TWI464633B - Method of manufacturing flexible touch panel - Google Patents

Description

Flexible touch panel manufacturing method

The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a flexible touch panel, in particular to a method for manufacturing a flexible touch panel with low manufacturing cost and simple manufacturing.

With the development of technology, the design of electronic products has gradually become more and more popular with human-computer interaction and easy operation interface. The touch-based operation interface is therefore widely mainstream. The touch panel is attached to the outside of the flat panel display to match the flat display display image as an intuitive and easy to use interface. The user can directly touch the finger or drag the image with the stylus to display the image on the screen. And text to achieve the purpose of inputting information and manipulating the product.

With the development of flat-panel displays in a large area, the display of lighter, thinner and even flexible, portable displays has become the main goal. Nowadays, the use of flexible substrates instead of rigid substrates for display has become a trend in display development, and touch panels have the same trend.

In order to meet the requirements of the flexible substrate introduction process, the flexible substrate is usually introduced into a conventional device by using a rigid substrate as a support, and then various processes are performed on the flexible substrate, for example, on a flexible substrate. Film forming process or fabrication of thin film transistors. In general, conventional flexible touch panels are typically fabricated using a temporary adhesive that bonds the flexible substrate to a rigid substrate and physically or chemically strips the flexible substrate. However, the viscosity of the temporary adhesive is not easily controlled, and the thermal stability is not good, and it is easy to cause a problem of poor adhesion or difficulty in peeling off. Furthermore, if the flexible substrate is chemically peeled off, the corrosion resistance of the substrate itself needs to be considered.

In another method, the flexible substrate is attached to the hard substrate by an adhesive layer, and after the subsequent process is applied, the germanium is removed by high-temperature laser or light debonding. The adhesive layer is adhered, and the finished flexible touch panel is separated from the rigid substrate. However, equipment that is bonded by laser or illumination is expensive, time consuming, and limited in effect, and has a limited process speed and high cost; and if the adhesive layer is too viscous, the flexible substrate is removed from the rigid substrate. During the removal process, it may also damage the precision components on the flexible substrate.

In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, and to provide a method for manufacturing a flexible touch panel which is easy to manufacture and which does not leave a residual glue.

In order to achieve the foregoing objective, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a flexible touch panel by attaching a partial region of a flexible polymer layer of a touch panel to a rigid substrate by an adhesive layer; The polymer layer forms an easy-disengagement interface with the rigid substrate.

The manufacturing method of the flexible touch panel of the present invention comprises: preparing a hard substrate; forming a discontinuous adhesive layer on the hard substrate; forming a flexible polymer layer on the adhesive layer and the hard substrate a region of the flexible polymer layer contacting the rigid substrate is defined as a patterned region; a patterned region of the sensing layer on the flexible polymer layer is formed; the patterned region is cut and The flexible polymer layer of the sensing layer is detached from the rigid substrate. In the above embodiment, a protective layer may be further formed on the sensing layer.

The touch panel can be easily peeled off without using an expensive laser or illumination device, and the process is simple and no residual glue is left, which can solve the problem that the conventional touch panel is not easily removed from the hard substrate. problem. The detailed technical content and preferred embodiments of the present invention are described in conjunction with the drawings.

The detailed description and technical contents of the present invention are described below with reference to the drawings, and the drawings and the component numbers are only for illustrative purposes, and do not represent actual dimensions and proportions; The drawings are also concise and easy to understand, and some of the drawings also omit the drawing of conventional elements without affecting the implementation and understanding of the present invention.

Please refer to "FIG. 1-1" to "FIG. 1-7" for a schematic flow chart of a manufacturing method according to an embodiment of the present invention, and a top view corresponding to the above "FIG. 1-1" to "FIG. 1-5". Figure 2-1" to "Figure 2-5". The invention provides a manufacturing method of the flexible touch panel 1 , and the steps thereof include:

1. Preparing a rigid substrate 10;
2. Forming a discontinuous adhesive layer 11 on the rigid substrate 10;
3. Forming a flexible polymer layer 12 on the adhesive layer 11 and the hard substrate 10; a region of the flexible polymer layer 12 contacting the hard substrate 10 is defined as a patterned region 121 (labeled in Figure 2 3" after the pattern);
4. Forming a sensing layer 13 on the flexible polymer layer 12 of the patterned region 121;
5. Forming a protective layer 14 on the sensing layer 13;
6. The patterned region 121 is cut and the flexible polymer layer 12 is detached from the rigid substrate 10.

The following is a detailed explanation of each step:

First, as shown in FIG. 1-1 and FIG. 2-1, a rigid substrate 10 is provided, which is a rigid, heat-resistant substrate that can withstand process temperatures during the entire manufacturing process. The rigid substrate 10 is preferably resistant to strong acid and alkali, and can be prevented from being attacked by a solvent, for example, a glass substrate.

Then, a discontinuous adhesive layer 11 is formed on the predetermined region of the rigid substrate 10, and a flexible polymer layer 12 is formed on the adhesive layer 11 and the rigid substrate 10, as shown in FIG. 1-2. Figure 1-3 and Figure 2-2 to Figure 2-3 show. Here, the term "discontinuity" means that the adhesive layer 11 is not entirely coated on the hard substrate 10, but is applied only to a region to be adhered. The adhesive layer 11 provides an adhesive effect such that a portion of the flexible polymer layer 12 can be adhered to the rigid substrate 10 by the adhesive layer 11. The flexible polymer layer 12 is not bonded (or covered) to the region of the adhesive layer 11, that is, the range in which the flexible polymer layer 12 contacts the rigid substrate 10 is defined as a patterned region 121 (see "FIG. 2-3"), whereby the functional layers of the subsequent steps can be formed in the patterned region 121 on the flexible polymer layer 12.

In the above embodiment, the adhesive layer 11 may be made of organic materials, and may be modified by physical laser or chemically etched to form a special surface formed by increasing the roughness of the substrate.

In the above embodiment, the flexible polymer layer 12 is used as a flexible substrate of the flexible touch panel 1, which can be applied by spin coating, slit coating or blade coating. a method of forming on the hard substrate 10 and the adhesive layer 11; on the other hand, the glass transition temperature ( _Tg ) of the flexible polymer layer 12 can be higher than 150 ° C, and The material is transparent and has a low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), such as polyimide (PI), but not limited thereto.

Continuingly, please refer to "FIG. 1-4" to "FIGS. 1-5" and "FIGS. 2-4" to "FIG. 2-5", respectively, in the patterned region 121 of the flexible polymer layer 12. A sensing layer 13 and a protective layer 14 are formed to form a stack of touch panels. The sensing layer 13 can be a two-dimensional sensing area of the touch panel, and can be a multi-layer structure, and includes a plurality of sensing units (not shown) that sense the X direction and the Y direction. The measuring unit is arranged in an array manner; the protective layer 14 can protect the overall structure of the touch panel, has water blocking and gas barrier properties, can be prevented from being invaded by water vapor or organic solvent, or can prevent the sensing layer 13 from being scraped by external force. hurt. In one embodiment, the insulating layer is an insulating transparent material.

After the stacking structure of the touch panel is completed, the touch panel structure including the flexible polymer layer 12, the sensing layer 13 and the protective layer 14 is removed from the rigid substrate 10. Referring to FIGS. 1-6 to FIG. 1-7, since the flexible polymer layer 12 is adhered to the rigid substrate 10 by the discontinuous adhesive layer 11, the present invention is detached from the rigid substrate 10. The method is to cut the flexible polymer layer 12 of the patterned region 121 (that is, to cut the region that is not covered or not bonded to the adhesive layer 11 , and the cutting line is as shown by the dotted line in FIG. 1-6 ), and directly The touch panel is detached from the rigid substrate 10. Since there is no coating of the adhesive layer 11 in the range of the patterned region 121, the touch panel is easily detached from the rigid substrate 10.

It should be noted that the adhesion of the flexible polymer layer 12 to the rigid substrate 10 by the adhesive layer 11 does not mean that there is no adhesion between the flexible polymer layer 12 and the rigid substrate 10. The flexible polymer layer 12 can still bear on the rigid substrate 10 by the adhesion of the material itself; however, the flexible polymer layer 12 itself has a lower adhesion than the adhesive layer 11 Therefore, it is easy to separate from the hard substrate 10.

Compared with the prior art, the present invention partially fixes the flexible polymer layer 12 by the adhesive layer 11 and removes the flexible polymer layer 12 by the characteristics of the flexible substrate 10, so that the manufacturing cost is low, and The process is relatively simple and easy; on the other hand, through the invention, it is possible to avoid the problem that the prior art is easy to form a residual glue or the material is destroyed by the debonding process.

The above is only the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the patent protection of the present invention. Therefore, the equivalent changes and modifications of the present invention and the contents of the drawings are equally included in The scope of protection of the present invention is combined with Chen Ming.

1‧‧‧Flexible touch panel
10‧‧‧hard substrate
11‧‧‧Adhesive layer
12‧‧‧Flexible polymer layer
13‧‧‧Sensor layer
14‧‧‧Protective layer
121‧‧‧ patterned area

Embodiments of the invention are described in conjunction with the drawings:
FIG. 1-1 to FIG. 1-7 are schematic diagrams showing a manufacturing process of the flexible touch panel of the present invention;
Figure 2-1 to Figure 2-5 show the top view corresponding to Figure 1-1 to Figure 1-5.

1‧‧‧Flexible touch panel

10‧‧‧hard substrate

11‧‧‧Adhesive layer

12‧‧‧Flexible polymer layer

13‧‧‧Sensor layer

14‧‧‧Protective layer

Claims (10)

A method of manufacturing a flexible touch panel, the steps comprising:
Preparing a rigid substrate;
Forming a discontinuous adhesive layer on the rigid substrate;
Forming a flexible polymer layer on the adhesive layer and the hard substrate; a region of the flexible polymer layer contacting the hard substrate is defined as a patterned region;
Forming a sensing layer on the patterned layer of the flexible polymer layer;
The patterned region is diced and the flexible polymer layer having the sensing layer is detached from the rigid substrate. The method for manufacturing a flexible touch panel according to claim 1, further comprising the step of forming a protective layer on the sensing layer. The method for manufacturing a flexible touch panel according to claim 2, wherein the protective layer is a transparent insulating material and has water repellency and gas barrier properties. The method of manufacturing a flexible touch panel according to claim 1, wherein the rigid substrate is a glass substrate. The method for manufacturing a flexible touch panel according to claim 1, wherein the flexible polymer layer is formed on the rigid substrate by spin coating, slit coating or blade coating. And the adhesive layer. The method of manufacturing a flexible touch panel according to claim 1, wherein the flexible polymer layer has a glass transition temperature higher than 150 ° C. The method of manufacturing a flexible touch panel according to claim 1, wherein the flexible polymer layer is composed of a transparent material having a low coefficient of thermal expansion. The method for manufacturing a flexible touch panel according to claim 1, wherein the flexible polymer layer is a polyimide. The method of manufacturing a flexible touch panel according to claim 1, wherein the adhesive layer is organic. The method of manufacturing a flexible touch panel according to claim 1, wherein the adhesive layer physically reforms the surface or chemically increases the surface roughness.