WO2010079966A2

WO2010079966A2 - Touch panel

Info

Publication number: WO2010079966A2
Application number: PCT/KR2010/000088
Authority: WO
Inventors: 이성호
Original assignee: Lee Sung Ho
Priority date: 2009-01-08
Filing date: 2010-01-07
Publication date: 2010-07-15
Also published as: WO2010079966A3; KR100935499B1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a touch panel installed on the upper surface of a display device (20), which senses the contact of a body or object to generate a signal responding to a corresponding location. The touch panel of the present invention comprises: first and second substrates (40, 60), which are made of optically transparent materials and arranged to face each other with a predetermined distance therebetween created by a spacer (25); a plurality of first signal lines (42) disposed on one of the first substrate (40) and the second substrate (60); a plurality of second signal lines (44) disposed on the other substrate facing the substrate where the first signal lines (42) are disposed; a touch cell (50), which is formed on the first substrate (40) or the second substrate (60), particularly, in one of regions divided from an active region where a touch event occurs, the touch cell including a conductive pad (48) disposed on a partitioned area within each of the divided regions and connected to the second signal lines (44); a conductor, which is formed on the other substrate facing the substrate with the touch cell (50) formed thereon and connected to the first signal lines (42), the conductor becoming electrically conductive in touch with the conductive pad (48) when a resistive type touch input is generated by the contact of a body or object; a location detection signal transceiver (70), which applies a time divided location detection signal to each of the first signal lines (42) and receives a location detection signal from the second signal line (44) when the conductor and the conductive pad (48) become electrically conductive at any touch cell (50); and a touch location detector (80), which is connected to the location detecting signal transceiver (70) and acquires from the received location detecting signal the coordinates of the touch cell (50) where a touch event occurred. Accordingly, a touch panel of the present invention can recognize a multi-touch, does not require zero point adjustment because of the coordinates corresponding to an absolute location, has a high reaction speed, does not create a malfunction due to noise or external environment, can be manufactured at low costs, is easily mass-produced, and has a considerably low defect rate.

Description

Touch panel

The present invention relates to a touch panel installed on an upper surface of a display device or operating alone. More particularly, the present invention relates to a touch panel that can recognize multi-touch in detail, has a fast response speed, and does not cause malfunction due to noise or external environment. The present invention relates to a touch panel having a new structure which is inexpensive and easy to mass-produce.

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 layer 9 on the bottom surface of the second substrate 5 becomes the first substrate. It is in contact with the conductive layer 7 on the upper surface of the substrate 3. At this time, the voltage applied to the conductive layers 7 and 9 is divided by the resistance value of the corresponding resistance point 11, the voltage detected at the touch is converted into a digital signal through the AD converter 13, and the converted signal is It 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, such a resistive touch panel has a problem in that it cannot recognize a multi-touch in which a plurality of points are simultaneously touched on the panel. For example, in the case of writing with the back of a hand on the blackboard in the copyboard, or in the case of multi-touch writing at the same time on the copyboard, the multi-touch may not be recognized or the touch panel may malfunction. .

In addition, as a touch is sensed as an analog signal, a relatively expensive AD converter 13 is required, and a time delay is inevitably generated in the process of converting an analog signal into a digital signal. 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.

In addition, since the resistive touch panel is coated with ITO on both the first substrate 3 and the second substrate 5, a problem in that the transmittance is remarkably lowered occurs. Such a decrease in transmittance is caused by the display device 1. Decreases the display quality. In addition, the larger the size of the touch panel in proportion to the size of the display device 1, the more difficult it is to match the uniformity of the ITO. As a result, the uniformity of the ITO is not constant and it is difficult to secure the linearity of the resistance value. There is a problem in the display device that is virtually impossible to apply.

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 forming a touch cell with a conductive pad connected to the signal line, By installing the divided conductors on the substrate and applying scan pulses to the connected signal lines, it is possible to detect the position of the multi-touch, so that the signals can be detected and processed without loss even when the touch is made at the multi-point at the same time. The detection cost is greatly improved by detecting the touch using digital signal, and it is not malfunctioned due to noise or external environmental factors, and it is possible to use the manufacturing process of the display device that has been proved mass production and product reliability. Its purpose is to provide a touch panel that is inexpensive as well as easy to mass-produce.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a touch panel capable of wiring the signal lines to have the same rules as the horizontal wiring and the vertical wiring of the display device, thereby ultimately improving the light transmittance of the display device and preventing the moiré phenomenon. There is this.

In addition, the present invention has another object to prevent the moiré phenomenon by installing a diffuser sheet (diffuser 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.

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 facing each other and spaced apart from each other by a spacer 25; A plurality of first signal lines 42 disposed on the first substrate 40 or the second substrate 60; A plurality of second signal lines 44 disposed on a substrate facing the substrate on which the first signal lines 42 are formed; It is formed on the first substrate 40 or the second substrate 60, and is formed in a plurality of divided regions of the touched active regions, and is disposed in the divided regions in each divided region and the second signal line 44 A touch cell 50 having a conductive pad 48 connected thereto; The touch cell 50 is formed on a side of the substrate facing the substrate, and is connected to the first signal line 42. The touch pad 50 is in contact with the conductive pad 48 when a pressure type touch input is generated by the contact of a human body or an object. A conductor that is energized; A time-divided position detection signal is applied to each of the first signal lines 42 and positioned from the second signal lines 44 when energization of the conductors and the conductive pads 48 is performed in an arbitrary touch cell 50. A position detection signal transmission / reception unit 70 for receiving a detection signal; 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 but are disposed on the same vertical line 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 extended in an integer ratio relative to the signal lines of the display device 20, and are disposed on the same vertical line as 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 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 corresponding touch cell The coordinate value of 50 is stored in the corresponding address of the memory means 75.

According to a preferred embodiment, the conductor is a transparent conductive layer 62 formed on a substrate facing the substrate on which the touch cell 50 is formed, and the transparent conductive layer 62 is in the longitudinal direction for each first signal line 42. Or in a transverse direction.

According to a preferred embodiment, the conductor is a transparent conductive layer 62 formed on a substrate facing the substrate on which the touch cell 50 is formed, and the transparent conductive layer 62 is partitioned for each unit touch cell 50.

According to a preferred embodiment, one end of the conductor is fixedly installed on the side of the substrate facing the substrate on which the touch cell 50 is formed, and the other end is spaced apart from the conductive pad 48, and the other end of the conductive layer 64. Is a spacer 25c for electricity supply.

According to the touch panel of the present invention, a plurality of second signal lines are disposed on a first substrate or a second substrate, and a conductive pad connected to the second signal lines forms a touch cell, and the substrate is opposed to a substrate on which the touch cell is formed. The conductor is formed to be connected to the first signal line, and the touch position is recognized through the position detection signal obtained as the second signal line when the conductor and the conductive pad are energized after applying the time-divided position detection signal to the first signal line. Therefore, it is possible to recognize the multi-touch at the same time the touch occurs at a plurality of points, by applying a digital signal as a position detection signal and processing, very fast response speed and can prevent malfunction due to noise or other external environmental factors, It can be used even under sunlight, and it is easy to manufacture mass production because it can use the manufacturing process of display device such as LCD or OLED that has been proven mass production. The effect is that loans defective rate is very reduced.

In addition, according to the present invention, in the wiring of the signal lines by the same wiring rules as the gate lines and the data lines of the display device, the transmittance can be improved, and the touch can be detected with a very high resolution. The wiring process is greatly simplified, and manufacturing cost can be greatly reduced, 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 the moiré phenomenon in which an afterimage of waves occurs. have.

In addition, according to the present invention, there is an effect of improving the transmittance by providing a conductive pad only on a portion of the touch cell.

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, the conductive layer is formed by forming a transparent conductive layer on the opposing substrate of the touch cell, wherein the transparent conductive layer is formed by each first signal line or by each touch cell to open a position detection signal. It is possible to easily recognize the multi-touch by electrically insulating each direction or touch cell, it has the effect of minimizing the coating area of the transparent conductive layer and improve the transmittance of the touch panel.

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.

Furthermore, the control 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 control IC receives the 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 configuration diagram showing an example in which the touch cell of the present invention is formed

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 cross-sectional view showing a state in which the second substrate is pressed down

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

First, the present invention relates to a touch panel that is installed or used alone in addition to an upper surface of a display device such as an LCD, a PDP, or an OLED, and detects contact of a human body or an object to generate a position signal corresponding to a touched point. It relates to a touch panel. When the touch panel of the present invention is used together with a display device, although it is installed separately from the display device and installed on the upper surface of the display device, signal lines, control ICs, transparent conductive layers, etc., which are internal components, are displayed on the display device such as an LCD or an OLED. The gate line, data line, control IC and transparent electrodes of the same or similar rules are installed. 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. The first substrate 40 and the second substrate 60 may be made of transparent glass, plastic, film, or the like. Of course, it may be formed of another material having a light transmittance.

Preferably, a glass substrate is used as the first substrate 40, a glass substrate or a plastic substrate is used as the second substrate, and the second signal line 44 is wired on the upper surface of the first substrate 40. The first signal line 42 is wired on the bottom surface of the substrate. And similar to the conventional display devices, the transmission control IC 71 for transmitting the position detection signal and the number for receiving the position detection signal on the edge portion of the first substrate 40 or the second substrate 60; The credit control IC 72 is mounted. The transmitting control IC 71 and the receiving control IC 72 may be mounted in the form of a chip on film (COF) or a chip on glass (COG).

The touch panel of the present invention applies the position detection signal through the transmission control IC 71, receives the position detection signal through the reception control IC 72, and the transmission control IC 71 and the reception control IC. 72 may be integrated into one chip and installed. That is, the transmitting control IC 71 and the receiving control IC 72 described in the present invention are merely conceptually separated. If a control IC integrated in one chip is mounted only on a single substrate, a signal transmission medium such as a flexible printed circuit (FPC) may be used to transmit a signal to an opposite substrate of a substrate on which the control IC is installed.

3 is a cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 4 is a block diagram showing an example in which the touch cell of the present invention is formed. 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, a second signal line 44 made of metal is disposed on an upper surface of the first substrate 40, and the metal layer of the second signal line 44 is insulated by the insulating layer 33. The first signal line 42 made of metal is disposed on the bottom surface of the second substrate 60, and the metal layer is insulated by the insulating layer 33.

The metal layer is made of a source or gate metal of the display device 20 or a metal used for wiring of rows or columns.

4 illustrates a planar configuration of the first substrate 40 and the second substrate 60. The configuration of the second substrate is indicated by adding a dotted line. The first signal line 42 on the bottom surface of the second substrate 60 is shown in FIG. The second signal line 44 on the upper surface of the first substrate 40 is wired in the longitudinal direction. 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 transmitting control IC 71 to transmit the position detection signal, and the second signal line 44 is connected to the receiving control IC 72 to receive the position detecting signal. to be.

As shown, a transparent conductive layer 62 partitioned in the transverse direction for each of the first signal lines 42 is connected to the first signal line 42 in the lateral direction, and the conductive pad 48 is connected to the second signal line 44. Is connected. If the first signal line 42 is wired in the longitudinal direction, the transparent conductive layer 62 will also be partitioned in the longitudinal direction correspondingly. As the transparent conductive layer 62 is partitioned for each of the first signal lines 42, electrical insulation between the transparent conductive layers 62 can be ensured when a time-divided position detection signal is applied to each of the first signal lines 42. Will be. The transparent conductive layer 62 and the conductive pad 48 are formed by applying ITO or the like, which is a transparent conductive material. The conductive pads 48 and the transparent conductive layer 62 are formed on opposite substrates and are disposed to be spaced apart from each other. As shown in FIG. 4, each conductive pad 48 is connected to the first signal line 42 to form a unit touch cell 50. In this case, as shown in FIG. 3, an insulating layer 33 is used to insulate the conductive pad 48 and the transparent conductive layer 62 from the metal layer for signal line wiring on each substrate, which is the insulating layer 33. The silver metal is to prevent corrosion of the metal, and if there is a separate measure for preventing the corrosion of the metal, the signal line and the transparent conductive layer 62 may be directly connected without the insulating layer 33.

The conductive pad 48 may be installed to cover the entire area of the touch cell 50, but is preferably provided only in a 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 pad 48 is formed in the local area while overlapping the signal line, the transmittance of the touch panel can be increased. Therefore, in forming the conductive pad 48, it is desirable to minimize the coating area as much as possible to reduce the manufacturing cost and to overlap the signal line 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-shaped portion with the dotted line on the bottom right in FIG. 4, the conduction of the transparent conductive layer 62 and the conductive pad 48 on the lower surface of the second substrate 60 occurs. . Accordingly, the position detection signal originating from the transmission control IC 71 and applied to the first signal line 42 is transmitted to the second signal line by energization between the transparent conductive layer 62 and the conductive pad 48 in the corresponding touch cell 50. It is passed to 44, which is obtained by the receiving control 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 such as wiring signal lines on the first substrate 40 and the second substrate 60 in the form of paper or side, and insulating the different layers with an insulating layer is used for LCD or OLED. It is almost the same as the configuration of the substrate. Therefore, the touch panel of the present invention can be manufactured using the production process of the display substrate 20, which has been verified for mass production, as it is, thereby making mass production easy and realizing stable quality and low-cost manufacturing. . In addition, since only the wire manufacturing process is used in the manufacturing process of the display device and the liquid crystal process is not used, the manufacturing cost can be drastically reduced compared to the process of the display device 20.

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 42 and the second signal line 44 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. It comprises a control IC 72, a signal processor 73, a timing controller 74, and a memory means 75. 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 control unit 74 of the position detection signal transmission and reception unit 70 generates a time division signal of several tens of ms or less, and the signal processing unit 73 generates the control IC 71 for transmission as shown in FIG. 7. The time-divided position detection signal is applied to each of the first signal lines 42 through the signal. At the moment when the position detection signal is applied to one of the first signal lines 42, the other first signal lines 42 to which the position detection signal is not applied are kept in a high impedance or floating state. A resistor connected to ground may be installed at an end of the second signal line 44 connected to the receiving control IC 72, which sets the input when there is no touch signal input to the ground level.

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 generates 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 detector 80 is busy, a case where the position detection signal is not recognized may occur. 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 signals received by the position detection signal transmission / reception unit 70 are stored at the m9 address 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.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example in which the transparent conductive layer 62 formed on the bottom surface of the second substrate 60 is partitioned by each touch cell 50 in the present invention, and illustrates a planar configuration of the first substrate 40 for clarity. The components of the second substrate 60 were added by dotted lines.

As illustrated in FIG. 9, the transparent conductive layer 62 may be formed by dividing the touch cells 50 in units and may cover only the local region in each touch cell 50. As such, when the transparent conductive layer 62 is divided into unit touch cells 50, the transparent conductive layer 62 is electrically insulated from the position detection signal for each touch cell 50. In addition, forming the transparent conductive layer 62 to have a minimum contact area with the conductive pads 48 greatly improves 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.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first substrate 40 is made of a glass substrate and the second substrate 60 is made of a glass substrate or a plastic substrate. This is because the signal lines are easily wired using the manufacturing process of the display device 20 and the conductive pad and the transparent conductor are easily connected to the signal lines.

When the glass substrate is selected as the second substrate 60, it is difficult to ensure a stable touch because the flexibility is inferior, and thus, the glass substrate must be thinned to ensure flexibility. However, the thinner the glass substrate, the more complicated the manufacturing process and the weaker the structure.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 10 shows an embodiment that ensures stable contact between the first substrate 40 and the second substrate 60 without making the thickness of the glass substrate too thin when the glass substrate is selected.

Referring to FIG. 10, it can be seen that a conductive spacer 25c connected to the transparent conductive layer is disposed on the lower surface of the second substrate 60. The conductive layer 64 is formed by applying or coating a transparent conductor such as ITO to the end of the conductive spacer 25c. Preferably, as shown in FIG. 10, the conductive spacer 25c is disposed such that an end thereof is spaced apart from the conductive pads 48, and when the bending occurs on the second substrate 60, the transparent conductor 62 is formed. And the conductive pads 48 are disposed at appropriate positions. The alignment of the first substrate 40 and the second substrate 60 will be a very precise process for the arrangement of the electrically conductive spacer 25c. In addition, the plurality of spacers 25c may be installed on the unit touch cell 50.

In this configuration, as shown in FIG. 10, 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 contacts the conductive pad. The conductive layer 64 formed on the exterior of the conductive spacer 25c conducts electricity between the conductive pad 48 and the transparent conductor 62. At this time, as the second substrate 60 is gently curved, the conductive pads are energized. This makes it possible to ensure stable conduction of the conductive pads even when the glass substrate is used as the second substrate 60, even if the glass is not too thinly polished or etched to impart flexibility to the glass substrate.

In the above-described touch panel of the present invention, the signal of the first signal line 42 is time-divided, and the transparent conductive layer 62 or the conductive spacer 25c, which is a conductor connected to the first signal line 42, is used for each first signal line ( 42) or each touch cell 50 is electrically insulated so that there is no interference of the position detection signal, and the multi-touch input of each touch cell 50 having absolute coordinates can be detected as well as zero adjustment. It is not necessary.

That is, in the touch panel of the present invention as described above, a signal line is disposed on the first substrate 40 in a paper or transverse direction to connect the conductive pads, and a signal line for applying scan pulses to the second substrate 60 and the signal lines connected thereto. It is characterized by consisting of a conductor, thereby having a technical advantage that can recognize a multi-touch and does not require a zero adjustment.

In addition, the touch panel of the present invention can be secured mass production by using a substrate manufacturing process such as LCD and can significantly reduce the manufacturing cost. In addition, the manufacturing process of the LCD has already secured high technology and reliability, it can be brought as it is.

In addition, a technical advantage of the present invention is that the arrangement of the signal lines on the same line as the signal line arrangement of the display device 20 in a virtual vertical line, the moiré generated by the interference of the signal of the display device 20 and the signal of the touch panel. It is to prevent the phenomenon. 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 spacer 25;

A plurality of first signal lines 42 disposed on the first substrate 40 or the second substrate 60;

A plurality of second signal lines 44 disposed on a substrate facing the substrate on which the first signal lines 42 are formed;

It is formed on the first substrate 40 or the second substrate 60, and is formed in a plurality of divided regions of the touched active regions, and is disposed in the divided regions in each divided region and the second signal line 44 A touch cell 50 having a conductive pad 48 connected thereto;

The touch cell 50 is formed on a side of the substrate facing the substrate, and is connected to the first signal line 42. The touch pad 50 is in contact with the conductive pad 48 when a pressure type touch input is generated by the contact of a human body or an object. A conductor that is energized;

A time-divided position detection signal is applied to each of the first signal lines 42 and positioned from the second signal lines 44 when energization of the conductors and the conductive pads 48 is performed in an arbitrary touch cell 50. A position detection signal transmission / reception unit 70 for receiving a detection signal; 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. The two signal lines (44) are wired to have the same pitch as the signal lines of the display device (20), but are arranged on the same vertical line 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) are wired at a pitch that is expanded in an integer ratio relative to the signal line of the display device (20), and is disposed on the same vertical line as 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 further includes a memory means 75 having addresses corresponding to the coordinate values of the touch cell 50. When the position detection signal is received, the coordinate value of the corresponding touch cell 50 is received. A touch panel which is stored in a corresponding address of the memory means (75).
The method of claim 1,

The conductor is a transparent conductive layer 62 formed on a substrate facing the substrate on which the touch cell 50 is formed, and the transparent conductive layer 62 is partitioned in the longitudinal direction or the horizontal direction for each first signal line 42. Touch panel which is characterized in that.
The method of claim 1,

The conductor is a transparent conductive layer 62 formed on a substrate facing the substrate on which the touch cell 50 is formed, and the transparent conductive layer 62 is partitioned by unit touch cells 50.
The method of claim 1,

One end of the conductor is fixedly installed on the side of the substrate facing the substrate on which the touch cell 50 is formed, the other end of the conductive pad 48 is disposed spaced apart, and the other end of the conductive spacer having a conductive layer 64 formed thereon. (25c) The touch panel characterized by the above-mentioned.