates, the surface flexibility when using glass Lack of barriers to the proliferation of applications. The capacitive method is a method of sensing and driving static electricity of the human body, which has a strong durability, a short response time, and a high permeability, and has recently been applied to mobile phones from some industrial and casino game machines. On the other hand, it does not operate with a pen or gloved hand and has a relatively expensive disadvantage.

However, in any of the above methods, the maintenance of quality and productivity consistent with the use of the product is recognized as an important factor in determining the marketability in the future, and it is necessary to introduce glass (glass) due to the diversification of the applied product, Follow.

For example, according to Korean Patent Publication No. 0681157, "The structure of the capacitive touch panel and its manufacturing method", "A glass substrate formed with a linear pattern, a shield pattern and an overcoating film formed of silver paste; A transparent conductive film formed of ITO or ATO on the front surface of the glass substrate so as to accurately detect a touch position of a material touched by the touch panel; A transparent conductive film for shielding noise by forming a back portion of the glass substrate with ITO; A shield pattern formed of silver paste on the rear surface of the transparent conductive film to reduce noise; A linear pattern formed by using a silver paste on the front surface of the transparent conductive film to correct linearly from a distorted signal structurally generated in the touch panel, and uniformly distributing a voltage generated in the touch panel to ensure linearity; An overcoat layer uniformly spin-coated with SiO ₂ -based coating solution on the upper surface of the linear pattern and the transparent conductive layer to protect the conductive coating layer of the touch panel and reduce noise; A flexible and flat tail connected by soldering a terminal of a tail to an electrode for supplying power to the linear pattern; It consists of.

As another example, according to the "resistive touch panel" of Korean Patent No. 908225, "the lower insulator layer, the lower transparent conductive oxide film layer formed in the touch part pattern on the upper surface of the lower insulator layer, and the lower transparent conductive oxide film layer A lower pad made of a lower metal deposition coating layer formed in a connection pattern for drawing electrical signals from the edge of the lower insulator layer to the edge of the lower insulator layer; (Omitted) proposes a double layer structure of the transparent conductive oxide film layer and the metal deposition coating layer for all the connection patterns for the electrical signal extraction. This reveals that it is possible to manufacture a material with a lower cost and a simpler process than a process in which silver paste is applied as a connection pattern for drawing out from the ITO layer to the outside.

However, according to the above-mentioned conventional technologies, although mass productivity and durability can be improved to some extent, when applied to a capacitive glass substrate, there is a limitation in exhibiting high refractive index, which makes it difficult to apply to various products. There is almost no problem in the prior art of manufacturing a printed layer by including it in an initial process of a touch panel.

Accordingly, the present invention is to provide a touch panel that can be applied to a variety of products by improving the visibility while meeting the trend of light weight / slimming, and also to form a printed layer to remove the hassle of the additional manufacturing process, the object is to have.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a touch panel comprising: a substrate based on glass; Depositing a printed layer and a niobium oxide layer (NB ₂ O ₅ ) on one surface of the substrate; A silicon oxide layer (SiO ₂ ) having a low refractive index and an indium tin oxide layer having a high refractive index (ITO; Indium Tin Oxide) are formed so as to be formed by depositing a multi-layered material having different refractive index on the upper surface of the niobium oxide layer (NB ₂ O ₅ ). A conductive layer for depositing); The glass substrate is selected from soda lime glass or Gorilla glass and provided with a chemical strengthening layer, the chemical strengthening layer in a potassium nitrate solution of about 400 ~ 500 ℃ It is characterized by being formed by dipping in about 2 to 8 hours.

delete

On the other hand, the terms or words used in the present specification and claims are not to be construed as limiting the ordinary or dictionary meanings, the inventors should use the concept of the term in order to explain the invention in the best way. It should be interpreted as meanings and concepts corresponding to the technical idea of the present invention based on the principle that it can be properly defined. Therefore, the embodiments described in the present specification and the configuration shown in the drawings are only the most preferred embodiments of the present invention, and do not represent all of the technical ideas of the present invention, and various alternatives may be substituted at the time of the present application. It should be understood that there may be equivalents and variations.

As described in the above configuration and operation, the laminated structure of the touch panel according to the present invention is applicable to a variety of products by improving the visibility while meeting the trend of light weight / slim in applying the substrate to the capacitive touch panel In addition, there is an effect that the cumbersome formation of the additional manufacturing process is eliminated by collectively forming the printed layer.

1 is a configuration diagram showing the main structure of the touch panel according to the present invention in a stacked state,
FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing the structure of FIG. 1 in a cross-sectional state. FIG.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The present invention relates to touch panels, and more particularly to the manner in which a portion of the conductive layer is formed by vapor deposition. For example, in the case of the capacitive type method, following the configuration of the present invention in which the conductive layer 30 is formed by vapor deposition on the substrate 10, a conductive layer having connectors, dot spacers, and conductors is bonded, and finally a film is bonded. You can choose the process. As another example, in the state in which the conductive layer 30 is formed by vapor deposition on the substrate 10, a stack structure different from the above may be taken. Either way, better visibility improves the applicability to various products.

Prior to reviewing a schematic process sequence of the present invention, for convenience of description, a description will be made based on a cell glass substrate among glass substrates 10.

In view of the schematic process sequence of the present invention, a preparation step of loading the cell glass substrate 10 before cleaning, a cleaning step of introducing the cell glass into the cleaner, a step of loading the cell glass into the carrier, and a printing layer Entering the formed cell glass into a vacuum chamber, coating NB ₂ O ₅ by plasma forming, coating SiO ₂ by argon plasma forming, coating ITO by DC power supply control method, cell glass Is subjected to surface treatment with an ion beam to reduce the rate of change of resistance through stabilization of the ITO thin film.

According to the present invention, a substrate 10 based on glass is used, and the substrate 10 must improve physical properties through a predetermined pretreatment. Typically, the improvement in physical properties is selected from physical, thermal and chemical methods.

At this time, in the case of the glass substrate 10 is selected from soda lime glass or ring glass, and provided with a chemical strengthening layer (20). Soda-lime glass and cholera glass are suitable because they have the physical properties required for display products, but are not necessarily limited thereto, and various glass substrates such as PC (polycarbonate) or PMMA (polymethacryl) are applied. You may. Since the cracking of the glass is caused by fine cracking and frictional force, it can be improved by surface hardening by heat treatment or chemical treatment. In the case of heat treatment, stress improvement occurs temporarily at the temperature gradient above the melting point, and the glass should be a simple plane and a certain thickness or more. On the other hand, the chemically strengthened layer 20 by the chemical method may implement high strength regardless of the shape or thickness of the glass.

The chemically strengthened layer 20 is characterized in that it is formed by immersing in about 2 to 8 hours in potassium nitrate solution of about 400 ~ 500 ℃. Chemical strengthening is by ion exchange and is carried out at temperatures below the melting point of the glass. When glass is immersed in potassium nitrate solution at 400 ~ 500 ℃ for about 2 ~ 8 hours, Na ions on the surface of glass and K ions of the solution are interchanged, and strengthening is caused by contraction by electromagnetic force. The preferred temperature of the chemically strengthened layer 20 and the immersion time of the potassium nitrate solution vary depending on the function of the touch panel. For example, the temperature of the chemically strengthened layer 20 is 420 ° C., and the potassium nitrate solution is heated for about 3 hours. Although it may be immersed, the temperature may be set to 450 ° C. and immersed in potassium nitrate solution for 4 to 5 hours, which may be a result of treating the strength of the chemically strengthened layer 20 according to the characteristics of the touch panel. . The substrate 10 having such a chemically strengthened layer 20 exhibits an intensity about 8 times higher than that by heat treatment, has less distortion such as torsion during processing, and maintains color and light transmittance characteristics.

Meanwhile, according to the present invention, the printing layer 21 and the niobium oxide layer 22 are sequentially formed on one surface of the substrate 10. This process will be described in more detail.

delete

First, the print layer 21 refers to a layer that can engrave pictures, characters, shapes, etc. at any suitable point of one surface of the substrate 10. Conventionally, after the touch panel is completed, the printed layer 21 is formed through a separate process. Since the manufacturing process has been very complicated because it has been formed, in the present invention, the printed layer 21 is first formed on the substrate 10, and then the conductive layer 30 for increasing visibility is sequentially formed.

The printing layer 21 is formed by a squeeze printing method in the case of an organic material, or a vacuum deposition metal method in the case of an inorganic material, and the like. There is no problem even if the work is performed under a heating condition of about 340 ° C., but when the printing layer 21 is formed of an organic material, there is a problem that the work is slightly difficult under the heating condition of about 340 ° C. which is generally performed.

That is, the silicon oxide layer 33 or the indium tin oxide layer 35 to be stacked on the upper surface of the print layer 21 may be neatly performed even under heating conditions of about 340 ° C., which is a preferable temperature range in the vacuum deposition method. In the case of forming the printing layer 21, a case may be burned off when the temperature reaches 270 ° C. Therefore, the printed layer 21 is preferably formed within a heating temperature range of 250 ° C. ± 50 ° C., and as a result, the niobium oxide layer 22 and the silicon oxide layer 33 or indium tin oxide layer 35 to be described later also have It is preferable to perform vacuum deposition in a temperature range of about 250 ° C., and another problem that arises at this time is a high resistance value of the indium tin oxide layer 35 when vacuum deposition is performed at a temperature of about 250 ° C. as a touch panel. It is difficult to perform. In other words, when the indium tin oxide layer 35 is vacuum-deposited to around 340 ° C., the most desirable resistance value of the touch panel is 80 to 250 kW. However, when the vacuum is deposited to around 250 ° C., the average value of 400 to 500 kW is obtained. It becomes difficult to perform functions as a panel.

In more detail, when the indium tin oxide layer 35 is vacuum-deposited (sputtered) at around 250 ° C., the materials of the indium tin oxide layer 35 become unstable and in a fluid state and do not crystallize, so the resistance value is 400˜. It increases to 500. That is, in order for the touch panel function to be properly performed, a resistance value of 80 to 250 kPa is preferable, but as long as the indium tin oxide layer 35 is vacuum-deposited at around 250 ° C., the material of the indium tin oxide layer 35 is not determined and thus the resistance value is not determined. There is a problem that goes up to 400 ~ 500Ω. Therefore, in order to drop the resistance value of 400-500 kW due to the formation of the print layer 21 to be formed in the heating temperature range of about 250 ° C to the resistance of 80-250 kV, the instability of the indium tin oxide layer 35 is stabilized. In order to make it into a stable state mode, the touch panel in which all of the indium tin oxide layer 35 is laminated in the vacuum chamber at 180 to 500 ° C. is re-injected into the vacuum chamber, and passes through for about 10 to 50 minutes again. In this case, the materials of the indium tin oxide layer 35 are easily crystallized, and the resistance falls to about 80 to 250 kPa, thereby meeting various consumer demands.

After the printed layer 21 is formed, the niobium oxide layer 22 is sequentially deposited again, and a niobium oxide layer ((NB ₂ O ₅ )) 22 is formed by performing an NB ₂ O ₅ coating treatment by plasma. . At this time, the thickness of the coated film is preferably maintained at about 40 ± 10Å. Instead of niobium oxide (NB ₂ O ₅ ), a high refractive material such as titanium oxide (TIO ₂ ) or zirconium (ZrO ₂ ) may be used.

For reference, the printed layer 21, niobium oxide 22, and the silicon oxide layer 33 to be described later have no relationship with the increase or decrease of the resistance value, and are deposited smoothly even by vacuum deposition at a temperature of about 250 ° C.

After returning and forming the printed layer 21 on one surface of the substrate 10, the niobium oxide layer 22 is further vacuum deposited to facilitate the formation of the conductive layer 30 to increase visibility.

In addition, according to the present invention, a conductive layer 30 is formed by depositing multiple layers of materials having different refractive indices on the upper surface of the niobium oxide layer 22. The conductive layer 30 is formed by receiving the glass substrate 10 described above in a vacuum chamber and sputtering in a predetermined gas atmosphere.

In this case, the conductive layer 30 is formed by depositing a silicon oxide layer 33 having a low refractive index and an indium tin oxide layer 35 having a high refractive index. As described above, the deposition process of the present invention for forming the silicon oxide layer 33 and the indium tin oxide (ITO) 35 on the substrate 10 will be described in more detail.

First, the import inspection and material quantity of the cell glass material are checked and loaded into the cassette. Approximately 62 can be loaded in a row (more and less), and the first and last spaces are empty to prevent mishandling. When loading of 60 sheets of 3 rows of cleaning cassettes is completed, check the appearance as a whole. Move to the washing machine's waiting place and load it on the loading stand shelf. Of course, the cell glass (or substrate) in which the chemical strengthening layer 20 is formed through chemical strengthening before or immediately after this process should be used.

Next, the loaded cell glass material is put in a washing machine to perform a washing operation. At this time, it is appropriate that the cleaning temperature is about 60 ℃ and the cleaning time is about 45 minutes. These values can be adjusted according to other conditions of the cell glass material used.

Next, the cell glass material having been cleaned is loaded into a carrier to enter the vacuum chamber. When loading, the quantity to be put in to keep in the coating effective range zone is limited.

Next, the cell glass material is put into a vacuum chamber. At this time, the vacuum chamber atmosphere temperature is set to an appropriate temperature of about 250 ℃. Thereafter, plasma sputtering is performed by a magnetron sputtering method. Magnetron sputtering focuses near the target using a permanent magnet attached to the target, which can generate plasma between the target and the shield or the target and the substrate due to bias voltages (DC, RF) applied to the target. Ions accelerated by the potential difference between the target surface and the plasma collide with the target surface to cause secondary electron emission, sputtering at the target surface and sputtered neutral atoms fly to the substrate to form a thin film. do.

Next, the silicon oxide layer 33 is formed by performing SiO ₂ coating by argon (Ar) plasma. At this time, the thickness of the coated film is preferably maintained at about 250Å. The silicon oxide layer 33 is again formed on the niobium oxide layer 22. Instead of the silicon oxide layer SiO ₂ , a low refractive material such as aluminum oxide (Al ₂ O 3) or silicon oxide (SiN x) may be deposited. It may be.

On the other hand, in the SiO ₂ coating method, it is preferable to use four cathodes as a method of controlling RF power. The number and positions of the cathodes may vary depending on the structure of the vacuum chamber, and the cathodes optimized for the present invention select four that maintain a constant equal spacing at positions opposite to the cell glass material. When the number of cathodes is small, there is a possibility that the thin film formation is insufficient, and when too large, uniform control of thickness is difficult. Thereby, the transmittance | permeability by coating can be improved to 90% or more. Subsequently, plasma treatment is performed to improve the film strength of SiO ₂ deposited at room temperature. In addition to the above SiO ₂ coating method, magnesium chloride (MGF ₂ ) is dissolved in an E-beam (electron beam) and deposited, but a SiO ₂ coating method is more preferable.

Next, it is preferable to form the indium tin oxide layer 35 by coating ITO to a thickness of 120 ± 50 Pa by a DC power control method on the coated SiO ₂ cell glass material. During ITO coating, the uniformity of resistance of ITO film formation is kept within 5% by the pressure control of argon and oxygen gas. This control method can use a conventional apparatus. A dedicated device is used to precisely control the conditions of the atmosphere.

Next, the surface treatment with an ion beam can be achieved to reduce the resistance change over time through the stabilization of the ITO thin film. In addition, since the method of stabilizing the materials of the indium tin oxide layer 35 has been described in detail above, further detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The touch panel of the cell glass material thus prepared is detached from the carrier and then inspected for appearance and characteristics. Appearance inspection is to visually inspect scratches, foreign substances, contamination, pinholes, etc. on the surface, and property inspection is to measure electrical resistance, transmittance, film thickness, heat resistance, and wear resistance.

When only the indium tin oxide layer 35 is laminated on the substrate 10 having a transmittance of about 91%, the transmittance decreases to 86%, but when the silicon oxide layer 33 and the indium tin oxide layer 35 are laminated, about 90 It is recovered to transmittance of about%.
As described above, the present invention improves visibility of the touch panel by sequentially stacking the low refractive material of the silicon oxide layer 33 and the high refractive material of the indium tin oxide layer 35 on the upper surface of the substrate 10.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Therefore, such modifications or variations will have to belong to the claims of the present invention.

10: substrate 20: chemically strengthened layer
21: printed layer 22: niobium oxide layer
30: conductive layer 33: silicon oxide layer
35: indium tin oxide layer

Claims

In the touch panel:
A substrate 10 based on glass; And
Depositing a printed layer (21) and a niobium oxide layer (22) on one surface of the substrate (10) in sequence;
A conductive layer for depositing a silicon oxide layer 33 having a low refractive index and an indium tin oxide layer 35 having a high refractive index so as to be formed by depositing a material having a different refractive index in multiple layers on the upper surface of the niobium oxide layer 22 ( 30); including,
The glass substrate 10 is selected from soda lime glass or ring glass, and provided with a chemical strengthening layer 20 on one surface of the substrate 10, the chemical strengthening layer 20 is a potassium nitrate solution of about 400 ~ 500 ℃ Touch panel combines visibility and print layer, which is formed by dipping in about 2 to 8 hours.

delete

The method of claim 1,
The substrate 10 is deposited on the upper surface of the indium tin oxide layer 35, and then re-injected for about 10 to 50 minutes in a vacuum chamber of about 180 ~ 500 ℃, the visibility may be significantly lowered Touch panel with enhancement and print layer.