KR101358818B1 - Touchscreen panel and its manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a touch screen panel and a method of manufacturing the same. The touch screen panel includes a transparent electrode and a transparent wiring part integrally formed on one surface thereof, a transparent window for receiving contact through a surface facing the surface, an external wiring part connected to the transparent wiring part, and a transparent wiring part; An insulating layer is formed between the external wiring parts, and the transparent electrode is formed in a predetermined pattern, and transmits a detection signal generated according to a contact received by the transparent window to the external wiring part along the internal wiring part. According to the present invention, by using a transparent window in which a transparent electrode is integrally formed on one surface, the manufacturing process of the touch screen panel can be simplified and the yield can be increased.

Description

Touch screen panel and its manufacturing method

The present invention relates to a touch screen panel and a method of manufacturing the same, patterning a transparent electrode integrally formed on one surface of a transparent window, and connecting the patterned transparent electrode to a wiring part to recognize a detection signal according to a contact received by the transparent window. Thus, the present invention relates to a touch screen panel and a method of manufacturing the same, which can simplify the manufacturing process and increase the yield in the manufacturing process.

Various kinds of electronic devices have been proposed, and various technologies have been proposed that can miniaturize electronic devices and enlarge the display screen. BACKGROUND With the miniaturization of electronic devices, electronic devices that recognize user input through a touch input device are increasing. In particular, touch screen panels having an input function on a display screen are being applied to various electronic devices as the display screen becomes larger. .

The touch screen panel can be divided into resistive type, capacitive type, ultrasonic type, infrared type, etc. according to the operation method, and the capacitive type can manufacture a thin touch screen panel, which is durable and multi-touch is possible. It is widely used in various electronic devices.

The capacitive touch screen panel operates by being attached to a transparent window through an adhesive layer such as OCA. However, the yield may decrease due to a high defect rate of attaching the touch screen panel to the transparent window through the adhesive layer, thereby increasing the unit price of the touch screen panel.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to pattern a transparent electrode integrally formed on one surface of a transparent window, and connect the patterned transparent electrode with a wiring part to sense a contact accommodated by the transparent window, thereby simplifying a manufacturing process and increasing a yield. The present invention provides a touch screen panel and a method of manufacturing the same.

In order to achieve the above object, a touch screen panel according to the present invention includes a transparent electrode and a transparent wiring part formed integrally with a transparent window on one surface, and a transparent window for receiving contact through a surface facing the surface, the transparent wiring part And an insulating layer formed between the external wiring portion connected to the transparent wiring portion and the external wiring portion, wherein the transparent electrode is formed in a predetermined pattern and detects a detection signal generated according to a contact received by the transparent window. Transfers to the external wiring along the internal wiring.

The touch screen panel essentially includes a protective substrate that is durable against constant pressure since the input means is contact from the outside, in the present invention a transparent window onto which transparent electrodes and transparent wires are deposited performs this function. Thus, the transparent window is made of tempered glass or PMMA, PC, PET, or a combination thereof.

The touch screen panel of the present invention is characterized in that a single layer of a transparent electrode is deposited on the transparent window to form an integrated body in order to exclude the adhesion process by a separate OCA, etc. For this purpose, the transparent electrode is not a plurality of layers but a single layer. It must be designed as Accordingly, in the touch screen panel of the present invention, the transparent electrode includes a plurality of bar electrodes formed along a first axis and a plurality of patch electrodes formed in one column (or row) between adjacent bar electrodes. The plurality of patch electrodes disposed at the same position on the first axis may be electrically connected to each other in a wiring area.

In addition, the transparent wiring is divided into a wiring connected to the bar electrode and a transparent wiring connected to the patch electrode, and the transparent wiring connected to the patch electrode is formed between the bar electrode and the patch electrodes and then connected to the external wiring.

On the other hand, the manufacturing method of the touch screen panel according to the present invention, in the touch screen panel manufacturing method using an electrode-integrated transparent window, the step of depositing and patterning the transparent electrode and the transparent wiring to be integrally formed on one surface of the transparent window, Forming an insulating layer on the patterned transparent wiring part outside the transparent electrode, and forming an external wiring part on the insulating layer, wherein the insulating layer has a via hole to connect the transparent wiring part and the external wiring part. It is formed to.

According to the present invention, a transparent electrode and a transparent wiring are patterned so as to be integrally formed on one surface of the transparent window, and the patterned transparent electrode and the transparent wiring are connected with an external wiring portion, and then connected with a touch sensor IC to receive the transparent window. Detect. Accordingly, by omitting the process of attaching the substrate and the electrode having a high defect rate in the manufacturing process of the touch screen panel, the manufacturing process can be simplified, the yield can be increased, the production cost of the touch screen panel can be reduced, and the imputation of the touch screen panel is applied. The thickness of the device can be reduced.

1 illustrates a touch screen panel according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a sensing area of the touch screen panel shown in FIG. 1;
3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a cut surface of the touch screen panel illustrated in FIG. 1;
4A to 4C show the wiring area of FIG. 1;
5 is a flowchart provided to explain a method of manufacturing a touch screen panel according to an embodiment of the present invention;
6 to 9 are diagrams illustrating a modification of a sensing area of the touch screen panel shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a modification of the transparent wiring of the touch screen panel illustrated in FIG. 1.

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

1 illustrates a touch screen panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The touch screen panel according to the present embodiment is not only a portable electronic device such as a mobile communication terminal, a PDA, a notebook computer, navigation, a portable media player (PMP), but also an input device of a general electronic device such as a remote control, a television, a refrigerator, a washing machine, and the like. Can be applied.

1, 2, 4A, 4B, and 4C, the touch screen panel according to the present embodiment is integrally formed on one surface of the transparent window 100 and the transparent window 100 to be patterned into a predetermined shape. The transparent electrodes 111 and 114 and the transparent wiring 162, the external wiring unit 170 connected to the transparent wiring 162, and the external wiring unit 170, and transmit a detection signal to a controller (not shown). Wherein the transparent electrode includes a plurality of bar electrodes 111 formed along a first axis and a plurality of patch electrodes formed in one column (or row) between adjacent bar electrodes. 114, wherein the plurality of patch electrodes disposed at the same position on the first axis are electrically connected to each other in the wiring area.

The transparent window 100 is formed of a high strength material such as glass or acrylic resin having excellent light transmittance, or a material such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polycarbonate (PC), polyethersulfone (PES), or polyimide (PI) that can be applied to a flexible display. It must be protected from external stimuli. The transparent window 100 serves to maintain the shape of the touch screen panel and accommodates contact through a user's body or a stylus pen.

The transparent electrodes 111 and 114 are electrodes formed on one surface of the transparent window 100, and have excellent light transmittance and electrical conductivity, such as indium-tin oxide (ITO), indium zinc oxide (IZO), or zinc oxide (ZnO). It may be formed of a material of. The transparent electrodes 111 and 114 serve as electrodes of capacitance formed due to contact with a human body, and may be patterned into a predetermined shape for accurate determination of the number and contact position of contact inputs on the transparent window 100. In the touch screen panel illustrated in FIG. 1, it is assumed that the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 are patterned in the shape of bars and patches, but patterning to other various shapes suitable for detecting contact positions may be possible.

In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 are integrally formed on one surface of the transparent window 100. By manufacturing the touch screen panel by patterning the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 and the transparent wiring 162 integrally formed on the transparent window 100 and connecting the external wiring 170, a polyethylene terephtalete, PET) patterning the ITO forming surface of the ITO film material coated with ITO on one surface, and the process of attaching the patterned ITO film material to a transparent window such as acrylic can be eliminated, which can occur in the attachment process Defective factors can be eliminated.

In this case, the bar electrode may function as a sensing electrode, and the patch electrode may function as a driving electrode. The sensing electrode refers to an electrode for detecting a change in capacitance, and the driving electrode is applied by sequentially applying a voltage in a plurality of channels to sense a change in capacitance at the sensing electrode by a voltage applied to the corresponding channel. It is known to mean an electrode that makes it possible to recognize an accurate contact.

That is, in FIG. 1, a plurality of patch electrodes existing on the same first axis (here, x-axis) are connected to form one driving electrode, which constitutes a channel C1. Also from above, the first bar electrode functions as a sensing electrode, which constitutes channel C5. Therefore, if a voltage is applied to the channel C1 and a change in capacitance is sensed to the channel C5, the contact is treated as being made in the region 110 of FIG.

In the case of the capacitive touch position sensing panel, the bar electrode 111 and the patch electrode 114 are made of a conductive material, and in particular, the touch screen panel is made of a transparent conductive material such as ITO. The wirings formed in the horizontal direction among the wiring patterns 120 indicated by dotted lines in FIG. 1 are transparent wires, which are directly formed on the transparent window in the same manner as the transparent electrodes, and the wirings formed in the vertical direction intersect the transparent wiring in the horizontal direction with the insulating layer. It may be formed by printing with a metal such as silver.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the wiring pattern 120 indicated by a dotted line in FIG. 1 uses a flexible PCB or a rigid PCB for connection to an external contact detection circuit. It may be formed by adhering to the film.

The touch position sensing panel having the sensing pattern formed as shown in FIG. 1 includes eight bar electrode channels and eight patch electrode channels. The number of channels can vary depending on the size of the panel.

As shown in FIG. 2, each sensing region 110 is included in the patch electrode 114 included in the sensing region 110 and the sensing region 110 among the regions of the bar electrode 111. Fraction 112. These patch electrodes 114 and fractions 112 are used to extract contact positions, respectively. These are called a 1st division area and a 2nd division area for convenience, or a 1st division electrode and a 2nd division electrode.

The first divided electrode may be a sensing electrode, and the second divided region may be a driving electrode. The first and second partitions 114 and 112 are electrically separated from each other, and are connected to contact detection circuits (not shown) through separate channels. The contact detection circuit may detect whether the contact is detected in the corresponding detection area 110 through, for example, a change in capacitance caused by a user's contact on the specific detection area 110. In the lower part of FIG. 1, connection lines respectively connected to sixteen channels of the contact detection circuit are shown. The number of channels can vary depending on the size of the panel.

As shown in FIG. 1, different sensing electrodes 111 are connected to different channels, and those arranged in different horizontal positions among the various driving electrodes 114 are connected to different channels. That is, each of the first partitions 114 included in the different driving electrodes 114 is electrically connected to ones arranged in the same horizontal position, and each of the second partitions 112 is arranged in the same vertical position. They are electrically connected to each other. The first or second partitions 114 and 112 electrically connected to each other are separated from the other first or second partitions 114 and 112 which are not electrically connected to each other, and are connected to the contact sensing circuit through a separate channel. Connected, each contact is independently detected.

If each of the driving electrode 114 and the sensing electrode 112 is connected as shown in FIG. 1, for example, if there is a contact on the sensing region 110 in the first position from the left and the first position from the left, the contact sensing circuit may be The information on the position is extracted through the channel C1 connected to the driving electrode and C5 connected to the sensing electrode, respectively. Similarly, when a contact is detected through the channels C12 and C15, the contact detection circuit may detect that a user's contact has occurred on the detection area 110 at the seventh and second positions from the left.

Referring to FIG. 1, the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 formed integrally with the transparent window are connected to the wiring area 120 formed on the outer side of the touch screen panel by the transparent wiring. The wiring area 120 may include a transparent wiring and an external wiring, and may include a transparent wiring portion, an insulating layer, and an external wiring, which are integrated with a transparent window, and the external wiring may be formed of copper (Cu), silver ( It can be formed by printing a conductive paste containing a material such as Ag) by a method such as silk screen.

In one embodiment of the present invention, an insulating layer is formed in the transparent wiring area, which is located outside the touch screen panel, wherein the insulating layer is formed such that a hole for connecting the transparent wiring part and the external wiring part exists. By printing the conductive paste on the insulating layer by using a silk screen method, the bezel portion in which the external wiring portion is located can be further thinned.

4A to 4C, the wiring area 120 is described in detail. FIG. 4A shows the outer end 162 of the transparent wiring formed integrally on the transparent window, wherein the outer end 162 of the transparent wiring is a transparent conductive material such as ITO, in the same manner as the transparent patterns 111 and 114. Are deposited and formed simultaneously. In FIG. 4B, the insulating layer 165 formed in the wiring area outside the sensing area is shown. In this case, the via layer is formed in the insulating layer 165 to connect the transparent wiring and the external wiring. In FIG. 4C, the external wiring circuit pattern 170 formed on the insulating layer 165 is illustrated.

As the external wiring circuit pattern formed in FIG. 4C can be visually distinguished, a printed layer is formed so that the wiring portion is not exposed, and the printed layer may be printed and prepared as a bezel portion of the transparent window in advance. . In this case, the wiring region 120 in which the outer end portion, the insulating layer, and the external wiring portion of the transparent wiring are formed may be formed on the printed layer of the transparent window.

The external wiring circuit pattern formed in FIG. 4C includes a separate circuit pattern formed on a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB), an anisotropic conductive film (ACF), or an anisotropic conductive paste. Paste, ACP) may be connected to the control unit (touch sensor IC). The control unit is mounted in a flexible printed circuit board in the form of an integrated circuit chip and receives a detection signal transmitted along the external wiring circuit pattern 170 to determine a contact received by the touch screen panel and control the operation of the touch screen panel. can do.

The external wiring circuit pattern formed in FIG. 4C may include an identification pattern 175 regardless of the wiring. The identification pattern 175 enables precise bonding during the process of bonding the touch sensor ICrk-mounted flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) to the wiring circuit pattern 170. That is, the accuracy of the wiring connection can be improved by fitting the identification pattern 175 included in the wiring circuit pattern 170 to the groove formed in the flexible printed circuit board so as to correspond thereto.

3 is a cross-sectional view of the touch screen panel shown in FIG. 1. The touch screen panel according to the present embodiment includes a transparent window 100 including a print layer 155, a transparent electrode and a transparent wire 160 integrally formed on one surface of the transparent window, and a transparent wiring area corresponding to the printed layer. It may include an insulating layer 165 to be formed, and an external wiring unit 170 formed on the insulating layer.

The printed layer 155 may be formed to have a size that shields the external wiring unit 140 and at the same time does not interfere with the display area of the touch screen panel. The printing layer 155 may be formed in advance before the transparent wiring unit is formed in the outer region of the same name as the surface on which the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 of the transparent window 100 are formed. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the printed layer 155 may be formed to form a predetermined shielding area on the lower side of the transparent window 100. However, in this case, a slight step occurs, and a process defect due to the step may be caused when the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 are formed.

In addition, the sheet layer including the shielding portion may be disposed on the lower surface of the window 100 to visually block the external wiring unit 170. Meanwhile, the printed layer 155 is a layer formed on a surface opposite to the surface on which the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 are disposed, and is formed in the outer region of the transparent window 100 on which the external wiring unit 170 is disposed to be external. The wiring unit 170 may be shielded so as not to be exposed to the outside.

As shown in FIG. 3, the touch screen panel is connected to the display device 180 of the electronic device to provide an input means to the user. The display device 180 connected to the touch screen panel may include a liquid crystal display, an organic light emitting device, a plasma display panel, and the like. In this case, in order to prevent a noise component generated by driving the display device 180 from flowing into the touch screen panel and causing a malfunction of the touch screen panel, a blocking layer is selectively disposed between the touch screen panel and the display device 180. (Shield Layer) can also be arranged.

Due to the characteristics of the touch screen panel disposed on the display device 180, an electronic device to which the touch screen panel is applied may be thicker than an electronic device to which the touch screen method is not applied. Therefore, as shown in the present embodiment, the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 are formed integrally on the transparent window 100 and use a touch screen panel having a thin thickness by using a touch screen panel that does not use a separate adhesive layer. A device can be provided and manufacturing costs can be lowered by simplifying the manufacturing process.

The transparent electrodes 111 and 114 may be patterned into a predetermined shape and used to sense a user's contact with the upper surface of the transparent window 100. In an embodiment, the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 on the transparent window 100 may be patterned by a method such as etching after low temperature deposition.

Additional protective films may optionally be attached to protect the transparent window 100 from external impact or scratches, and the like. When a large number of scratches occur in the transparent window 100 or a part of the transparent window 100 is destroyed due to an impact, the accuracy of the contact position determination is improved by not reading the capacitance occurring between the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 accurately. It may be lowered, it may be possible to prevent the above phenomenon by forming a protective film.

5 is a flowchart provided to explain a method of manufacturing a touch screen panel according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 5, the method for manufacturing a touch screen panel according to the present exemplary embodiment starts with patterning the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 and the transparent wiring 162 integrally formed in the transparent window 100 (S10).

The transparent window 100 used in the step S10 may be formed integrally with the transparent electrodes 111 and 114, and in one embodiment, ITO coated glass coated with ITO on one surface may be used as the transparent window 100. By using the transparent window 100 in which the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 are integrally formed, an additional process of attaching the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 and the transparent window 100 may be omitted. Therefore, the process can be simplified and the yield in the touch screen panel manufacturing process can be increased by omitting the process of attaching the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 and the transparent window 100 having a relatively high defect rate.

The transparent electrodes 111 and 114 may be patterned in various shapes, and among the transparent electrodes, the patch electrode may have a shape such as a right triangle, a diamond, and a crown.

When the patterning of the light transparent wirings of the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 is completed, an insulating layer 165 is formed on the outer end of the transparent wiring connected to the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 (S20). The insulating layer 165 may be a resin-based general insulating material. More preferably the insulating layer may be PSR or epilite. The insulating layer can be formed by printing with epilite or developing PSR after exposure.

After the formation of the insulating layer 165, the external wiring unit 170 is formed on the insulating layer (S30). The external wiring unit 140 may be formed using a conductive paste including silver (Ag) having excellent electrical conductivity, and does not affect the screen display of the touch screen panel and the appearance of the electronic device to which the touch screen panel is applied. It is desirable to be installed in the outer area so as to avoid.

The external wiring unit 170 has a predetermined circuit pattern to determine the number and location of the contacts accommodated by the transparent window 100 and to be connected to a controller for controlling the operation of the touch screen panel. In one embodiment, the external wiring circuit pattern provided on the lower end of the touch screen panel is connected to the flexible printed circuit board on which the controller is mounted in the form of an integrated circuit chip through an anisotropic conductive film or an anisotropic conductive paste (S40). . The controller controls the operation of the touch screen panel by using the detection signal transmitted from the external wiring unit 170 through the circuit pattern.

When steps S10 to S40 are completed, a protective film may be optionally attached on the transparent window 100 to protect the transparent window 100 exposed to the outside. As an example, as shown in FIG. 3, the surface of the transparent window 100 facing the surface on which the transparent electrodes 111 and 114 are integrally formed may be mounted to accommodate the contact applied from the outside. Exposed to the outside of the device. Therefore, in order to prevent the transparent window 100 from being damaged due to a user's mistake or an unintended strong contact, or the touch screen panel is damaged due to a strong impact, a protective film that can prevent scratches or the like is provided. ) Can be formed on.

6 to 9 are various application examples of the transparent electrode of the present invention. FIG. 10 is another embodiment of the present invention configured to reduce wiring noise by alternately forming the wiring and the transparent wiring connected to the patch electrode downward or upward as close as possible to the adjacent bars in the arrangement of the transparent electrode and the transparent wiring of the present invention. Indicates.

While the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments of the present invention, without departing from the spirit of the invention as claimed in the claims. Various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art, and these modifications should not be individually understood from the technical spirit or the prospect of the present invention.

100: transparent window 110: detection area
111 bar electrode 114 patch electrode
155: printed layer 160: transparent electrode and transparent wiring
165: insulating layer 170: external wiring

Claims (15)

delete delete delete delete delete delete delete In the method of manufacturing a touch screen panel using an electrode-integrated transparent window,
Patterning the transparent electrode and the transparent wiring formed on one surface of the transparent window, wherein an adhesive layer is not present between the transparent window, the transparent electrode, and the transparent wiring, and the transparent window, the transparent electrode, and the transparent wiring are integrally formed. ;
Forming an insulating layer on an outer end of the patterned transparent wiring; And
And forming an external wiring part on the insulating layer so as to be connected to an outer end of the transparent wire. The method of claim 8,
The surface of the transparent window facing the one surface is a method for manufacturing a touch screen panel, characterized in that for receiving a user's contact. The method of claim 8,
Forming a protective film on a surface of the transparent window opposite to one surface on which the transparent electrode is formed; Method of manufacturing a touch screen panel further comprising. The method of claim 8,
Forming a shielding layer on a surface including the transparent electrode, the transparent wiring, and the external wiring; Method of manufacturing a touch screen panel further comprising. The method of claim 8,
Forming the insulating layer is a method of manufacturing a touch screen panel comprising the step of printing with epilite or after exposure to PSR. delete delete delete

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