KR101216999B1 - Touch panel with both elevation of view trait and slim state - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a touch panel that combines visibility and slimming, and, as a feature of the configuration, includes a substrate 10 based on one of PC (polycarbonate) and PMMA (polymethacryl); And depositing an acrylic resin hard coating layer 20a, a niobium oxide layer 22, a silicon oxide layer 25, and an indium tin oxide layer 30 on one surface of the substrate 10 in order.
Accordingly, the present invention has the effect of enabling the application to a variety of products by ensuring visibility while meeting the trend of light weight / slim.

Description

Touch panel with both elevation and slimness {Touch panel with both elevation of view trait and slim state}

The present invention relates to a touch panel using a substrate such as PC (polycarbonate) or PMMA (polymethylmethylacryl), and more particularly, to meet the trend of light weight and slimming, and to ensure visibility and to be applied to various products. The present invention relates to a touch panel that combines improved visibility and slimness.

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.

On the other hand, the resistive film is widely used in TVs, monitors, notebook PCs, car navigation systems, game devices, white appliances, PDAs, electronic dictionaries, mobile phones, camcorders, etc. 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.

In addition, the capacitive method is a method of sensing and driving static electricity of the human body, which is durable, has a short response time, and has good permeability. 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 future marketability, and there is a necessity 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 prior arts, although mass productivity and durability can be improved to some extent, when applied to a resistive-type glass substrate, there is a limitation in exhibiting high refractive index, and thus there is a difficulty in applying to various products. There was a side that failed to meet the slimming trend.

Korean Patent Publication No. 0681157 "Structure of capacitive touch panel and its manufacturing method" Korean Patent Publication No. 908225 “Resistive Touch Panel”

An object of the present invention for fundamentally improving the conventional problems as described above, to meet the trend of light weight / slimming to provide a touch panel having both improved visibility and slimming to ensure visibility and to be applied to a variety of products. There is a purpose.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a touch panel comprising: a substrate based on one of PC (polycarbonate) and PMMA (polymethacryl); And depositing an acrylic resin hard coating layer, a niobium oxide layer (NB ₂ O ₅ ), a silicon oxide layer (SiO ₂ ), and an indium tin oxide layer (ITO) on one surface of the substrate.

It should be understood, however, that the terminology or words of the present specification and claims should not be construed in an ordinary sense or in a dictionary, and that the inventors shall not be limited to the concept of a term It should be construed in accordance with the meaning and concept consistent with 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 configurations shown in the drawings are merely the most preferred embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the technical ideas of the present invention are described. Therefore, It is to be understood that equivalents and modifications are possible.

As described in the above configuration and operation, the laminated structure of the touch panel of the present invention can be applied to various products by securing visibility while meeting the trend of light weight / slim in applying a substrate to a resistive touch panel. Provide effect.

1 is a configuration diagram showing the main structure of the touch panel according to the present invention in a laminated state.
FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing the structure of FIG. 1 in a sectional state; FIG.

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

The present invention relates to a touch panel, and in particular, a niobium oxide layer (NB ₂ O ₅ ) 22, a silicon oxide layer (SiO ₂ ) 25, and an indium tin oxide layer (ITO) on an upper surface of a substrate 10. Oxide) 30 is related to the manner in which it is formed by vapor deposition.

For example, in the case of the resistive film method, a silicon oxide layer (SiO ₂ ) and an indium tin oxide layer (ITO) are formed on the substrate 10 by vapor deposition. One may choose to bond the layers and then finally to bond the films. As another example, a laminate structure different from the above may be selected in a state in which a niobium oxide layer (NB ₂ O ₅ ), a silicon oxide layer (SiO ₂ ), and an indium tin oxide layer (ITO) are formed by vapor deposition on the substrate 10. . Either way, better visibility improves the applicability to various products.

Prior to reviewing a schematic process sequence of the present invention, for convenience of explanation, the following description will be given mainly on a PC (polycarbonate) substrate among the substrates 10 such as PC (polycarbonate) or PMMA (polymethacryl). Shall be.

In view of the schematic process sequence of the present invention, a preparation step of loading a PC (polycarbonate) substrate 10 before cleaning, a cleaning step of putting the PC (polycarbonate) substrate 10 into a cleaner, and a PC (polycarbonate) substrate Loading 10 into the carrier, entering the PC (polycarbonate) substrate 10 into a vacuum chamber, coating a niobium oxide layer (NB ₂ O ₅ ) by plasma formation, by argon plasma formation Coating the silicon oxide layer (SiO ₂ ), coating the indium tin oxide layer (ITO) by DC power control, and stabilizing the ITO thin film by surface treating the PC (polycarbonate) substrate 10 with an ion beam. Through this step, the rate of change of resistance over time is reduced.

According to the present invention, a substrate 10 based on one of PC (polycarbonate) and PMMA (poly methacryl) is used, and the substrate 10 has to be improved in 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 substrate 10 such as PC (polycarbonate) or PMMA (polymethacryl), a niobium oxide layer (NB ₂ ) to be described later is formed by forming a hard coating layer 20a of acrylic resin on one surface of the substrate 10. Affinity with O ₅ ) (22) is enhanced. Substrate 10, such as PC (polycarbonate) or PMMA (polymethacryl), is suitable because it has the physical properties required for display products, but is not necessarily limited thereto. It may be applied to a substrate.

On the other hand, since the crack of the substrate is generated by the minute crack and the frictional force, it can be improved. That is, the hard coating layer 20a may implement high strength regardless of the shape or thickness of the substrate 10 (FIGS. 1 and 2).

Meanwhile, according to the present invention, a niobium oxide layer (NB ₂ O ₅ ) 22, a silicon oxide layer (SiO ₂ ) 25, and an indium tin oxide layer (ITO) 30 are sequentially turned on one surface of the substrate 10. Deposition, this deposition process is described in more detail. Here, the niobium oxide layer (NB ₂ O ₅ ) 22, the silicon oxide layer 25, and the indium tin oxide layer 30 may be formed of a vacuum chamber including a substrate 10 selected from materials such as PC and PMMA. in a chamber and formed by sputtering in a predetermined gas atmosphere.

First, the import inspection and material quantity of the PC (polycarbonate) substrate 10 material are confirmed, and then 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 PC (polycarbonate) substrate 10 having the acrylic resin-based hard coating layer 20a before or after this process should be used.

Next, the loaded PC board 10 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. This value can be adjusted according to other conditions of the PC substrate 10 material used. Then, the finished PC substrate 10 material 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 PC substrate 10 material is introduced into a vacuum chamber. At this time, the ambient temperature of the vacuum chamber is set to a suitable temperature of about 250 ℃ ± 50 or about 340 ℃. 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, an NB ₂ O ₅ coating process by plasma is performed to form a niobium oxide layer (NB ₂ O ₅ ) 22. At this time, the thickness of the coated film is preferably maintained at about 40 ± 10Å. Instead of niobium oxide (NB ₂ O ₅ ), it may be deposited using a high refractive material such as titanium oxide (TIO ₂ ) or zirconium (ZrO ₂ ). .

Next, an SiO ₂ coating process using an argon (Ar) plasma is performed to form a silicon oxide layer (SiO ₂ ) 25. At this time, the thickness of the coated film is preferably maintained at about 250Å. Instead of the silicon oxide layer 25, a low refractive material such as aluminum oxide (Al ₂ O 3) or silicon oxide (SiNx) may be used for deposition.

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 PC substrate 10 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. And SiO ₂ described above. Instead of the coating method, a method of depositing magnesium chloride (MGF ₂ ) by dissolving it in an E-beam (electron beam) is possible, but a SiO ₂ coating method is more preferable.

Next, it is preferable to form an indium tin oxide layer (ITO) 30 by coating ITO to a thickness of 120 ± 50 Pa by a DC power control method on the coated SiO ₂ PC substrate 10 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.

On the other hand, both PC (polycarbonate) and PMMA (polymethylmethylacrylic) -based substrates 10 set the temperature of the vacuum chamber to about 250 ° C. ± 50 to form an indium tin oxide (ITO) 30. When deposited, the resistance is also about 400 ~ 500Ω can be manufactured in a form that can be used safely. In addition, since the materials of the indium tin oxide layer 30 do not cause any obstacles in stabilization / crystallization, there is an advantage of meeting various demands of consumers. This is because in the case of the PC or PMMA substrate 10, if the indium tin oxide layer 30 is deposited by setting the temperature of the vacuum chamber to around 340 ° C, the substrate 10 of the PC or PMMA may be burned. Because. However, even after the temperature of the vacuum chamber is set to about 340 ° C., even if the indium tin oxide layer 30 is deposited on the PC or PMMA substrate 10, the substrate 10 of the PC or PMMA has a resistance of about 80 to 300 kW. Although it is possible to prevent the burning, there is a risk of deterioration of productivity and defective products, so that the temperature of the vacuum chamber may be set to around 250 ° C. to manufacture touch panels having various resistance values required by consumers.

In addition, in order to reduce the resistance of 400 to 500 kW generated by the substrate 10 of PC or PMMA which is vacuum deposited at a temperature of about 250 ° C. ± 50 to around 80 to 300 kW, indium oxide in a vacuum chamber of 180 ° C. to 500 ° C. Re-injecting the touch panel with all the laminated layers up to the tin layer 30 and passing it again for about 10 to 50 minutes, the resistance of the indium tin oxide layer 30 falls to about 80 ~ 300Ω and to meet the needs of various consumers The touch panel can be manufactured.

The touch panels of the PC and PMMA substrate materials thus prepared are 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.

Generally, when only the indium tin oxide layer 30 is laminated on the substrate 10 having a transmittance of about 91%, the transmittance decreases slightly, but the niobium oxide layer 22, the silicon oxide layer 25, and the indium tin oxide layer 30 are reduced. When the lamination is carried out, the transmittance is restored to about 91%, and the manufacturing process is simple and the manufacturing cost is low.

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. It is therefore intended that such variations and modifications fall within the scope of the appended claims.

10: substrate 20a: hard coating layer
22: niobium oxide layer 25: silicon oxide layer
30: indium tin oxide layer

Claims (1)

In the touch panel:
A substrate 10 based on either PC (polycarbonate) or PMMA (polymethacryl); And
The visibility and slimming of the acrylic resin-based hard coating layer 20a, niobium oxide layer 22, silicon oxide layer 25, and indium tin oxide layer 30 are sequentially deposited on one surface of the substrate 10. Touch panel combines.

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