WO2010053304A2

WO2010053304A2 - Touch panel

Info

Publication number: WO2010053304A2
Application number: PCT/KR2009/006504
Authority: WO
Inventors: 이성호
Original assignee: Lee Sung Ho
Priority date: 2008-11-07
Filing date: 2009-11-06
Publication date: 2010-05-14
Also published as: TWI492106B; KR100951380B1; TW201027404A; WO2010053304A3

Abstract

The present invention relates to a touch panel disposed on an upper surface of a display device (20) to sense the contact of a human body or an object and to generate a signal corresponding to the position of the contact. The touch panel of the present invention comprises: a first substrate (40) and a second substrate (60) made of optically transparent materials, and opposed to each other with a predetermined space therebetween formed by a plurality of spacers (25); a plurality of first signal lines (42) and second signal lines (44) arranged in a vertical or horizontal direction on the first substrate (40) or on the second substrate (60); a touch cell (50) with a first conductive pad (46) and a second conductive pad (48) arranged in a pair is formed on the first substrate (40) or on the second substrate (60) in a plurality of sections which have been divided from the active region where touch occurs, wherein said first conductive pad (46) is connected to the first signal lines (42), and said second conductive pad (48) is connected to the second signal lines (44) and spaced apart from the first conductive pad (46) by a predetermined spacing; a transparent conductive layer (62) which is formed on the substrate facing the substrate with the touch cell (50), and which contacts and is electrically connected to the first conductive pad (46) and the second conductive pad (48) upon being contacted by the human body or object; a position detection signal transmitting/receiving unit (70) for applying a position detection signal to the first signal lines (42), and receiving a position detection signal from the second signal lines (44) when the first conductive pad (46) and the second conductive pad (48) are electrically connected; and a touch position detection unit (80) connected to the position detection signal transmitting/receiving unit (70) to acquire, from the received position detection signal, a coordinate value of the touch cell (50) where the touch occurred. The touch panel of the present invention prevents the degradation of transmittivity, improves response speed, prevents noise or erroneous operation caused by an external environment, reduces manufacturing costs, enables easy mass production, and significantly reduces the defective ratio.

Description

Touch panel

The present invention relates to a touch panel installed on an upper surface of a display device, and more particularly, to prevent a decrease in transmittance, a fast reaction speed, no malfunction due to noise or an external environment, a low manufacturing cost, and a mass production. The present invention relates to a touch panel that can easily reduce generation of defect rates and prevent moiré phenomenon.

In general, the touch panel is attached to a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display panel (PDP), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), an active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED), and a finger or a pen. It is one of the input devices to generate a signal corresponding to the position when the object of contact. Touch panels are used in a wide range of fields, such as small portable terminals, industrial terminals, and digital information devices (DIDs).

Conventional touch panels have been disclosed in various types such as resistive, optical.

1 illustrates a resistive touch panel among the touch panels listed above. Referring to FIG. 1, a first substrate 3 and a second substrate 5 are disposed to face each other on an upper surface of the display device 1, and an upper surface of the first substrate 3 and a lower surface of the second substrate 5. In each case, a transparent conductor such as indium tin oxide (ITO) is coated to form the conductive layers 7 and 9. A plurality of resistance points 11 are formed on the upper portion of the first substrate 3, and resistance points are formed on the lower portion of the second substrate 5, although not shown.

As illustrated, when an object such as a pen 17 contacts the second substrate 5, bending occurs on the second substrate 5 while the conductive layers 9 and the first surface of the lower surface of the second substrate 5 are formed. It is in contact with the conductive layer 7 of the upper surface of substrate 3. At this time, the voltage applied to the conductive layers 7 and 9 drops due to the resistance value obtained at the corresponding resistance point 11, and the voltage detected due to the change in the resistance value is converted into a digital signal through the AD converter 13. The converted signal is transmitted to the CPU 15 to obtain the coordinate value of the point where the touch is made. Such a resistive touch panel is the most widely used touch panel because of its simple manufacturing process and low cost.

However, in the resistive touch panel, since ITO is applied to both the first substrate 3 and the second substrate 5, the transmittance is significantly reduced. Such a decrease in transmittance lowers the display quality of the display device 1. In addition, as the touch is sensed as an analog signal, there is an inevitable time delay in the process of converting the analog signal into a digital signal. In addition, as there are only a few manufacturers of reliable AD converters in the world, the price is expensive as well as supply and demand problems. In particular, the biggest problem of the resistance method is that the touch point is calculated by changing the resistance value, so that the zero point adjustment is necessary against the resistance points, and if the zero point is misaligned, the detection position becomes poor, and in most cases, the minute point A detection position error has occurred.

Furthermore, in the touch panel of the resistive type, V-shaped bending occurs on the second substrate 5 when the pen 17 is in contact with the touch panel. Thus, a film having good bendability is usually used as the second substrate 5 or glass is used. Change or etch to a thickness of 0.2 ~ 0.3mm.

In this case, the transmittance of the film is worse than that of glass, so when the film is used, the transmittance is significantly reduced due to the two conductive layers 7 and 9 and the film, and the surface strength of the film is weak so that a sharp object such as the pen 17 is used. When used for a long time, the occurrence of scratches is inevitable, which causes deterioration of display quality.

When using the glass as the second substrate 5, it is difficult to uniformly match the thickness of the glass. In the process of uniformly manufacturing the thickness of the glass to 0.2 ~ 0.3mm, a lot of time and cost increase is caused, it is difficult to maintain the precision of the thickness, and the thickness of the second substrate 5 is too thin, causing cracks for long time use There is a problem such as being.

In addition, as the size of the resistive touch panel becomes larger, it becomes more difficult to match the uniformity of ITO. As a result, it is difficult to secure linearity of resistance value because the uniformity of ITO is not constant. There is a problem.

The optical touch panel is a method of detecting a touch position based on an image detected by a camera or a signal received from an infrared sensor by installing a camera or an infrared sensor at a corner of the display device 1. This type of touch panel has a relatively high response speed and can be freely adjusted in size, and thus is mainly applied to large display devices.

However, the above-described optical touch input device is too expensive, and since the position detection coordinate values are sensitively reacted according to the fixed state of the camera, it is difficult to fix and install the camera. In addition, as in the resistive touch panel, there is a problem that zero adjustment is required, and thus, it is difficult to accurately read the detection position.

The infrared touch panel is provided with a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit that transmit infrared light to the left and right of the display device, and detects a position where the infrared ray is cut off by an object. There is a problem of malfunction due to foreign matter in the location.

The present invention is proposed to solve the problems of the conventional touch panel as described above, wiring a signal line to the first substrate or the second substrate facing each other, and forms a touch cell with a pair of conductive pads connected to the signal line By detecting the touch position in the unit touch cell by energizing the conductive pad, the transmittance is improved by minimizing the area where the transparent conductor such as ITO is applied, and the response speed is increased by detecting the touch using a digital signal. It improves, does not malfunction due to noise or external environmental factors, and provides a touch panel that is very inexpensive to manufacture and easy to manufacture by using the manufacturing process of the display device, which has been proven in mass production and good defective rate. There is a purpose.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide a touch panel capable of increasing light transmittance of the touch panel and preventing moiré phenomenon by wiring signal lines to have the same rules as wiring of gate lines and data lines of the display device.

In addition, the present invention has another object to prevent the moire phenomenon by installing a diffusion sheet between the display device and the touch panel.

In addition, the present invention has a further object to prevent the loss of the signal by storing the detected touch signal in the memory means to recognize the call stored in the memory when the touch signal is missing because a large amount of signal processing.

In addition, the present invention has another object to minimize the coating area of the transparent conductive layer and further improve the transmittance by dividing the area in which the transparent conductive layer is applied in correspondence to the touch cell.

In addition, when the glass substrate is used as the second substrate, another object of the present invention is to compensate for the curvature of the glass substrate by the spacer, so that the thickness of the glass substrate can be selected thicker.

In addition, the present invention has a further object to ensure that the pair of conductive pads are arranged in the form of interdigital teeth to secure the conduction of the conductive pad.

The touch panel of the present invention for achieving the above object, is installed on the upper surface of the display device 20, in the touch panel for detecting a contact of the human body or an object to generate a signal corresponding to the location, as a light transmissive material A first substrate 40 and a second substrate 60 formed to face each other so as to be spaced apart from each other by a plurality of spacers 25; A plurality of first signal lines 42 and second signal lines 44 disposed in the longitudinal direction or the transverse direction on the first substrate 40 or the second substrate 60; A first conductive pad formed on the first substrate 40 or the second substrate 60 and formed in a plurality of divided active regions in which a touch is made, and connected to the first signal line 42 in each region; A touch cell 50 connected to the second signal line 44 and a second conductive pad 48 disposed in a pair at a predetermined distance from the first conductive pad 46; A transparent conductive layer 62 formed on a side of the substrate facing the substrate on which the touch cell 50 is formed and being in contact with the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48 by electrical contact with a human body or an object; The position detection signal is applied to the first signal line 42 and receives a position detection signal from the second signal line 44 when the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48 are energized. A signal transceiver 70; And a touch position detector 80 connected to the position detection signal transceiver 70 to obtain a coordinate value of the touch cell 50 touched from the received position detection signal.

According to a preferred embodiment, the display device 20 is a display device in which unit pixels are arranged in a matrix form, and the touch cell 50 is disposed at the same resolution as the unit pixels of the display device 20, and the first The signal line 42 and the second signal line 44 are wired to have the same pitch as the signal line of the display device 20.

According to a preferred embodiment, the display device 20 is a display device in which unit pixels are arranged in a matrix form, and the touch cell 50 is disposed at a reduced resolution compared to the unit pixels of the display device 20. The first signal line 42 and the second signal line 44 are wired at a pitch that is expanded in an integer ratio relative to the signal lines of the display device 20.

According to a preferred embodiment, the diffusion sheet 90 is further provided between the display device 20 and the first substrate 40.

According to a preferred embodiment, the position detection signal transmitting and receiving unit 70 is a signal processing unit 73 for communicating a signal with the touch position detection unit 80 and the position detection sequentially time-divided on each of the first signal line 42 A transmission drive IC 71 for applying a signal and a reception drive IC 72 for receiving a position detection signal from the second signal line 44 are included.

According to a more preferred embodiment, the transmitting drive IC 71 and the receiving drive IC 72 are integrated in a single chip and mounted on an edge portion of the first substrate 40 or the second substrate 60.

According to a preferred embodiment, the position detection signal transmitting and receiving unit 70 further includes a memory means 75 having addresses corresponding to the coordinate values of the touch cell 50, the receiving drive IC (72) When the position detection signal is received, the coordinate value of the touch cell 50 touched is stored in the corresponding address of the memory means 75.

According to a preferred embodiment, the transparent conductive layer 62 is formed by partitioning to cover at least one or more touch cells 50.

According to a preferred embodiment, the second substrate 60 is a film material substrate, the transparent conductive layer 62 is formed on the lower surface of the second substrate 60.

According to a more preferred embodiment, the spacer 25 is made of an insulator and includes a ball spacer 25a in rolling contact between the first substrate 40 and the second substrate 60.

According to a more preferred embodiment, the spacer 25 is made of an insulator, one end is fixedly installed on the upper surface of the first substrate 40, the other end is in contact with or bonded to the lower surface of the second substrate 60 pattern spacer ( 25b).

According to a preferred embodiment, the second substrate 60 is a glass substrate, the transparent conductive layer 62 is formed on the lower surface of the second substrate 60.

According to a more preferred embodiment, the spacer 25 is made of an insulator, one end of which is fixed to the top of the first substrate 40 or the bottom of the second substrate 60, and the other end of which is in contact with the opposing substrate side. The pattern spacer 25b to be bonded is included.

According to a more preferred embodiment, one end of the spacer 25 is fixedly installed on the lower surface of the second substrate 60, at least one or more on top of each of the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48. Is fixedly disposed, and the other end is spaced apart from the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48, and a conductive layer 64 connected to the transparent conductive layer 62 is formed outside the main body made of an insulator. The formed electricity supply spacer 25c is included.

According to a preferred embodiment, each of the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48 in each of the touch cells 50 is formed in a concave-convex shape in which the concave portion 52 and the convex portion 54 are continuous. The first conductive pads 46 and the second conductive pads 48 are arranged to engage with each other with the concave portion 52 and the convex portion 54.

According to a more preferred embodiment, the second substrate 60 is a glass substrate, a transparent conductive layer 62 is formed on the bottom surface of the second substrate 60, one end of the spacer 25 is a second substrate It is fixed to the lower surface of the 60 and the other end is disposed spaced apart from the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48, the recess 52 and the convex when the second substrate 60 is pressed. It is installed to be in contact with the unit 54 at the same time.

According to the touch panel of the present invention, a plurality of signal lines are vertically and horizontally arranged on a first substrate or a second substrate provided on an upper surface of a display device, and a pair of conductive pads branched from each signal line forms a touch cell, and conducts a conductive process. It is configured to acquire the position detection signal by sensing the energization of the pad. The display quality of the display device is improved by improving the transmittance by greatly reducing the area where a transparent conductor such as ITO is applied on each of the first and second substrates. The response speed is very fast because the digital signal can be applied and processed as a detection signal. Since it is not affected by noise or other external environmental factors, it prevents malfunctions and can be used even under sunlight. The manufacturing process of the LCD or AMOLED can be used, so that mass production is easy and the rate of defective products is very low.

In addition, according to the present invention, by wiring the signal lines with the same wiring rules as the gate lines and data lines of the display device, the manufacturing process of the display device can be used as it is, which makes it possible to detect touch with very high resolution. In addition, the wiring process of the touch panel is greatly simplified, greatly reducing the manufacturing cost, and the signal lines of the touch panel are located on the same line perpendicular to the wiring lines of the display device, thereby preventing moiré phenomenon in which a wavy pattern remains. It can work.

Further, according to the present invention, by providing a diffusion sheet between the display device and the touch panel, the moiré phenomenon can be prevented by diffusion of the diffusion sheet even if the wiring of the display device and the wiring of the touch panel are not located vertically on the same line. It has an effect.

Further, according to the present invention, when the position detection signal is temporarily stored in the memory means, and the amount of signal processing in the touch position detection unit is not recognized, the position detection signal received in real time may be called and processed by calling the signal stored in the memory means. Therefore, there is an effect that can prevent the loss of the signal.

In addition, according to the present invention, by forming a transparent conductive layer formed on the second substrate corresponding to the area of the touch cell, it is possible to minimize the application area of ITO on the second substrate, thereby further improving the transmittance of the touch panel. It is effective.

In addition, according to the present invention, by providing a conductive spacer spaced apart from the conductive pad, the touch can be detected even when the second substrate is smooth, which allows the thickness of the glass substrate to be selected to be thicker. As well as ensuring the stable operation of the effect is to expect a longer life.

In addition, according to the present invention, the pair of conductive pads are disposed in the form of a tooth to mesh with each other, there is an effect that it is possible to detect the touch position more stably.

Furthermore, the drive ICs used in the present invention do not drive a load, unlike a gate IC or a source IC of a display device such as an LCD or an AD converter used in a conventional touch panel, and thus only transmit and receive a signal, thereby driving the IC itself. It requires only minimal power consumption. In particular, the receiving drive IC receives a signal with high impedance (Hi-impedance), so there is little current consumption. A portable terminal such as a cellular phone is an important factor to improve portability, and it is required to minimize current consumption. When the touch panel of the present invention is applied to a portable terminal, the use of a battery can be extended more than other touch panels. Have

1 is a cross-sectional configuration view showing a conventional resistive touch panel

2 is an exploded perspective view showing the structure of a touch panel according to the present invention;

Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention

4 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a touch cell is formed on a first substrate;

5 is an exploded perspective view showing an example in which the diffusion sheet is installed

6 is a block diagram illustrating a system configuration of the present invention.

7 is a waveform diagram illustrating a pulse applied to a signal line;

8 is a block diagram conceptually showing one embodiment of a memory means;

9 is a configuration diagram illustrating an example in which a transparent conductive layer is formed on a second substrate.

10 is a configuration diagram illustrating an example in which a transparent conductive layer is formed on a second substrate.

11 is a configuration diagram illustrating an example in which a transparent conductive layer is formed on a second substrate.

12 is a cross-sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a state in which the second substrate is pressed in the embodiment of FIG. 12.

14 is a plan view showing another example of the conductive pad

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

First of all, the present invention relates to a touch panel installed in addition to an upper surface of a display device such as an LCD, a PDP, an OLED, or an AMOLED. The present invention relates to a touch panel that detects contact of a human body or an object and generates a position signal corresponding to a touched point. It is about. Although the touch panel of the present invention is installed separately from the display device on the upper surface of the display device, signal lines and drive ICs, which are internal components, may be connected to gate lines, data lines, and drive ICs of display devices such as LCDs and AMOLEDs. Installed with the same or similar rules. Of course, these components are similar in appearance but differ in actual function and function.

Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view showing the structure of a touch panel according to the present invention, schematically showing the basic structure of the touch panel of the present invention. As illustrated, the first substrate 40 and the second substrate 60 are disposed to face each other on the upper surface of the display device 20. Both the first substrate 40 and the second substrate 60 may be made of transparent glass or film. Of course, it may be formed of another material having a light transmittance.

Preferably, a glass substrate is used as the first substrate 40 and signal lines are wired on the upper surface of the first substrate 40. Similarly to the conventional display devices, an outgoing drive IC 71 for transmitting a position detection signal and a receiving drive IC 72 for receiving a position detection signal are provided at an edge portion of the first substrate 40. It is mounted. The transmission drive IC 71 and the reception drive IC 72 may be mounted in the form of a chip on film (COF) or a chip on glass (COG) at an edge portion of the second substrate 60.

Since many components are usually mounted in the display device, the space allowed at the device edge is very small. However, since the touch panel of the present invention only applies the position detection signal through the transmission drive IC 71 and receives the position detection signal through the reception drive IC 72, the transmission drive IC 71 is used. And receiving drive IC 72 may be integrated into one chip and installed. That is, the transmission drive IC 71 and the reception drive IC 72 described in the present invention are merely conceptually separated. In addition, the transmission drive IC 71 and the reception drive IC 72 may be mounted on the second substrate 60 side, and signal lines may be installed on the second substrate.

3 is a cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 4 is a configuration diagram showing an example in which a touch cell is formed on the first substrate. With reference to these two drawings, the structure of this invention is demonstrated more concretely.

First, referring to FIG. 3, the first substrate 40 and the second substrate 60 are disposed to be spaced apart from each other by a plurality of spacers 25. The spacer 25 is made of an insulator, and the ball spacer 25a, which is in contact with the cloud between the first substrate 40 and the second substrate 60, or one end of the spacer 25 is patterned and fixed to the other side of the substrate. The pattern spacer 25b is in contact with or bonded to the opposing substrate, and two spacers may be used together.

As shown in FIG. 3, the first signal line 42 and the second signal line 44 are disposed on the upper surface of the first substrate 40 with different layers. As shown, the metal layer of the first signal line 42 and the metal layer of the second signal line 44 are insulated by the insulating layer 33. A transparent conductive layer 62 is formed on the bottom surface of the second substrate 60.

4 shows a planar configuration of the first substrate 40. The first signal line 42 is wired in the horizontal direction, and the second signal line 44 is wired in the longitudinal direction to intersect the first signal line 42. As shown in FIG. . This is merely a preferred embodiment and does not have to be wired so that the first signal line 42 and the second signal line 44 intersect. The first signal line 42 is a line connected to the transmission drive IC 71 to transmit a position detection signal, and the second signal line 44 is connected to a reception drive IC 72 to receive the position detection signal. to be.

As illustrated, a first conductive pad 46 is connected to the first signal line 42, and a second conductive pad 48 is connected to the second signal line 44. These two conductive pads are formed by applying ITO or the like to the upper surface of the first substrate 40. The two conductive pads are spaced apart from each other, and form a pair to form the touch cell 50 as shown in FIG. 4. In this case, as shown in FIG. 3, insulating

layers

35 and 37 are formed to insulate each conductive pad from the metal layer for signal line wiring.

The conductive pads may be installed to cover the entire area of the touch cell 50. Preferably, the conductive pads are installed only in the local area of the touch cell 50. For example, when the pen tip of the touch pen which is in contact with the outer surface of the second substrate 60 is about 0.7 mm, and the width of each touch cell is smaller than this, the conductive pads may cover only the local area of the touch cell 50. The touch of the finger 22 or the touch pen of the human body may be recognized. In addition, when the conductive pads are disposed on the first signal line 42 and the second signal line 44 to overlap, the installation area may be minimized when the transparent conductive layer 62 is partitioned as described below. The transmittance of the touch panel can be greatly increased. Therefore, in forming the conductive pad, it is desirable to minimize the coating area as much as possible to reduce the manufacturing cost and to greatly increase the transmittance of the touch panel.

In the above configuration, when the human body or the object is in contact with the second substrate 60 and bending occurs in the second substrate 60, the second substrate 60 is in contact with the first substrate 40 side. If the contact of the second substrate 60 occurs at the box lined portion in the dotted line in FIG. 4, the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad are formed by the transparent conductive layer 62 on the bottom surface of the second substrate 60. 48 is energized. Accordingly, the position detection signal sourced from the transmission drive IC 71 and applied to the first signal line 42 is transmitted to the second signal line 44 by energization of the conductive pads in the corresponding touch cell 50. Obtained by credit drive IC 72. Thus, a coordinate value for the point where the touch is generated is obtained. The coordinate values obtained in FIG. 4 may be the coordinates of the touch cell 50 at the point where the third first signal line 42 and the third second signal line 44 intersect.

As shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the configuration of wiring signal lines vertically and horizontally on the first substrate 40, and insulating heterogeneous metal layers with an insulating layer is almost the same as that of the TFT substrate of LCD or AMOLED. same. Therefore, the touch panel of the present invention can be manufactured using the production process of the TFT substrate, which has been verified for mass production, as it is, thereby facilitating mass production, realizing stable quality, and enabling low-cost manufacturing. In addition, since only the gate and source process and the ITO process are used in the TFT manufacturing process of the LCD, color filters and liquid crystals are not used, and thus manufacturing cost can be significantly reduced compared to the LCD process. This can be applied not only to LCD but also to established processes such as OLED.

The touch panel of the present invention is proportional to the size of the display device 20 and is preferably designed to have the same resolution as that of the unit pixel of the display device 20 capable of the touch cell 50.

For example, if the touch panel of the present invention is applied to a 22-inch LCD, the touch cell 50 will have a resolution of 1366x768 or 1920x1080, as the resolution of the unit pixel of the LCD. The resolution of 1366X768 means that 1366 touch cells 50 are arranged horizontally and 768 touch cells 50 are arranged vertically.

Of course, the touch cell 50 may be configured with a resolution reduced by an integer ratio compared to the unit pixel of the LCD.

As such, when the resolution of the touch cell 50 is reduced to the same resolution as the unit pixel of the display device 20 or at an integer ratio, the first signal line 40 and the second signal line 60 of the touch panel become the gate line of the LCD. And may be positioned on the same vertical line as the data line. As such, when the signal lines of the touch panel are positioned on the same vertical line as the signal lines of the TFT substrate of the LCD, the transmittance of the touch panel is improved to improve the display quality of the display device 20, and the moiré appears as a wave pattern due to interference between the signal lines. The phenomenon can be prevented.

On the other hand, the embodiment shown in Figure 5 provides another method for preventing the moiré phenomenon. Referring to FIG. 5, a diffusion sheet 90 may be further disposed between the display device 20 and the touch panel. When the diffusion sheet is provided between the display device 20 and the touch panel as described above, the moiré phenomenon can be prevented by the diffusion effect of the diffusion sheet 90 even if the wiring of the display device and the wire of the touch panel are not located vertically on the same line. Can be.

Referring back to FIG. 4, it can be seen that the touch cell 50 is shown at a resolution of 3 × 3. This is illustrated assuming that the touch cell 50 has a resolution of 3 × 3 to aid in understanding of the present invention, and embodiments described below also illustrate the touch cell 50 having a resolution of 3 × 3.

6 shows a system configuration of the present invention. The upper box represents the position detection signal transceiver 70, and the lower box represents the touch position detector 80. The position detection signal transmission / reception unit 70 applies a position detection signal to the first signal line 42 and receives a position detection signal from the second signal line 44. A drive IC 72, a signal processor 73, a timing controller 74, and a memory means 75 are configured. The touch position detecting unit 80 obtains the coordinate value of the touch position by communicating with the position detecting signal transmitting and receiving unit 70 and is composed of components such as a CPU.

Preferably, the timing controller 74 of the position detection signal transmission / reception unit 70 generates a time division signal of several tens of ms or less, and the signal processing unit 73 generates the transmission drive IC 71 as shown in FIG. 7. The time-divided position detection signal is applied to each of the first signal lines 42 through the signal. The period of each pulse is "T". If the touch occurs in the touch cell 50 at the lower right in FIG. 4, the position detection signal may be obtained through the rightmost second signal line 44 at t3 to t4 time. The detected signal is transmitted to the touch position detector 80, and the touch position detector 80 may generate an input signal corresponding to the corresponding coordinate values "D3 and S3".

However, in the process of processing a large number of signals, when the touch position detection unit 80 is in the "Busy" state, a case where the position detection signal may not be recognized. Since a touch signal that has not been recognized cannot be reproduced again, this may result in the loss of the signal and may cause a decrease in reliability of the touch panel.

In order to prevent this, the position detection signal transmitting and receiving unit 70 is provided with a memory means 75 having more than the number of bits of the touch cell (50). Preferably, the memory means 75 has an absolute address corresponding to the coordinate value of the touch cell 50, as shown in FIG. In this embodiment, the memory means 75 has a capacity of at least 9 bits, and the position detection signal received by the position detection signal transmission / reception unit 70 is stored at the address "m9" as coordinate values "D3 and S3". . The signals thus stored may be called and used by the touch position detector 80. For example, after the touch position detection unit 80 scans the transmission signal, the touch position detection unit 80 reads the memory means 75 to check whether there is a missing signal. If the resolution of the touch cell 50 is 1366x768, the memory means 75 needs a capacity of at least 1049088 bits or more, and secures a capacity of about 132k bytes.

9 to 11 illustrate examples in which the transparent conductive layer 62 is formed on the bottom surface of the second substrate 60 in the present invention. The planar configuration of the first substrate 40 and the transparent conductive layer 62 are shown for clarity. Added with dotted lines.

The transparent conductive layer 62 may be formed to cover the entire first substrate 40 as shown in FIG. 9. In this case, the process of forming the transparent conductive layer 62 on the second substrate 60 is simple, but it is possible to predict the result of decreasing the transmittance. In order to solve the phenomenon in which the transmittance is lowered by the transparent conductive layer 62 as described above, as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, a partition may be formed corresponding to the region where the touch cell 50 is formed.

10 shows that the transparent conductive layer 62 is formed by partitioning the touch cells 50 in the lateral direction. 11 illustrates that the transparent conductive layer 62 is formed by dividing the touch cells 50 into units. As such, forming the transparent conductive layer 62 to have a minimum area so as to be in contact with the conductive pads can greatly improve the transmittance, thereby improving the display quality of the display device 20. However, as the transparent conductive layer 62 is formed so as to partition the region, the transmittance is greatly improved, whereas the manufacturing process of the second substrate 60 may be more complicated and the manufacturing cost may be increased, and the first substrate 40 and the first substrate may be increased. More precision is required in the process of aligning and assembling the two substrates 60. That is, according to the touch panel of the present invention, the transparent conductive layer 62 may be selected among the embodiments of FIGS. 9 to 11.

12-14 show various embodiments of spacers in the present invention.

Before describing the embodiments of FIGS. 12 to 14, as described above with reference to FIG. 3, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first substrate 40 is composed of a glass substrate. This is because signal lines can be wired and conductive pads can be easily connected to the signal lines using the manufacturing process of the display device 20 as it is. If all the signal lines are wired to the first substrate 40 and the drive ICs are mounted, the second substrate 60 is relatively free of component mounting, and thus the film substrate is selected as the second substrate 60. It becomes possible.

When the film is selected as the second substrate 60, since the film is flexible, a larger number of ball spacers 25a must be disposed between the first substrate 40 and the second substrate 60. . In addition, a plurality of pattern spacers 25b may be mixed to maintain a stable gap. When the film substrate is used as the second substrate 60, since the flexibility of the film is excellent, stable contact between the first substrate 40 and the second substrate 60 can be ensured. However, since the film substrate has a weak surface strength and is used for a long time by a sharp object such as a pen, scratching is inevitable and deterioration of display quality may be caused.

When the glass substrate is selected as the second substrate 60, the number of spacers 25 may be reduced as compared with the case where the film substrate is selected. However, since the glass substrate is inferior in flexibility, it is difficult to guarantee a stable touch, and when the thickness of the glass substrate is thinner as in the prior art, the manufacturing process becomes complicated and structurally weak.

12 to 14 show a stable contact between the first substrate 40 and the second substrate 60 without making the glass substrate too thin when the glass substrate is selected as the second substrate 60. Show examples.

Referring to FIG. 12, it can be seen that a plurality of patterned spacers 25c are positioned on the bottom surface of the second substrate 60. The conductive spacer 25c has a conductive layer 64 connected to the transparent conductive layer 62 on the outside thereof. Preferably, the conductive spacer 25c has one end fixed to the lower end of the second substrate 60 and the other end spaced apart from the conductive pad. At least one conductive spacer 25c is disposed above each of the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48.

In this configuration, as shown in FIG. 13, when the second substrate 60 is pressed by the finger 22 or the like, the second substrate 60 is bent downward, and the conductive spacer 25c is applied to the conductive pads. In contact with each other, the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48 are energized by the conductive layer 64 formed outside the conductive spacer 25c. That is, as the second substrate 60 is gently curved, the conductive pads are energized.

14 shows another example of the conductive pads in the present invention. Referring to this, the first conductive pads 46 and the second conductive pads 48 are formed in a sawtooth shape in which the concave portions 52 and the convex portions 54 are continuous, respectively, and the mutual concave portions 52 and the convex portions. 54 is arranged to engage in a state spaced apart by a predetermined gap. According to this structure, the conductive pads can be energized stably even when the spacers are at any point.

As described above, the touch panel according to the present invention arranges signal lines vertically and horizontally on the first substrate 40, forms a touch cell 50 using a pair of conductive pads, and a transparent conductive layer on the second substrate 60. It is comprised by forming 62. The biggest technical advantage of the present invention is that it is possible to secure mass production and greatly reduce the manufacturing cost by using a manufacturing process such as LCD. In addition, the manufacturing process of the LCD has already secured high technology and reliability, it can be brought as it is.

In addition, the technical advantage of the present invention is to arrange the signal line on the same line as the signal line arrangement of the display device 20 in a virtual vertical line, it is possible to use the TFT substrate manufacturing process of the display device 20 as it is, as well as display This is to prevent the moiré phenomenon in which the signal of the device 20 and the signal of the touch panel are mutually interfered to generate an afterimage of a wave pattern. The moiré phenomenon may also be solved by adding a diffusion sheet 90 between the display device 20 and the touch panel.

Furthermore, when the glass substrate is selected as the second substrate 60, the present invention can bring about the effect of compensating for poor flexibility of the glass substrate with the spacer 25c for electricity transmission. Therefore, a thicker glass substrate can be used, except for a complicated manufacturing process such as grinding or etching the thickness of a conventional glass substrate to about 0.2 to 0.3 mm. It will make up for structural problems such as occurrence.

In addition, the inventions described in the claims of the present invention contain many technical advantages.

The present invention described above is not limited to the above-described embodiments and the accompanying drawings, and various substitutions, modifications, and changes are possible in the technical field of the present invention without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. It will be clear to those of ordinary knowledge.

Claims

In the touch panel is installed on the upper surface of the display device 20 to detect a contact of a human body or an object to generate a signal corresponding to the corresponding position,

A first substrate 40 and a second substrate 60 which are made of a light transmissive material and are disposed to be spaced apart from each other by a plurality of spacers 25;

A plurality of first signal lines 42 and second signal lines 44 disposed in the longitudinal direction or the transverse direction on the first substrate 40 or the second substrate 60;

A first conductive pad formed on the first substrate 40 or the second substrate 60 and formed in a plurality of divided active regions in which a touch is made, and connected to the first signal line 42 in each region ( A touch cell 50 connected to the second signal line 44 and a second conductive pad 48 disposed in a pair at a predetermined distance from the first conductive pad 46;

A transparent conductive layer 62 formed on a side of the substrate facing the substrate on which the touch cell 50 is formed and being in contact with the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48 by electrical contact with a human body or an object;

The position detection signal is applied to the first signal line 42 and receives a position detection signal from the second signal line 44 when the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48 are energized. A signal transceiver 70; And

And a touch position detecting unit (80) connected to the position detecting signal transmitting and receiving unit (70) and obtaining a coordinate value of the touch cell (50) touched from the received position detecting signal.
The method of claim 1,

The display device 20 is a display device in which unit pixels are arranged in a matrix form, and the touch cell 50 is disposed at the same resolution as that of the unit pixels of the display device 20. And the two signal lines (44) are wired to have the same pitch as the signal lines of the display device (20).
The method of claim 1,

The display device 20 is a display device in which unit pixels are arranged in a matrix form, and the touch cell 50 is disposed at a resolution reduced by an integer ratio compared to the unit pixels of the display device 20, and the first signal line ( 42) and the second signal line (44), wherein the touch panel, characterized in that the wiring in the pitch extended by an integer ratio compared to the signal line of the display device (20).
The method of claim 1,

And a diffusion sheet (90) between the display device (20) and the first substrate (40).
The method of claim 1,

The position detection signal transmission / reception unit 70 transmits a signal processing unit 73 which communicates a signal with the touch position detection unit 80 and a time-divided position detection signal sequentially applied to each of the first signal lines 42. And a drive IC (72) for receiving the position detection signal from the second signal line (44).
The method of claim 5,

The transmitting drive IC (71) and the receiving drive IC (72) is integrated in a single chip, the touch panel, characterized in that mounted on the edge portion of the first substrate (40) or the second substrate (60).
The method of claim 5,

The position detection signal transmission / reception unit 70 further includes a memory means 75 having addresses corresponding to the coordinate values of the touch cell 50, and when the position detection signal is received by the reception drive IC 72. The touch panel, characterized in that the coordinate value of the touch cell 50 is touched is stored in the corresponding address of the memory means (75).
The method of claim 1,

The transparent conductive layer 62 is formed by partitioning to cover at least one or more touch cells 50.
The method of claim 1,

The second substrate (60) is a film substrate, the touch panel, characterized in that the transparent conductive layer 62 is formed on the lower surface of the second substrate (60).
The method of claim 9,

The spacer (25) is a touch panel, characterized in that made of an insulator and comprises a ball spacer (25a) in contact with the cloud between the first substrate (40) and the second substrate (60).
The method of claim 9,

The spacer 25 is made of an insulator, and one end of the spacer 25 is fixedly installed on the upper surface of the first substrate 40, and the other end includes a pattern spacer 25b contacted or bonded to the lower surface of the second substrate 60. Touch panel.
The method of claim 1,

The second substrate 60 is a glass substrate, and a transparent conductive layer 62 is formed on a lower surface of the second substrate 60.
The method of claim 12,

The spacer (25) is a touch panel, characterized in that made of an insulator and comprises a ball spacer (25a) in contact with the cloud between the first substrate (40) and the second substrate (60).
The method of claim 12,

The spacer 25 is made of an insulator and has one end fixed to an upper surface of the first substrate 40 or a lower surface of the second substrate 60, and the other end of the pattern spacer 25b contacting or bonding to the opposite substrate side. Touch panel comprising a.
The method of claim 12,

One end of the spacer 25 is fixedly installed on the bottom surface of the second substrate 60, and is fixedly installed such that at least one of the spacers 25 is disposed on each of the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48. The other end portion is spaced apart from the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48, and the conductive spacer 25c having a conductive layer 64 connected to the transparent conductive layer 62 outside the main body made of an insulator. Touch panel comprising a.
The method of claim 1,

In each of the touch cells 50, the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48 are each formed in a concave-convex shape in which the concave portion 52 and the convex portion 54 are continuous, and the first conductive pad ( 46) and the second conductive pads (48) are disposed so as to engage with each other concave portion (52) and convex portion (54).
The method of claim 16,

The second substrate 60 is a glass substrate, and a transparent conductive layer 62 is formed on the bottom surface of the second substrate 60, and one end of the spacer 25 is fixed to the bottom surface of the second substrate 60. It is installed and the other end is spaced apart from the first conductive pad 46 and the second conductive pad 48, the contact with the recess 52 and the convex portion 54 at the same time when the second substrate 60 is pressed Touch panel, characterized in that installed so as to.