KR20130022946A - Capacitive type touch pannel and its fabrication method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A capacitance touch panel and a manufacturing method thereof are provided to manufacture a touch sensor with a minute line width which is not easily identified by the naked eye, thereby replacing indium tin oxide(ITO). CONSTITUTION: A touch sensor unit and a bezel circuit unit are formed with an electrode of the same material. The touch sensor unit includes a first touch sensing array and a second touch sensing array. The first touch sensing array is arranged that first touch sensing lines(21) are in parallel with a first direction. The second touch sensing array is arranged that second touch sensing lines are in parallel with a second direction which is perpendicular to the first direction. The first touch sensing array and the second touch sensing array are separated by an insulating layer. The touch sensing lines have a line width less than 50 micrometers.

Description

Capacitive touch panel and its manufacturing method {CAPACITIVE TYPE TOUCH PANNEL AND ITS FABRICATION METHOD}

The present invention relates to a capacitive touch panel composed of a touch sensor and a bezel pattern circuit using the same electrode material and a method of manufacturing the same. More specifically, the touch sensing array formed on the capacitive touch sensor, which is a component of the capacitive touch panel, is formed of an electrode having a fine line width that is hardly discernible to the naked eye. The present invention relates to a capacitive touch panel capable of forming a sensor and a bezel circuit in one process and a method of manufacturing the same.

Capacitive sensing is a method of sensing by using a capacitive coupling effect. Unlike pressure-sensitive pressure, it is made of highly conductive glass called indium tin oxide. By attaching the sensor to the four corners of the glass, current flows through the glass surface. It is the electrostatic principle to recognize the change of current through this.

At this point, when the finger touches the screen, the electrons that flowed into the glass flow into the body through the finger. At this time, the sensor detects the position of the electron where the change has occurred. The capacitive touch method is softer in operation and scrolling than the pressure-sensitive type, and enables multi-touch to be touched in several places. Since the capacitive type is operated by using a change amount of current, it cannot be used with a non-current leather glove or a fingernail or a stylus (a separate capacitive stylus must be used). Sensors are sensitive and may be affected by peripheral devices.

In capacitive touch, typically, the projected capacitance sensing hardware consists of a glass top layer, followed by an array of X and Y, and an insulating layer of indium tin oxide (ITO) on the glass surface.

In capacitive touch panels, a finger or other conductive object approaches the screen, creating a capacitor between the sensor and the finger. These capacitors are small compared to others in the system (about 0.5pF at 20pF), but can be measured by several techniques.

Recently, various capacitive touch panel products have been introduced to the world one after another. As a result, the progress of machining operations has been mass-produced, and the cost has continued to fall, and capacitive touch panels have gradually become commonplace.

The capacitive touch panel consists of a touch sensor and a bezel pattern that connects it to an external circuit. Since the electrode constituting the array on the touch sensor must be both conductive and transparent in nature, ITO (Indium Tin Oxide), a material showing such physical properties, is mainly used. However, this ITO is made of materials that are rare metals, and as a result, the demand for development of substitutes is increasing as the price continues to rise. In addition, since the bezel pattern part connecting the touch sensor part and the external circuit is required to have high conductivity, it is manufactured using a metallic material such as silver (Ag) or copper (Cu). Therefore, the electrode circuit material of the sensor unit and the bezel unit is different, and thus, a manufacturing process of various stages is required. The ITO circuit of the sensor part is manufactured by a deposition process and an etching process, and the silver wiring of the bezel part is applied to screen printing, which acts as a synergistic factor in terms of time and cost.

An object of the present invention is to replace the ITO used as the material of the transparent electrode circuit constituting the capacitive touch sensor portion of the touch panel with the material of the bezel pattern circuit portion.

In addition, the purpose is to reduce the time and cost by manufacturing the bezel pattern circuit portion and the touch sensor circuit portion using a single process.

The present invention provides the following means for solving the above problems.

The capacitive touch panel according to the present invention includes a touch sensor unit 10 that detects a change in capacitance caused by contact of a conductive object, and a bezel circuit unit 40 that transmits an electrical signal of the touch sensor unit 10. do.

At this time, the touch sensor unit 10 and the bezel circuit unit 40 is formed of an electrode of the same material.

In particular, the touch sensor unit 10 may include a first touch sensing array 20 in which a plurality of touch sensing lines formed in a fine pattern are arranged parallel to each other in a first direction, and a plurality of touch sensing lines formed in a fine pattern. And a second touch sensing array 30 arranged parallel to each other in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, wherein the first touch sensing array 20 and the second touch sensing array 30 are insulating layers. It characterized in that it is formed electrically separated by 50.

The touch sensing line is preferably formed to have a line width of 50 micrometers or less, which is invisible to the naked eye.

In this case, the electrodes forming the touch sensor unit 10 and the bezel circuit unit 40 may be formed of any conductive material such as silver, copper, carbon nanotube, or the like.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method of manufacturing a capacitive touch panel includes a touch sensor unit 10 for detecting a change in capacitance caused by contact of a conductive object, and a bezel that transmits an electrical signal of the touch sensor unit 10. A method of manufacturing a capacitive touch panel including a circuit unit 40, and the touch sensor unit 10 and the bezel circuit unit 40 are simultaneously formed of electrodes of the same material on the substrate 100.

More specifically, the plurality of first touch sensing lines 21 and the first touch sensing lines 21 formed in a fine pattern that cannot be recognized by the naked eye, which are arranged parallel to each other in a first direction on the substrate 100. The first step of simultaneously forming a first bezel circuit 41 for transmitting an electrical signal from the electrodes of the same material and forming a transparent insulating layer 50 on the first touch sensing lines 21 And a plurality of second touch sensing lines 31 formed in a fine pattern that cannot be recognized by the naked eye, which are arranged in parallel with each other in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and the second touch sensing line. And a third step of simultaneously forming the second bezel circuit 42 for transmitting an electrical signal from the electrodes 31 to electrodes of the same material.

According to the present invention, since the touch sensor is manufactured with a fine line width that cannot be easily identified with the naked eye, the transparent capacitive touch panel can be configured to replace ITO. In addition, the bezel pattern (circuit) part and the touch sensor part may use the same circuit electrode material, and may be manufactured in a single process, thereby reducing time and cost.

1 is an exploded configuration diagram of a capacitive touch panel according to the present invention.
2 is a block diagram of a capacitive touch panel according to the present invention.
3 is a block diagram of a capacitive touch panel according to the present invention.
4 and 5 is a schematic diagram of the pattern shape according to various embodiments of the present invention.
6 is a plan view of a capacitive touch panel according to the present invention;
7 is a plan view of a capacitive touch panel according to the present invention;
8 is a plan view of a capacitive touch panel according to the present invention;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear. Even if the terms are the same, it is to be noted that when the portions to be displayed differ, the reference signs do not coincide.

The terms to be described below are terms set in consideration of functions in the present invention, and may be changed according to a user's intention or custom such as an experimenter and a measurer, and the definitions should be made based on the contents throughout the present specification.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. Like reference numerals are used for like elements in describing each drawing.

The terms first, second, A, B, etc. may be used to describe various elements, but the elements should not be limited by the terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the present invention, the first component may be referred to as a second component, and similarly, the second component may also be referred to as a first component. And / or < / RTI > includes any combination of a plurality of related listed items or any of a plurality of related listed items.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In this application, the terms "comprise" or "have" are intended to indicate that there is a feature, number, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof described in the specification, and one or more other features. It is to be understood that the present invention does not exclude the possibility of the presence or the addition of numbers, steps, operations, components, components, or a combination thereof. Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries are to be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the contextual meaning of the related art and are to be interpreted as either ideal or overly formal in the sense of the present application Do not.

According to the present invention, a touch sensing array formed on a capacitive touch sensor, which is a component of a capacitive touch panel, is formed of an electrode having a fine line width that is hardly discernible to the naked eye. Repeatedly arranged side by side, the touch sensing array formed on the two capacitive sensor layers are arranged to be orthogonal to each other. In order to form the capacitive sensor as a fine electrode, highly conductive materials such as silver (Ag), copper (Cu), and carbon nanotubes (CNT) must be used. Since such materials can be used as a bezel circuit material, the sensor Since the negative and bezel pattern circuits can be made of the same material, the sensor and the bezel circuit can be manufactured in one process.

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

As shown in FIG. 1, the capacitive touch sensor according to the first embodiment of the present invention is configured as a touch array in which a plurality of touch sensing lines are repeatedly arranged side by side on a substrate. In addition, two capacitive sensor layers are provided for X and Y axis position recognition, and the touch sensing arrays formed on the two capacitive sensor layers are arranged to be orthogonal to each other.

As one of the main features of the present invention, the capacitive touch circuit constituting the touch sensing array uses all highly conductive materials such as silver (Ag), copper (Cu), carbon nanotubes (CNT), etc. instead of conventional ITO. Is that. More specifically, silver organometallic compounds, metallometallic organometallic compounds, copper organometallic compounds, silver nanowires, Au nanowires, copper nanowires, and zinc oxide nanowires (ZnO). Nanowire), LiF Nanowire, LiF Nanowire, Silver, Gold, Copper, Zinc Oxide, Lithium Fluoride Nanotube, Carbon Nanotube, CNT Composite, Graphene, Graphene Synthetic Compound, Fullerene, fullerene synthetic compounds and the like may be possible.

However, the problem when using such a highly conductive material is to secure the transparency of the touch panel. Therefore, in the present invention, in order to ensure the transparency of the touch panel, the width of the circuit electrode (touch sensing line) of the touch sensor unit is manufactured to a fine line width at a level not visible to the naked eye.

In general, when the width of the circuit electrode is 50 micrometers or less, the human eye cannot recognize the existence thereof. In general, the visually observable size is said to be 30 centimeters from a kilometer away. On the basis of this, if the user's eye and the touch panel are used at a distance of 15 centimeters, they may be converted to a line width of approximately 45 to 50 micrometers. Accordingly, the present invention proposes a method of ensuring transparency of the touch panel by patterning the aforementioned highly conductive material to 50 micrometers or less.

In addition, the bezel circuit connecting the touch sensor unit with the external circuit is manufactured using the same material and process as the electrode material used in the touch sensing line (touch sensing sensor) constituting the touch sensor unit. The entire circuit constituting the bezel is fabricated in one process. That is, a key feature of the present invention is to simplify the process by simultaneously generating the touch sensor unit and the bezel circuit unit at the same process, whether through a deposition process or a screen printing process.

The touch sensing line constituting the touch sensing array is connected to the sensor chip 60 through the bezel circuit, and the sensor chip 60 recognizes the touch position by measuring the capacitance change value of each touch sensing line. Since it is the same as the touch panel method, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

1 to 3 and 6 to 8, the capacitive touch panel according to the present invention is divided into a touch part of a transparent material and a bezel part 110 surrounding the touch part. The capacitive touch panel includes a touch sensor unit 10 that detects a change in capacitance caused by contact of a conductive object, and a bezel circuit unit 40 that transmits an electrical signal of the touch sensor unit 10. In the present specification, the bezel circuit part 40 refers to a circuit located in the bezel part of the touch panel. This is a configuration of a general capacitive touch panel as described above. The present invention is characterized in that the touch sensor unit 10 and the bezel circuit unit 40 are formed of electrodes of the same material. The advantages of configuring the electrode of the same material are as described above.

In the drawings, the colors of the touch sensor unit 10 and the bezel circuit unit 40 are distinguished from each other for convenience of explanation, but it should be understood that the substance of the present invention is made of the same material. In addition, the line width also shown in the drawings are only divided for convenience of description.

The shape of the pattern configuring the touch sensor unit may be various pattern shapes as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. However, it should be understood that the present invention does not limit the scope of the right to the shape of the pattern, but forms the circuit of the touch sensor unit and the circuit of the bezel pattern with the same material with the line width of the fine pattern that is not visible to the naked eye.

More specifically, the touch sensor unit 10 may include a first touch sensing array 20 in which a plurality of first touch sensing lines 21 formed in a fine pattern are arranged in parallel with each other in a first direction, and formed in a fine pattern. The plurality of second touch sensing lines 31 may include a second touch sensing array 30 arranged in parallel with each other in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. It is important that the first direction and the second direction are directions arranged perpendicular to each other, but are not limited to a specific direction.

In this case, the first touch sensing array 20 and the second touch sensing array 30 may be formed by being electrically separated from the insulating layer 50. The material and the method of forming the insulating layer 50 do not unduly limit the scope of the patent right, and may be a conventional general material and the method of forming.

The term "fine pattern" as used herein is to be understood as meaning a pattern that is difficult to identify (or impossible) with the naked eye without using a tool such as a microscope as described above. More specifically, although there are individual differences in each person, it is known that the pattern of 50 microns is difficult to recognize with the naked eye. Therefore, the touch sensing line is preferably formed to have a line width of 50 micrometers or less.

The electrodes forming the touch sensor unit 10 and the bezel circuit unit 40 include silver organometallic compounds, gold organometallic compounds, copper organometallic compounds, silver nanowires, gold nanowires, Copper Nanowires, Zinc Oxide Nanowires, LiF Nanowires, Silver, Gold, Copper, Zinc Oxides, Lithium Fluoride Nanotubes, Carbon Nanotubes, Carbon Nanotubes, CNTs It may be formed of any one of a synthetic compound, graphene (graphene), graphene synthetic compound, fullerene (fullerene), fullerene synthetic compound. However, it is not limited to this material, Any material may be sufficient as it is a highly conductive material.

The manufacturing method of the capacitive touch panel according to the present invention will be described in detail. In the most general embodiment, the capacitive touch includes a touch sensor unit 10 for detecting a change in capacitance according to the contact of a conductive object, and a bezel circuit unit 40 for transmitting an electrical signal of the touch sensor unit 10. In the method of manufacturing a panel, the touch sensor unit 10 and the bezel circuit unit 40 are simultaneously formed of electrodes of the same material on the substrate 100. The size of the electrode is the same as described above that it must be a fine pattern that is not visible to the naked eye.

More specifically, the plurality of first touch sensing lines 21 and the first touch sensing lines 21 formed in a fine pattern that cannot be recognized by the naked eye, which are arranged parallel to each other in a first direction on the substrate 100. The first step of simultaneously forming a first bezel circuit 41 for transmitting an electrical signal from the electrodes of the same material and forming a transparent insulating layer 50 on the first touch sensing lines 21 And a plurality of second touch sensing lines 31 formed in a fine pattern that cannot be recognized by the naked eye, which are arranged in parallel with each other in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and the second touch sensing line. And a third step of simultaneously forming the second bezel circuit 42 for transmitting an electrical signal from the electrodes 31 to electrodes of the same material.

In the present specification, the bezel circuit means a circuit electrode constituting the bezel circuit unit.

According to the exemplary embodiment described above, the touch sensor unit 10 has been described as being composed of a plurality of touch sensing lines having a long electrode shape. However, the present invention may also be applied to the capacitive touch panel of the node (cell) type as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3. In this case, the size of the node (cell) and the line width of the electrode that transmits the electrical signal from the node (cell) to the bezel circuit portion should be small so that it is not visually discernible. These nodes (cells) and electrodes are preferably manufactured by the same process through the same material. 2 to 4, nodes (cells) and electrodes are shown.

Referring to Figure 5, the shape of the sensor and the electrode is an additional feature of the present invention that can be applied in various ways.

The recognizable capacitance value may vary somewhat depending on the size of the node (cell), but this may be sufficiently realized through amplification in the sensor chip 60. Therefore, in the present invention, the touch sensing line should be understood as a concept including such a node (cell).

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 or scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims It can be understood that

The present invention is not limited to the scope of the embodiments by the above embodiments, all having the technical spirit of the present invention can be seen to fall within the scope of the present invention, the present invention is the scope of the claims by the claims Note that is determined.

10: touch sensor unit, 20: first touch sensing array, 30: second touch sensing array, 40: bezel circuit unit, 50: insulating layer

Claims (6)

In the capacitive touch panel comprising a touch sensor unit 10 for detecting a change in capacitance according to the contact of the conductive object, and a bezel circuit unit 40 for transmitting an electrical signal of the touch sensor unit 10,
The touch sensor unit 10 and the bezel circuit unit 40 is formed of an electrode of the same material,
Capacitive touch panel.
The method according to claim 1,
The touch sensor unit 10,
A first touch sensing array 20 in which a plurality of first touch sensing lines 21 formed in a fine pattern are arranged in parallel with each other in a first direction;
The plurality of second touch sensing lines 31 formed in a fine pattern includes a second touch sensing array 30 arranged in parallel with each other in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.
The first touch sensing array 20 and the second touch sensing array 30 are electrically separated by an insulating layer 50.
Capacitive touch panel.
The method according to claim 2,
The touch sensing line is formed to have a line width of less than 50 micrometers,
Capacitive touch panel.
The method according to claim 1,
The electrodes forming the touch sensor unit 10 and the bezel circuit unit 40 include silver organometallic compounds, gold organometallic compounds, copper organometallic compounds, silver nanowires, gold nanowires, Copper Nanowires, Zinc Oxide Nanowires, LiF Nanowires, Silver, Gold, Copper, Zinc Oxide, Lithium Fluoride Nanotubes, Carbon Nanotubes, CNTs Formed of any one of a synthetic compound, graphene, graphene synthetic compound, fullerene, and fullerene synthetic compound,
Capacitive touch panel.
In the manufacturing method of the capacitive touch panel comprising a touch sensor unit 10 for detecting a change in capacitance according to the contact of the conductive object, and a bezel circuit unit 40 for transmitting an electrical signal of the touch sensor unit 10. ,
Simultaneously forming the touch sensor unit 10 and the bezel circuit unit 40 on the substrate 100 using electrodes of the same material.
Method of manufacturing a capacitive touch panel.
Electrical signals from the first touch sensing lines 21 and the plurality of first touch sensing lines 21 formed in a fine pattern that cannot be visually recognized on the substrate 100 in parallel with each other in a first direction. A first step of simultaneously forming a first bezel circuit 41 for transmitting an electrode of the same material;
Forming a transparent insulating layer 50 on the first touch sensing lines 21;
A plurality of second touch sensing lines 31 formed in a fine pattern that is not visually recognizable and arranged in parallel to each other in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and the second touch sensing lines 31 are electrically connected to each other. And a third step of simultaneously forming a second bezel circuit 42 for transmitting a signal to electrodes of the same material.
Method of manufacturing a capacitive touch panel.

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