CN101414235A - In-mold forming touch module and production method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses an in-mold forming touch module, which comprises a transparent conductive carrier plate and a molded shell, wherein a capacitance electrode layer is arranged on the inner surface of the carrier plate and is a touch sensing circuit made of indium tin oxide, the sensing circuit can be touched on the outer surface of the carrier plate, and the shell is coated and combined on the peripheral end edge of the carrier plate. The invention also comprises a production method of the in-mold molding touch module, which comprises the steps of coating the indium tin oxide on the inner surface of the carrier plate and processing to form the sensing circuit; the carrier plate is placed in the mold cavity, and the molding material is injected into the mold cavity to form the molded shell, which is integrally coated and combined on the peripheral end edge of the carrier plate, so as to improve the touch sensitivity of the module and simplify the manufacturing process. The invention is beneficial to being simply implemented in the environment of the injection molding machine provided with automatic feeding and material taking, thereby being beneficial to improving the efficiency of automatic production.

Description

In-mold forming touch module and production method thereof

technical field

The invention relates to an in-mold forming touch module and a production method thereof, in particular to a module technology for covering and combining a touch panel with a sensing circuit by using an in-mold injection molding technology.

Background technique

In Mold Touch (In Mold Touch) is derived from a combination of in-mold injection molding technology and touch panel manufacturing technology.

Among them, in-mold injection molding technology has been widely used in the molding and processing of some plastic products in the factory. It must use a mold to inject molten plastic into the mold cavity with the contour shape of the object to be formed. , to make the shaped object. It is known that the more advanced in-mold technology now includes an in-mold labeling (In MoldLabel, IML) technology, which can first implant a material to be bonded into the mold cavity, and then put the molten plastic Inject into the mold cavity, cover and combine the material to make a composite one-piece molded object. A kind of antenna disclosed in WONo.00/39883 patent and its manufacturing method are exactly to apply IML technology, a carrier plate with an antenna circuit printed with conductive ink is implanted in a mold cavity of a mold, and then the mold The manufacturing material is injected into the mold cavity to cover and bond the finished article with the antenna loop inside, thereby protecting the antenna loop from the hazards of wear and tear. However, this technology has not been widely used in the manufacture of touch panels in industrial processing.

Touch Panel (Touch Panel), as a relatively advanced capacitive touch panel, can use fingers to touch the exposed surface of the panel to induce current signals, which have been gradually applied to the displays of some electronic products in industrial processing In terms of structure, it includes: a glass substrate coated with an indium tin oxide (Indium TinOxide, ITO) conductive layer, which can form a mesh-shaped touch sensing circuit, and form a number of capacitance grids between the interlaced mesh lines position, and use finger as a medium to touch each unit capacitor position to increase the current of the capacitor, and then generate a current signal for identifying the coordinates, which is converted and output to the host (Host) to execute the touch command. Therefore, the capacitive touch panel is controlled by touch sensing, and does not need to use touch pressure to generate signals, so it is ideal in the operation of touch sensitivity, and only a single layer of glass carrier is coated with a conductive layer to form a touch panel. The touch circuit is more conducive to the thinner design of the touch panel.

However, the capacitive touch panel must be combined with a housing for loading the touch panel in the production process to become a touch panel for electronic products; as disclosed in Taiwan's new patent No.M274735 The display panel assembly structure is the current technology in the industry, but it is still manufactured by lamination and lamination, including the above-mentioned touch panel or its prefabricated display panel, which is attached to the pre-molded housing assembly groove However, the manufacturing process is complicated, wastes man-hours, increases the thickness of the steps formed by lamination, and is easy to accumulate dirt on the steps or gaps after using for a period of time.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to provide an in-mold forming touch module.

which contains:

A see-through conductive carrier board with an inner surface and an outer surface, with a capacitive electrode layer on the inner surface, a touch sensing circuit made of indium tin oxide, and the outer surface can be used to touch the sensing circuit ;

A molded shell is integrally covered and bonded to the peripheral edge of the conductive carrier plate by in-mold injection.

Besides, another object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing an in-mold touch module.

This method contains:

(1) Select a see-through carrier board with an outer surface that can be touched and an inner surface;

(2) coating a layer of see-through indium tin oxide on the inner surface of the carrier by vacuum sputtering;

(3) subjecting the indium tin oxide to processing including exposure, development and etching to form a touch sensing circuit on the carrier board as the touch electrode layer of the carrier board;

(4) Put the carrier plate coated with the electrode layer into a mold cavity of an injection molding machine, and inject molding material into the mold cavity to form a molded shell, which is integrally coated and bonded to the coated electrode layer of the carrier board around the edge. In the above-mentioned in-mold touch module and its production method, the carrier plate can be made of a glass film with good perspective and heat resistance higher than the temperature in the injection molding mold and the vacuum sputtering temperature, and it is known The temperature resistance of the electrode layer made of indium tin oxide is higher than the in-mold temperature of the injection molding machine, so the production of the in-mold touch module can be implemented smoothly, and the production process can be simplified and the working hours can be reduced to overcome the problems of the previous technology. the resulting problems.

In addition, in the application of the present invention, the housing can be an electronic product housing equipped with a display unit. board display screen.

With the above design, the above-mentioned molded housing of the present invention has an outer end surface in essence. Through the in-mold injection molding technology, it is easy to control the outer end surface of the housing and the outer surface of the carrier plate to be located on the same plane, so it has a thinner surface. The thickness of the module is reduced, and the stepped thickness and gap between the joint end faces are eliminated, so it can avoid the accumulation of dust and dirt, and is conducive to thin design, so as to overcome the problems in the previous technology.

Moreover, the present invention only uses the molded shell injected in the mold to cover and combine the module method of the touch carrier board, which is conducive to easy implementation in the environment of an injection molding machine equipped with automatic feeding and retrieving, and is also conducive to Improve the efficiency of automatic production, compared with the previous technology using lamination and lamination, it can effectively simplify the production process and reduce the cost of man-hours.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of the present invention, showing the appearance of an electronic product case with an in-mold touch module.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of A-A in FIG. 1 , revealing the structure of the in-mold touch module.

FIG. 3 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of a processed carrier plate according to the present invention, revealing that a layer of indium tin oxide is adhered and formed on the carrier plate.

FIG. 4 : is another three-dimensional schematic view of the processing substrate of the present invention, revealing that the ITO layer on the substrate shown in FIG. 3 is etched into an electrode layer of a touch sensing circuit.

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the in-mold molding process of the present invention, revealing that the carrier plate with the electrode layer shown in Fig. 4 is placed into a cavity of an injection molding machine.

FIG. 6 is another cross-sectional view of the in-mold molding process of the present invention, revealing that the mold cavity shown in FIG. 5 is closed and the molding material is injected into the mold cavity.

Figure 7: Another sectional view of the in-mold molding process of the present invention, revealing that the molded shell in the mold cavity shown in Figure 6 is taken out after opening the mold, and the shell is integrally wrapped and bonded around the carrier plate with the electrode layer end edge.

Fig. 8: A sectional view illustrating a configuration of the present invention, revealing that a display unit is provided in a molded housing.

Detailed ways

In the following, the structural composition and the effects that can be produced of the in-mold forming touch module and its production method of the present invention are described in detail as follows with preferred embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electronic product housing with a touch module, and FIG. 2 is a perspective cutaway view of the components in FIG. 1 . It can be seen from Figure 1 and Figure 2 that the in-mold forming touch module of the present invention includes:

A see-through conductive carrier plate 1 has an inner surface 11 and an outer surface 12 (as shown in FIG. 8 ), and a capacitive electrode layer 2 (as shown in FIG. 4 ) is provided on the inner surface 11, which is indium oxide A touch sensing circuit 21 made of tin, the outer surface 12 can be used to touch the sensing circuit 21;

A molded shell 3 is integrally covered and bonded to the edge 13 around the conductive carrier 1 by in-mold injection.

The above carrier 1 is made of see-through glass film, and ITO is coated (attached) on the inner surface 11 of the carrier 1 by vacuum sputtering. The above-mentioned molded shell 3 essentially has an outer end surface 31 shaped according to the contour of the mold cavity, which is easy to combine with the outer surface 12 of the carrier plate 1 and sit on the same plane during in-mold injection molding, so It has a thinner module thickness, and eliminates the stepped thickness and gap between the joint end faces. Compared with the previous technology, it can avoid accumulation of dust and dirt, and is conducive to thin design.

In addition, in terms of application, the in-mold forming touch module of the present invention is essentially used as a touch panel for various displays, including the casing 3 which can be used as a casing with a display unit 6 inside (as shown in FIG. 8 ), the display unit 6 can be installed on an inner end surface 210 of the induction circuit 21 , and display images via the see-through electrode layer 2 and the carrier board 1 .

In the next embodiment, the present invention discloses a method for producing the above-mentioned in-mold touch module, comprising:

(1) The above-mentioned carrier plate 1 with good see-through is selected, and the carrier plate 1 is essentially a light-transmitting film made of glass that can withstand heat above 1000°C.

(2) In a vacuum sputtering method, coat a layer of see-through indium tin oxide on the inner surface 11 of the carrier plate 1; for example, place the carrier plate 1 in a vacuum sputtering device (Vacuum Sputtering Device ), the sputtering equipment can be an industrially more advanced low-temperature vacuum sputtering nano-process equipment, using argon (Ar) ions to bombard (Bombardment) the indium tin oxide target, and the atoms knocked out of the target become gas phase and It is deposited on the inner surface 11 of the carrier 1 so as to cover a transparent layer of indium tin oxide 20 (as shown in FIG. 3 ) formed on the carrier 1 , which has excellent conductivity. Since the low-temperature vacuum sputtering technology can reduce the working temperature to 60°C, it can fully maintain the stability of the glass substrate 1 in the sputtering process, and even thermoplastic adhesives that could not be processed in the past, can be used in this technology. In the environment, it is also possible to process the surface vacuum sputtering indium tin material. In addition, vacuum sputtering equipment can also use the more commonly used physical vapor deposition (PVD) in the industry. The process first needs to excite indium tin oxide from a solid or liquid state to a gaseous state through sputtering, and then the gaseous state of indium tin oxide Atoms, through the vacuum from the sputtering source, reach the inner surface 11 of the carrier plate 1, and finally form the indium tin oxide coating layer gradually through deposition. This kind of technology of vacuum sputtering by physical vapor deposition method, its working temperature is mostly at 150 ℃ Therefore, some glasses with good heat resistance can still be processed by vacuum sputtering indium tin materials within a very wide safety range.

(3) The layer of indium tin oxide 20 is subjected to circuit forming processing including exposure, development and etching, so as to form a capacitive touch sensing circuit 21 in the shape of a grid line on the carrier board 1 (as shown in FIG. 4 ), as the touch electrode layer 2 of the carrier board 1; the sensing circuit 21 is formed with a number of capacitance grids 22 between the interlaced network lines 211 and 212. When the finger touches the outer surface 12 of the carrier board 1, it can The capacitive grid 22 at the touch position of the surface 11 can sensitively sense and increase the current, and then generate a current signal for identifying the coordinate value; at least two external terminals 213, 214 are formed on the network cables 211, 212, which can be used for external flexible The circuit or leads are connected to a controller to output current signals.

(4) Put the carrier plate 1 covered with the electrode layer 2 into a mold cavity 51 of an injection molding machine 4 (as shown in FIG. 5 ), as an insert in the mold cavity 51; the injection molding The machine 4 can be a traditional machine tool commonly used for injection casting molten plastics. A mold 5 with the mold cavity 51 is arranged in the machine tool. The mold cavity 51 has a prefabricated touch module body, and the touch module body Include the volume of combining the carrier plate 1, the electrode layer 2 and the molded casing 3 in the mold so that the carrier plate 1 can be placed in the mold cavity 51; generally, the processing temperature of the injection molten plastic in the injection molding machine 4 is about Between 250°C and 300°C, the temperature in the mold cavity is controlled between 60°C and 150°C, so placing the carrier plate 1 made of glass into the mold cavity 51 can still maintain good stability; then make the mold 5 Clamp the mold, and inject molding material (usually molten glue) into the mold cavity 51 (as shown in Figure 6), and then make the mold 5 open (as shown in Figure 7) to form a molded shell 3 (as shown in FIG. 1 , FIG. 2 and FIG. 8 ), integrally covering and bonding the edge 13 around the carrier plate 1 coated with the electrode layer 2 .

To sum up, it can be seen that the carrier plate 1 made of glass is put into the mold cavity 51 and combined with the molten molding material after coating the electrode layer 2; in addition, the material of the carrier plate 1 is also Other equivalent materials that meet the temperature resistance conditions of the above-mentioned process can be selected.

Since the above-mentioned module assembly method using the molded casing 3 injected in the mold to cover and combine the touch carrier 1 is beneficial to be easily implemented in the environment of an injection molding machine equipped with automatic feeding and reclaiming, it is beneficial to Improve the efficiency of automatic production, compared with the previous technology using lamination and lamination, it can effectively simplify the production process and reduce the cost of man-hours.

Although the present invention has been described by the foregoing embodiments, the form and details can still be changed without departing from the spirit of the present invention. The foregoing is the most reasonable use method of the present invention, which is only one of the specific implementation modes of the present invention, but is not limited thereto.

Claims (7)

1. an in-mold molding touch control module is characterized in that, comprises:

But the conducting carrier plate of a perspectivity, tool one inside surface and an outside surface, tool one capacitive electrode layer is the touch control induction circuit that tin indium oxide is made on the inside surface, outside surface can supply the described sensor circuit of touch-control; And

One molded shell, with shoot mode in the mould, one is held the limit around coating and being incorporated into conducting carrier plate.

2. in-mold molding touch control module as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that, but wherein support plate is made by the perspectivity glass film.

3. in-mold molding touch control module as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that, wherein tin indium oxide is coated on the support plate inside surface in the vacuum splashing and plating mode.

4. in-mold molding touch control module as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that, establishes a display unit in its middle shell, but discloses picture by perspectivity electrode layer and support plate.

5. the production method of an in-mold molding touch control module is characterized in that, comprises:

(1) but select a perspectivity support plate for use, tool one can be for the outside surface of touch-control, and an inside surface;

(2) but with the tin indium oxide of vacuum splashing and plating mode coating one deck perspectivity in the inside surface of described support plate;

(3) described tin indium oxide is bestowed processing in comprising exposure, develop and being etched in, to form a touch control induction circuit on the support plate, as the touch control electrode layer of support plate;

(4) support plate of described coating electrode layer is inserted in the die cavity of a Jet forming machine, and the injection molding material is in die cavity, to form a molded shell, one is held the limit around coating the support plate that is incorporated into described coating electrode layer.

6. the production method of in-mold molding touch control module as claimed in claim 5 is characterized in that, but wherein support plate is made by the perspectivity glass film.

7. the production method of in-mold molding touch control module as claimed in claim 5 is characterized in that, establishes a display unit in its middle shell, but discloses picture by perspectivity electrode layer and support plate.

Images