KR20150022215A - Touch panel and mtthod of manufacturing of the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a touch panel and to a method for manufacturing the same. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the touch panel includes: a substrate; multiple first electrodes which are formed on the substrate in a first axis; an insulating layer which is formed on the substrate to cover the multiple first electrodes; and multiple second electrodes which are formed on the insulating layer in a second axis to be crossed with the first axis, wherein the thickness of the insulating layer is between 0.1μm and 10μm.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a touch panel,

The present invention relates to a touch panel and a manufacturing method thereof.

A touch sensing device such as a touch screen, a touch pad, or the like is an input device attached to a display device and capable of providing an intuitive input method to a user, and is widely applied to various electronic devices such as a mobile phone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) . In particular, as the demand for smartphones has increased recently, the adoption ratio of touch screens that can provide various input methods in a limited form factor is increasing day by day.

The touch screen applied to a portable device can be divided into a resistance film type and a capacitance type according to a method of detecting a touch input. Among them, the capacitance type has a relatively long life and can easily implement various input methods and gestures Due to its merits, its application rate is increasing. In particular, the capacitance type is widely applied to a device such as a smart phone because it is easy to implement a multi-touch interface as compared with the resistance film type.

The capacitance type touch screen includes a plurality of electrodes having a predetermined pattern, and a plurality of nodes, in which a capacitance change is generated by a touch input, are defined by the plurality of electrodes. A plurality of nodes distributed on a two-dimensional plane generate self-capacitance or mutual-capacitance changes by touch input, and a weighted average calculation method is applied to the capacitance change generated in a plurality of nodes. Etc. can be applied to calculate the coordinates of the touch input

In a conventional touch panel, a sensing electrode for recognizing a touch is formed of ITO (Indium Tin Oxide). However, in the case of ITO, indium (raw material) is expensive because it is a rare-earth metal, so price competitiveness deteriorates, and there is a problem that supply and demand are unreliable due to exhaustion within 10 years. For the above reasons, studies have been made to form electrodes using opaque conductive fine wires. Electrodes formed of conductive fine wires such as metal have much better electrical conductivity than ITO or conductive polymers, . However, transparency and invisibility need to be increased in order to use conductive fine wires as an electrode for a touch screen.

In the following prior art document, Patent Document 1 relates to a touch panel member and discloses the formation of one transparent electrode portion, an insulating layer and another transparent electrode portion on a transparent substrate. However, transparent ITO, which does not use a conductive thin wire such as a metal as an electrode, is used as an electrode. In such a case, the thickness of the insulating layer is too thick to lower the transmittance, which is disadvantageous in terms of visibility.

Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-203701

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a touch panel capable of reducing the thickness of an insulating layer formed to cover a predetermined electrode layer and a manufacturing method thereof.

According to a first technical aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device comprising: a substrate; A plurality of first electrodes formed on the substrate in a first axis direction; An insulating layer formed on the substrate to cover the plurality of first electrodes; And a plurality of second electrodes formed on the insulating layer in a second axis direction intersecting with the first axis; And the thickness of the insulating layer is 0.1 占 퐉 to 10 占 퐉.

According to a second technical aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising: forming a plurality of first electrodes extending in a first axis direction on a substrate; Forming an insulating layer on the substrate to cover the plurality of first electrodes; And forming a plurality of second electrodes on the insulating layer extending in a direction crossing the first axis direction; And the thickness of the insulating layer is 0.1 占 퐉 to 10 占 퐉.

The thickness of the insulating layer may be 1 탆 to 7 탆.

The thickness of the insulating layer may be 0.1 탆 to 4 탆.

The insulating layer may be formed of one of SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2, Ta2O5, Nb2O5, and TiO2.

The insulating layer may be formed of one of PGMEA and Acryl.

The insulating layer may be formed of one of PET, PC, PES, PI, PMMA and COP.

The thickness of the insulating layer may be greater than the thickness of the first electrode.

The plurality of first and second electrodes may be formed of a plurality of conductor fine wires.

The plurality of conductor thin wires may be formed of any one of Ag, Al, Cr, Ni, Mo and Cu or an alloy including at least two of Ag, Al, Cr, Ni, Mo and Cu.

The line width of the plurality of conductor thin wires may be 0.5 탆 to 10 탆.

The plurality of conductor thin wires of the plurality of first and second electrodes may be formed in a mesh shape.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, an insulating layer may be formed to cover a predetermined electrode layer to eliminate optical defects, thereby achieving a high transmittance, and thinning the insulating layer to improve the visibility of the electrode layer.

1 is a perspective view showing an external appearance of an electronic device including a touch panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a schematic view of a touch panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a cross-sectional view of the touch panel of Fig.
4 is an enlarged view schematically showing a conductor thin line constituting a plurality of electrodes formed in a mesh shape in a cross section of AA '.

The following detailed description of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of illustration, specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. It should be understood that the various embodiments of the present invention are different, but need not be mutually exclusive. For example, certain features, structures, and characteristics described herein may be implemented in other embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention in connection with an embodiment. It is also to be understood that the position or arrangement of the individual components within each disclosed embodiment may be varied without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is to be limited only by the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled, if properly explained. In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to the same or similar functions throughout the several views.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention.

1 is a perspective view showing an external appearance of an electronic device including a touch panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1, the electronic device 100 according to the present embodiment includes a display device 110 for outputting a screen, an input unit 120, an audio unit 130 for audio output, 110, and a touch panel may be included in the touch screen device.

As shown in FIG. 1, in the case of a mobile device, a touch screen device is generally integrated with a display device, and the touch screen device must have a light transmittance so high that a screen displayed by the display device can transmit. Accordingly, the touch screen device may be a film such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polycarbonate (PC), polyethersulfone (PES), polyimide (PI), polymethlymethacrylate (PMMA), or cycloolefin polymers (COP) Can be realized by forming an electrode with a material having electrical conductivity on a transparent substrate made of a material such as tempered glass. A wiring pattern connected to an electrode formed of a transparent conductive material is disposed in a bezel region of the display device, and the wiring pattern is visually shielded by the bezel region.

Since the touch screen device is assumed to operate according to a capacitive method, it may include a plurality of electrodes having a predetermined pattern. A capacitance detection circuit for detecting a change in capacitance generated in the plurality of electrodes; an analog-to-digital conversion circuit for converting the output signal of the capacitance detection circuit into a digital value; And an arithmetic circuit for judging whether or not the input signal is an output signal.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a touch panel according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the touch panel of FIG. 2. Referring to FIG.

2 and 3, the touch panel 200 according to the present embodiment includes a substrate 210 and a plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 provided on the substrate 210. 2 shows a plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 having a rhombic or diamond-like pattern. However, the electrodes 220 and 230 may be formed in a shape such as a rectangle, a triangle, or a circle. Hereinafter, for convenience of explanation, the case where the plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 are formed in a rhombus will be mainly described.

Although not shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, each of the plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 may be electrically connected to a wiring pattern of a circuit board attached to one end of the substrate 210 through wiring and a bonding pad. A controller integrated circuit is mounted on the circuit board to detect a sensing signal generated by the plurality of electrodes 220 and 230, and to determine a touch input therefrom.

In the case of a touch screen device, the substrate 210 may be a transparent substrate on which a plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 are formed. In addition to the area where the plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 are formed, the area where the wiring to be connected to the plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 is provided is not limited to the predetermined printing for visually shielding the wiring formed of the opaque metal material Regions may be formed in the substrate 210. [

The plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 include a first electrode 220 extending in the X-axis direction and a second electrode 230 extending in the Y-axis direction. The first electrode 220 is formed on one surface of the substrate. Thereafter, an insulating layer 240 having a predetermined thickness and a thickness of 0.1 占 퐉 to 10 占 퐉 is formed on the substrate so as to cover the first electrode formed on the substrate 210, (230) can be provided. The first electrode 220 may be formed on the substrate 210 and the second substrate 230 may be formed on the insulating layer 240 by a vacuum evaporation method such as sputtering or E-Beam, an electrolytic method such as plating, And imprinting may be used. At this time, the thickness of the insulating layer 240 may be thicker than the thickness of the first electrode 220.

The insulating layer 240 may be formed of an inorganic material including one of SiO2, Al2O3, Ta2O5, Nb2O5, Si3N4, and TiO2. In this case, the insulating layer 240 may have a thickness It can be made to have a thickness. Or an organic material comprising one of PGMEA and Acryl, or a transparent film comprising one of PET, PC, PES, PI, PMMA and COP.

Particularly, when the insulating layer 240 is manufactured using an inorganic material such as SiO 2, when SiO 2 is thinly coated on the substrate 210 so as to cover the first electrode 220, bubbles and the like are not generated, The insulating layer 240 may be formed to have a thickness of 0.1 mu m to 4 mu m. If the thickness of the insulating layer 240 becomes thin, dielectric breakdown occurs and it can not serve as an insulator. In the case of the SiO2 film, it can serve as an insulator up to a thickness of 0.1 mu m.

The plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 may be formed of a plurality of conductor fine wires (fine wires). The plurality of conductor thin wires constituting the plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 may be made of any one of Ag, Al, Cr, Ni, Mo, and Cu or an alloy thereof. ) Is made of this metal, the resistance value of the electrode can be reduced, whereby the conductivity and detection sensitivity can be improved. The line width of the plurality of conductor fine wires may be 0.5 탆 to 10 탆. When the line width is narrower than 0.5 占 퐉, the defect rate increases due to disconnection and the resistance value can be increased, and when the line width is larger than 10 占 퐉, the transmissivity can be reduced.

The conductive fine wires are formed in a mesh or mesh shape. By forming the conductive fine wires in the form of a mesh or mesh, it is possible to reduce the phenomenon that the patterning marks are visible in the region where the conventional pattern electrodes exist and to improve the permeability of the touch panel have. 2, the conductive thin wires of the plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 are formed in a rhombic or rectangular shape. However, it is not limited thereto, and a hexagonal shape, an octagonal shape, a diamond shape, and an amorphous shape, It goes without saying that the present invention extends to the extent that it can be easily derived.

The controller integrated circuit electrically connected to the plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 to sense a touch input detects a capacitance change generated at the plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 by a touch input and senses a touch input therefrom . The first electrode 220 may be connected to a channel defined by D1 to D8 in the controller integrated circuit to receive a predetermined driving signal, and the channels S1 to S8 may be used to detect a sensing signal by the controller integrated circuit have. At this time, the controller integrated circuit may obtain a change in the electrostatic capacity generated between the first electrode 220 and the second electrode 230 and use the sensed signal.

A change in capacitance may occur between the first electrode 220 and the second electrode 230 when the contact object is present on or close to the cover lens to which the touch input is applied. The first electrode 220 and the second electrode 230 are formed of a conductive material so that when a predetermined driving signal is applied to the first electrode 220, A change in the electric field caused by the contact object leads to a change in capacitance.

4 is an enlarged view schematically showing a conductor thin line constituting a plurality of electrodes formed in a mesh shape on a cross section taken along the line A-A '. 4 (a) is a view showing the electrostatic capacity formed by the conductor fine lines of the plurality of electrodes 220 and 230, and FIG. 4 (b) ) In the case where the electrostatic capacity is present.

As shown in FIG. 2, the plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 are provided so as to intersect with each other. Since the plurality of electrodes 220 and 230 are formed of mesh-shaped conductor thin wires, the first electrode 220 and the second electrode 230 do not intersect the plane and the plane but intersect the conductor thin lines of the first electrode 220 and the second electrode 230. That is, the capacitance is hardly formed in the crossing region, and the capacitance is mainly formed in the region other than the crossing region. The capacitance formed in the region other than the intersecting region of the conductor thin wires is hardly affected by the thickness H of the insulating layer. Since the insulating layer is hardly affected by the thickness H of the insulating layer, Can be produced.

Since the insulating layer can be made thin, the insulating layer can be manufactured with various materials and the workability of the process can be facilitated.

Further, as the thickness of the insulating layer is increased, the degree of visibility of the electrode layer may vary as the viewing angle of the touch panel is changed. In the touch panel according to the present embodiment, since the thickness of the insulating layer is thin, Even when the viewing angle is changed, the degree to which the electrode layer is visible is constant, which is advantageous in terms of visibility.

Table 1 below is a table showing the amount of change and the rate of change of the capacitance according to the thickness of the insulating layer.

Insulating layer
Thickness (㎛) Before touch input
Capacitance (pF) After touch input
Capacitance (pF) Capacitance change (pF) Capacitance change rate (%) 0.1 1.853 1.698 0.155 8.3 0.2 1.745 1.575 0.170 9.7 One 1.455 1.263 0.192 13.2 5 1.342 1.134 0.208 15.5 10 1.299 1.090 0.209 16.1 15 1.274 1.063 0.211 16.6 20 1.254 1.042 0.212 16.9 30 1.224 1.011 0.212 17.4 50 1.176 0.965 0.211 18.0 70 1.138 0.926 0.211 18.6 90 1.102 0.892 0.210 19.1 100 1.085 0.875 0.209 19.3

Referring to Table 1, it can be seen that even when the thickness of the insulating layer is made thin, it is possible to obtain a capacitance change amount and a change rate sufficient for sensing a touch input.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, but, on the contrary, Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.

Therefore, the spirit of the present invention should not be construed as being limited to the above-described embodiments, and all of the equivalents or equivalents of the claims, as well as the following claims, I will say.

200: touch panel
210: substrate
220: first electrode
230: second electrode
240: insulating layer

Claims (22)

Board;
A plurality of first electrodes formed on the substrate in a first axis direction;
An insulating layer formed on the substrate to cover the plurality of first electrodes; And
A plurality of second electrodes formed on the insulating layer in a second axis direction intersecting the first axis; / RTI >
Wherein the thickness of the insulating layer is 0.1 占 퐉 to 10 占 퐉.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the insulating layer has a thickness of 1 占 퐉 to 7 占 퐉.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the thickness of the insulating layer is 0.1 mu m to 4 mu m.
The semiconductor device according to claim 1,
SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2, Ta2O5, Nb2O5 and TiO2.
The semiconductor device according to claim 1,
A touch panel formed of one of PGMEA and Acryl.
The semiconductor device according to claim 1,
A touch panel formed of one of PET, PC, PES, PI, PMMA, and COP.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the thickness of the insulating layer is thicker than the thickness of the first electrode.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the plurality of first and second electrodes comprise a plurality of conductor fine wires.
9. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the plurality of conductor thin wires are formed of any one of Ag, Al, Cr, Ni, Mo, and Cu or an alloy including at least two of Ag, Al, Cr, Ni, Mo and Cu.
9. The method of claim 8,
And the line width of the plurality of conductor thin wires is 0.5 占 퐉 to 10 占 퐉.
10. The method of claim 9,
Wherein the plurality of conductor thin wires of the plurality of first and second electrodes are formed in a mesh shape.
Forming a plurality of first electrodes extending in a first axis direction on a substrate;
Forming an insulating layer on the substrate to cover the plurality of first electrodes; And
Forming a plurality of second electrodes on the insulating layer, the second electrodes extending in a direction crossing the first axis direction; / RTI >
Wherein the thickness of the insulating layer is 0.1 占 퐉 to 10 占 퐉.
13. The method of claim 12,
Wherein the thickness of the insulating layer is 1 mu m to 7 mu m.
13. The method of claim 12,
Wherein the thickness of the insulating layer is 0.1 占 퐉 to 4 占 퐉.
13. The semiconductor device according to claim 12,
SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2, Ta2O5, Nb2O5, and TiO2.
13. The method of claim 12,
PGMEA, and Acryl.
13. The method of claim 12,
PET, PC, PES, PI, PMMA, and COP.
13. The method of claim 12,
Wherein the thickness of the insulating layer is thicker than the thickness of the first electrode.
13. The method of claim 12,
Wherein the plurality of first and second electrodes are composed of a plurality of conductor fine wires.
20. The method of claim 19,
Wherein the plurality of conductor fine wires are made of a metal selected from the group consisting of Ag, Al, Cr, Ni, Mo and Cu or an alloy containing at least two of Ag, Al, Cr, Ni, Way.
20. The method of claim 19,
Wherein a line width of the plurality of conductor thin wires of the plurality of first and second electrodes is 0.5 占 퐉 to 10 占 퐉.
20. The method of claim 19,
Wherein the plurality of conductor fine wires are formed in a mesh shape.

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