TWM519275U - Functional glass cover - Google Patents

Description

Functional glass cover

The present invention relates to a functional glass cover, in particular a glass cover that can be configured for use in front of a display screen and has a touch sensitive function.

In order to facilitate the input of operation messages, the module for configuring the touch panel before the display screen has been widely used in electronic products such as smart phones, tablet computers, and notebooks. Generally, the touchpad can detect the coordinates of the touch position, so it can be operated with the message on the screen to input, and in some cases, the mode of the input operation may be difficult, such as a virtual button, which is on the screen. The pressing operation requires little or no force to start, so often an operation error or an unexpected start occurs, causing trouble. To avoid the above problems, how to correctly interpret the virtual button of the screen to the touch circuit is a key problem. The currently known solution is to install a pressure sensor on the bottom surface of the touch panel, and the pressure sensing is used. The device senses the force exerted by the object on the touchpad to correctly interpret the pressing operation information.

U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 13/243,925, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein incorporated by reference in its entirety in the entire entire entire entire entire entire entire disclosure The system may recognize a message such as a touch position and a touch pressure based on an operation event on the touch sensitive device and perform one or more actions based on the identification information. The touch sensitive measuring device comprises a rigid watch cover, the touch sensor and the force sensor are mounted on the bottom surface of the watch cover, the cover plate is a hard material, and the plate body is not produced. It is bent or deformed so that the pressure applied anywhere on the cover can be faithfully transmitted to the force sensor below the cover. The force sensor includes a resistive strain gauge trace coupled to a Wheatstone bridge, and the strain gauge trace can be made longer and narrower by an external force, thereby increasing strain gauge resistance As the strain gauge trace increases with the applied force, the gauge resistance can be correspondingly increased, and therefore, when the gauge resistance is detected to rise, it can be interpreted as the force applied to the cover. Thereby, the force sensor can correctly capture the applied force information of the touch operation event for use by the computing system. In this solution, the touch sensor and the force sensor are independently arranged components, and each of them respectively senses the captured information, and then integrates by the touch controller for use by the computing system; Adding one or more force sensor elements to the vicinity of or near the bottom of the sensor, which poses a serious challenge to the panel assembly technology in terms of mounting accuracy, and the added force sensor is also It will increase the thickness of the overall touch sensitive device, which is not conducive to the trend of thin and light design of electronic products. In addition, if the rigid watch cover is to be displaced by the force applied by the touch to convey the force of the force applied to the force sensor, the displaceable arrangement of the cover may impair the sealability of the electronic product.

The present invention provides a functional glass cover, mainly comprising one or more functional laminates between the upper surface layer and the underlying substrate layer to form a touch sensitive structure, the touch sensitive structure can be targeted to the functional glass A change in capacitance is captured in a touch operation event on the cover for the computing system to recognize information such as touch position and touch pressure, and perform one or more actions based on the identification information.

According to the functional glass cover of the present invention, it comprises at least: a surface layer, a flexible transparent sheet; an electrically insulating layer, being a flexible transparent sheet; a first electrode layer being a flexible transparent conductive film disposed between the surface layer and the electrically insulating layer, having a plurality An electrode pattern; a second electrode layer is a flexible transparent conductive film disposed on an opposite side surface of the electrically insulating layer on which the first electrode layer is disposed, and has a plurality of driving electrode patterns, The first electrode layer and the second electrode layer are spatially separated by the electrically insulating layer to form a touch sensor structure; a bottom layer is a rigid transparent plate; a third electrode layer having a plurality of sensing electrode patterns disposed between the second electrode layer and the sub-base layer and spaced apart from the second electrode layer; and a strain isolation layer having plastic strain characteristics The transparent electrically insulating material is filled in the space to be formed, and the second electrode layer and the third electrode layer are spatially separated by the strain isolation layer to form a touch pressure feeling. Detector construction.

In particular, the surface layer is a glass-reinforced optical glass plate having a thickness of 0.5 mm or less, preferably about 0.2 to 0.3 mm, and the upper end corners of the surface layer of the surface layer are Curved or chamfered chamfers.

In particular, the interval is about 50 to 300 μm, preferably 75 to 200 μm.

In particular, the filler material of the strain isolation layer is selected from a material having an optical refractive index close to the substrate layer, and the filler material is selected from an OCA optical adhesive (Optically Clear Adhesive) or a transparent liquid material, or a polyethylene plastic. Dielectric materials such as phenolic resin, inorganic glass, etc., but the filler materials selected are not limited to the above listed materials.

In particular, the driving electrodes of the second electrode layer and the sensing electrode systems of the third electrode layer are respectively arranged in a grid shape and are spaced apart from each other.

In particular, the aforementioned touch sensor configuration is shared with the touch pressure sensor configuration The second electrode layer is a driving electrode, and the first electrode layer and the third electrode layer have the same or similar sensing electrode patterns.

The structure of the present creation is like a sandwich, and one or a plurality of functional laminated structures may be provided between the upper surface layer and the underlying base layer to meet various functional expansion requirements, for example, further included in the A fourth electrode layer is disposed between the two electrode layers and the strain isolation layer, and the fourth electrode layer is a flexible transparent conductive film having a plurality of driving electrode patterns, and the fourth electrode is formed by the strain isolation layer The layer and the third electrode layer are spatially separated to form a touch pressure sensor.

This will further clarify other functions and technical features of the present work, which will be implemented by those skilled in the art after reading the description in the text.

10‧‧‧ surface layer

11‧‧‧Chamfering

20‧‧‧First electrode layer

21‧‧‧Induction electrodes

30‧‧‧Electrical insulation

40‧‧‧Second electrode layer

41‧‧‧ drive electrode

D‧‧‧ interval

50‧‧‧ strain isolation

60‧‧‧ third electrode layer

61‧‧‧Induction electrodes

70‧‧‧ basement

80‧‧‧Touch objects

90‧‧‧fourth electrode layer

100‧‧‧Touch sensor construction

200‧‧‧Touch pressure sensor construction

1 is a schematic view showing the composition of each laminate of the present embodiment; FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the embodiment of the present invention, showing a state in which the laminated structure is not subjected to pressure, and the electrode layers are not deformed; FIG. A schematic cross-sectional view of the present embodiment, wherein the display object applies pressure to cause displacement between the driving electrode and the sensing electrode when the laminated structure is deformed; FIG. 4 is a second electrode layer and a portion of the present embodiment. A schematic plan view of an electrode pattern arrangement of a three-electrode layer; and FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the composition of each laminate of another embodiment of the present invention.

The following is a description of the technical solution of the present invention by taking a projection capacitive touch sensor architecture in a stack of functional glass covers as an embodiment. It should be understood that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention.

The embodiment of the "functional glass cover" shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 includes the following layers in sequence: a surface layer 10, a first electrode layer 20, an electrically insulating layer 30, and a second electrode layer. 40. A strain isolation layer 50, a third electrode layer 60, and a sub-base layer 70.

Wherein, the surface layer 10 may be made of a highly transparent thin plate material, such as an optical glass plate, and in order to make the plate body have flexible bending characteristics, the thickness of the plate body is desirably about 0.4 mm, and in order to balance the impact resistance thereof. Intensity, the plate body can be tempered by chemical or heat treatment. In addition, an arc-shaped chamfer 11 is provided on the upper end corner of the plate body of the surface layer 10, whereby when the laminated structure of the present invention is disposed on the surface of the screen, even in the case of repeated touch, The external force is effectively prevented from peeling off the surface layer 10 from the laminated structure.

The first electrode layer 20 is a flexible transparent conductive film, for example, an ITO conductive film disposed between the surface layer 10 and the electrically insulating layer 30, and has a plurality of spaced-apart sensing on the first electrode layer 20. The pattern of the electrodes 21 is. The electrically insulating layer 30 is a flexible transparent sheet, for example, an optical glass sheet having a thickness of about 0.1 mm or a sheet of a material such as PMMA or COP (but not limited to), and the dielectric layer 30 may also be made of a dielectric material. Materials to improve the gain of the touch signal. The second electrode layer 40 is a flexible transparent conductive film, for example, an ITO conductive film disposed on the bottom surface of the electrically insulating layer 30, and has a pattern of driving electrodes 41 arranged at a plurality of intervals. Preferably, an ITO conductive layer is formed directly on the upper and lower surfaces of the electrically insulating layer 30, and then the upper and lower conductive layers are processed by forming an electrode pattern, such as etching, to form respectively. Electrode pattern.

The base layer 70 is selected from a rigid transparent plate, such as an optical glass sheet. Its plate thickness is about 0.2mm. The rigid base layer 70 can provide a supporting force to the third electrode layer 60 to avoid bending deformation by pressing from above. Moreover, usually the functional glass cover of the present invention is disposed in front of the screen, and the base layer 70 is adhered to the surface cover of the screen (not shown), so that the cover of the screen surface cover can be obtained. Since the force is used to reinforce the rigidity, the base layer 70 is less likely to be bent and deformed even when subjected to an urging force from above when it is used after being mounted. The third electrode layer 60 is a transparent conductive film, such as an ITO conductive film, and has a plurality of spaced-apart patterns of sensing electrodes 61 disposed on the third electrode layer 60, which are disposed on the upper surface of the substrate layer 70 and located in the second Below the electrode layer 40, the second electrode layer 40 maintains a parallel spacing D which is about 150 μm.

The strain isolation layer 50 is formed by filling a space within the space D with a transparent electrically insulating material having plastic strain characteristics, and the strain isolation layer 50 can form the second electrode layer 40 and the third electrode layer 60. The upper and lower layers are insulated and spaced apart, and the strain isolation layer 50 can be formed into a mode of moderate plastic deformation due to the pressing force from the upper side to allow the upper and lower electrodes 41, 61 to change between each other. The relative position in space is, for example, shortening the pitch of the vertical direction or the offset of the horizontal position, and then, after the force is removed, the strain isolation layer 50 can be restored to the original state, so that the upper and lower electrodes 41 61 returns to the original relative position in space. The filling material of the strain isolation layer 50 may be selected from a material having a low optical refractive index or a refractive index close to that of the glass, such as an OCA optical adhesive or a dielectric material (but not limited to); if an OCA optical adhesive is used, the material may be The strain isolation layer 50 has the same effect of bonding the second electrode layer 40 and the third electrode layer 30; if a dielectric material is used, it has the advantage of a sensing signal for gain touch force.

According to the above description, the first electrode layer 20 and the second electrode layer 40 are separated by the electrically insulating layer 30 to form a touch sensor structure 100; when understood, The sensing electrode 21 on the first electrode layer 20 can be coupled to the touch controller sensing circuit (not shown), and the driving electrode 41 on the second electrode layer 40 can be coupled to the touch controller driving circuit. (Not shown) to handle the touch or floating signal of a touch object.

Referring to FIG. 2, when a touch object 80, such as a finger or a stylus, approaches the surface layer 10, the stimulated drive electrode 41 associated with the proximity portion can be capacitively coupled to the touch object 80, thereby enabling The charge-stimulated drive electrode 41 is shunted to ground via the touch object 80; this reduces the mutual capacitance of the self-driving electrode 41 to the sense electrode 21 associated with the proximity portion. When the object 80 is closer to the surface layer 10, the amount of shunt charge can continue to increase and the mutual capacitance at the approach portion can be correspondingly reduced. Therefore, when the touch controller sensing circuit detects the mutual capacitance drop of the approaching portion, the mutual capacitance drop can be interpreted as the indicated position of the touch or suspended object.

Furthermore, the second electrode layer 40 and the third electrode layer 60 are separated by the strain isolation layer 50 to form a touch pressure sensor structure 200; when understood, the second electrode layer 40 The driving electrode 41 can be coupled to the touch controller driving circuit (not shown), and the sensing electrode 61 on the third electrode layer 60 can be coupled to the touch controller sensing circuit (not shown in the figure). ) to handle the signal of touch object touch pressure.

Referring to FIG. 3, when the touch object 80 applies a pressure to the surface layer 10, the surface layer 10 is bendable at the pressing position, thereby making the flexible first electrode layer 20, the electrically insulating layer 30 and the second electrode The layer 40 is also bent accordingly, and the variable isolating layer 50 is plastically deformed so that the distance between the driving electrode 41 of the second electrode layer 40 and the sensing electrode 61 of the third electrode layer 60 in the vertical direction is shortened, which may result in two The increase in the capacitance between the electrodes 41, 61 increases as the force applied by the object 80 to the surface layer 10 increases, and the gap capacitance also increases. In addition, the strain The plastic deformation of the isolation layer 50 is such that the driving electrode 41 and the sensing electrode 61 are horizontally oriented with each other except that the driving electrode 41 of the second electrode layer 40 and the sensing electrode 61 of the third electrode layer 60 are shortened in the vertical direction. The relative position of the electrode will also be offset, and the formation of the two electrodes will cause an overlap, which will increase the capacitance between the two electrodes, and the same is also increased with the force of application. Large, plastic deformation of the spacer layer 50 increases the overlap of the two electrodes, and the overlapping capacitance also increases. Therefore, when the sensing circuit of the touch pressure sensor configuration 200 detects an increase in the capacitance between the two electrodes 41, 61 at the pressing position, the increase can be interpreted as the pressure applied to the surface. Layer 10. The baseline capacitance can be established when the gap between the two electrodes 41, 61 is at a maximum, that is, when no pressure is applied by the touch object 80, and the baseline capacitance can be compared with the capacitance at the time of applying the pressure to determine the change in capacitance. . The gap capacitance, overlapping capacitance and other stray capacitance caused by the pressure applied to the surface layer 10 by the touch object 80 may be small, but the amount of change of the individual capacitors may be small, but the sensing circuit of the touch controller collects and collects the same. After the amount of capacitance change, the pressure equivalent of the touch object 80 to the surface layer 10 can be accurately interpreted according to the amount of capacitance change of the rounding. In an embodiment, in order to increase the capacitance that can be sensed between the second electrode layer 40 and the third electrode layer 60, the sensing of the driving electrode 41 and the third electrode layer 60 of the second electrode layer 40 can be performed. The electrodes 61 are respectively arranged in a grid shape and are spaced apart from each other (see FIG. 4), or are alternately arranged in a manner similar to the above-described two electrodes 41, 61, whereby the capacitance between the sensing electrodes 41, 61 can be improved. The amount of change, the gain, interprets the accuracy of the pressure equivalent of the touch object 80. As such, the touch pressure sensor configuration 200 can sense three different intensity touch pressures such as tap, press and stronger pressing, so this creation will make "3D Touch Display" an achievable technology.

In the above embodiment, the touch sensor configuration 100 and the touch pressure sensor configuration 200 are of the same basic capacitive sensor configuration, so that the present creation can be changed without changing the existing The capacitive sensor can be set up and used, and even the IC of the existing capacitive touch control circuit can be operated. It is not necessary to redesign and develop a new touch control circuit IC, which can save a lot of cost. Therefore, the cost of developing and designing new components can be greatly saved. Furthermore, the touch sensor configuration 100 shares the drive electrode 41 of the second electrode layer with the touch pressure sensor configuration 200. However, in other embodiments, a fourth electrode layer 90 may be further disposed between the second electrode layer 40 and the strain isolation layer 50. As shown in FIG. 5, the fourth electrode layer 90 is flexible and transparent. a conductive film having a pattern of a plurality of driving electrodes 91, wherein the fourth electrode layer 90 and the third electrode layer 60 are spatially separated by the strain isolation layer 50 to jointly form a touch pressure sensing Structure 200. Thereby, each sensing electrode is respectively matched with a single dedicated driving electrode to facilitate control setting control of the controller sensing circuit and improve the accuracy of the sensing signal.

In summary, the laminated structure of the present invention is like a sandwich, and it is convenient to selectively provide one or a plurality of functional laminates between the upper surface layer 10 and the underlying substrate layer 70 to meet various functional expansions. demand. The overall laminated layer of the functional glass cover has a thickness of only about 0.8 mm, which is very suitable for use on a light and short mobile phone screen; and the present invention has a thickness of 0.4 mm or less in order to make the surface layer 10 have bendability. The thin plate not only enhances the sensitivity of the capacitive sensor disposed below, but also enhances the identification performance of other sensing circuits, such as a fingerprint sensor, which can be directly and accurately transmitted through the thin surface layer 10. Fingerprint identification is performed, and it is not necessary to provide a fisheye pit structure on the surface layer at the position where the fingerprint sensor is disposed at the current commercial mobile phone device, so as to make the thickness of the plate of the portion thinner to enhance the fingerprint recognition. Accuracy, which simplifies machining and saves costs.

Although the present invention has been fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings and drawings, it will be understood that Such changes and modifications should be understood to include Within the scope of this creation as defined by the scope of the accompanying application.

10‧‧‧ surface layer

21‧‧‧Induction electrodes

30‧‧‧Electrical insulation

41‧‧‧ drive electrode

50‧‧‧ strain isolation

61‧‧‧Induction electrodes

70‧‧‧ basement

80‧‧‧Touch objects

Claims (10)

A functional glass cover comprising at least: a surface layer which is a flexible transparent sheet; an electrically insulating layer which is a flexible transparent sheet; and a first electrode layer which is a flexible transparent conductive film, Between the surface layer and the electrically insulating layer, having a plurality of sensing electrode patterns; a second electrode layer being a flexible transparent conductive film disposed opposite to the first electrode layer disposed on the electrically insulating layer On one side of the surface, there is a plurality of driving electrode patterns, and the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer are spatially separated by the electrically insulating layer to form a touch sensor structure; The base layer is a rigid transparent plate; a third electrode layer having a plurality of sensing electrode patterns disposed between the second electrode layer and the base layer and spaced apart from the second electrode layer; a strain isolation layer is formed by filling a transparent electrically insulating material having plastic strain characteristics in the space, and the second electrode layer and the third electrode layer form a space by the strain isolation layer Upper score Arranged to constitute a pressure of a touch sensor configuration. The functional glass cover of claim 1, wherein the first electrode layer and the third electrode layer have the same or similar sensing electrode patterns. The functional glass cover of claim 1, wherein the spacing is about 75 to 200 μm. The functional glass cover of claim 1, wherein the filler material of the strain barrier layer is selected from the group consisting of OCA optical glue. The functional glass cover of claim 1, wherein the filler material of the strain isolating layer is selected from a dielectric material. The functional glass cover of claim 5, wherein the dielectric material is one of polyethylene plastic, phenolic resin, and inorganic glass. The functional glass cover of claim 1, wherein the driving electrode of the second electrode layer and the sensing electrode of the third electrode layer are respectively arranged in a grid shape and are spaced apart from each other. The functional glass cover of claim 1, further comprising a fourth electrode layer disposed between the second electrode layer and the strain isolation layer, wherein the fourth electrode layer is a flexible transparent conductive film having The plurality of driving electrode patterns are formed by spatially separating the fourth electrode layer and the third electrode layer by the strain isolation layer to jointly form a touch pressure sensor. The functional glass cover of claim 1, wherein the surface layer is a glass-reinforced optical glass plate having a thickness of about 0.2 to 0.3 mm. The functional glass cover of claim 1, wherein the upper end corners of the surface of the surface layer are chamfered or chamfered.