CN103034377A - Embedded touch panel - Google Patents

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide an in-cell touch panel having a touch signal transmission area and a touch sensing area, including: capacitive sensing electrodes disposed on the touch sensing area of the first substrate, The second substrate is disposed opposite to the first substrate, the conductive layer is disposed on the touch signal transmission area of the second substrate, and the protrusions are disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate and are located on the touch signal transmission area, wherein The protrusion is electrically connected to the capacitive sensing electrode and contacts the conductive layer on the second substrate, so that the touch signal of the capacitive sensing electrode is transmitted to the second substrate through the protrusion. The in-cell touch panel of the embodiment of the present invention can not only reduce the overall thickness of the touch display device, but also avoid the scratch problem caused by the double-sided process of the current touch panel on the color filter substrate, thereby improving the Manufacturing yield of touch panels.

Description

Embedded touch panel

technical field

The invention relates to a touch panel, in particular to a signal transmission method of a capacitive embedded touch panel.

Background technique

Current touch panels can use resistive, capacitive or other methods, such as infrared rays or surface acoustic waves, etc., to achieve the effect of touch sensing. The capacitance value is used to determine the position of the touch, because the capacitive touch panel can achieve the touch effect without applying pressure, and it will be the mainstream of the development of the touch panel in the future.

The current capacitive touch panels can be divided into two types, one is the plug-in touch panel, which adds the capacitive touch panel to the outside of the display panel, but this method will increase the overall thickness of the touch display device. Another way is to fabricate the capacitive touch element on the back of the color filter substrate (oncell), but this way will cause the first fabricated capacitive touch element to be scratched during the subsequent process of the color filter substrate. injury damage.

Therefore, the industry urgently needs a capacitive touch panel, which can overcome the above problems, reduce the overall thickness of the touch display device, and prevent the capacitive touch elements from being damaged in the subsequent process of manufacturing the display device.

Contents of the invention

In order to overcome the defects of the prior art, according to an embodiment of the present invention, an in-cell touch panel is provided, which has a touch signal transmission area and a touch sensing area. The in-cell touch panel includes: a first A substrate, the capacitive sensing electrode is arranged on the touch sensing area of the first substrate, the second substrate is arranged opposite to the first substrate, the conductive layer is arranged on the touch signal transmission area of the second substrate, and the protrusion is arranged between the first substrate and the second substrate, and on the touch signal transmission area, wherein the protrusion is electrically connected to the capacitive sensing electrode, and is in contact with the conductive layer on the second substrate, so that the capacitive sensing electrode The touch signal is transmitted to the second substrate through the protrusion.

Compared with the external touch panel, the in-cell touch panel of the embodiment of the present invention can reduce the overall thickness of the touch display device. In addition, the embodiments of the present invention can also avoid the scratch problem caused by the double-sided process of the current touch panel on the color filter substrate, thereby improving the manufacturing yield of the touch panel.

In order to make the above-mentioned purpose, features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and easy to understand, the detailed description is as follows in conjunction with the accompanying drawings:

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing a touch panel according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a touch panel according to an embodiment of the present invention along the section line 2-2' in FIG. 1 .

[Description of main reference signs]

100～touch panel;

100A～touch sensing area;

100B～touch signal transmission area;

100C～peripheral circuit area;

102～the first substrate;

104～the first conductive layer;

106, 110, 112 ~ insulating layer;

108～second conductive layer;

114～protrusions;

115～photosensitive spacer;

116～black matrix layer;

118～color filter;

120～the first transparent conductive layer;

122～the second transparent conductive layer (common electrode);

124, 126～alignment layer;

128 ~ liquid crystal layer;

130～second substrate;

132～conductive layer;

134～frame glue;

136～flexible circuit board (FPC);

S～capacitive touch sensing electrode structure;

CF ~ color filter layer.

Detailed ways

An embodiment of the present invention provides a capacitive in-cell touch panel, in which the capacitive touch sensing electrodes are disposed on the inside of the color filter substrate, and the color filter layer is located on the same side of the color filter substrate , so as to solve the scratch problem caused by the capacitive touch elements on the back (on cell) of the color filter substrate in the traditional touch panel, and avoid the damage of the capacitive touch sensing electrodes. At the same time, compared with the external The in-cell touch panel of the embodiment of the present invention can reduce the overall thickness of the touch display device.

However, in the in-cell touch panel of the embodiment of the present invention, it is necessary to transmit the touch signal of the capacitive touch sensing electrode on the side of the color filter substrate to the side of the thin film transistor substrate. Generally, the traditional method is to transmit the signal from the side of the color filter substrate to the side of the thin film transistor substrate through conductive particles in the seal material in the peripheral area of the display panel. However, since the doping amount of conductive particles in the sealant material is only 0.4wt%, there may be no conductive particles in some areas, resulting in poor transmission of touch signals; or each signal line ( The number of conductive particles contacted by the signal trace will be different, resulting in problems such as uneven transmission of touch signals. In addition, the traditional method uses the conductive particles in the sealant to transmit the touch signal, which will reduce the available area for transmitting the voltage (Vcom) signal of the common electrode of the display panel, resulting in poor or ineffective transmission of the Vcom signal of the display panel. average, which leads to the problem of poor display image quality.

Therefore, in the in-cell touch panel of the embodiment of the present invention, the touch of the capacitive touch sensing electrode on the side of the color filter substrate is made The control signal is transmitted to the thin film transistor substrate side.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which shows a schematic plan view of a touch panel according to an embodiment of the present invention. The touch panel 100 has a touch sensing area 100A, a touch signal transmission area 100B, and a peripheral circuit area 100C for inputting display signals. In addition, there is a sealant 134 around the touch sensing area 100A and the touch signal transmission area 100B of the touch panel 100 .

There are a plurality of capacitive sensing electrodes 108 in the touch sensing region 100A of the upper substrate of the touch panel 100, such as diamond-shaped indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes, and these capacitive sensing electrodes 108 are respectively The rows and columns are arranged in series, and the touch signals obtained by the capacitive sensing electrodes 108 in each row and column can be transmitted to the lower substrate through the protrusions 114 on the touch signal transmission area 100B, and the touch signals can be transmitted through the lower substrate. The conductive layer on the substrate is transmitted to a flexible printed circuit (FPC) 136 , and then transmitted to an integrated circuit (IC) (not shown) in the display device via the flexible printed circuit 136 for processing touch signals.

Please refer to FIG. 2 , which shows a schematic cross-sectional view of a touch panel according to an embodiment of the present invention along the section line 2-2' of FIG. 1 . The touch panel 100 includes a first substrate 102, such as a color filter substrate. First, a capacitive touch sensing electrode structure S is formed on the inner side of the first substrate 102, which includes a first conductive layer 104, a first The insulating layer 106, the second conductive layer 108 and the second insulating layer 110, wherein the first conductive layer 104 can be a metal layer, and its material is, for example, gold, silver, copper, aluminum, titanium, molybdenum or aluminum neodymium alloy (AlNd) etc. Metal material, the second conductive layer 108 is, for example, an indium tin oxide (ITO) layer or a transparent conductive layer of other materials, and the materials of the first insulating layer 106 and the second insulating layer 110 are, for example, acrylic resin, silicon nitride, Materials such as silicon oxide or silicon oxynitride. The second conductive layer 108 is the diamond-shaped capacitive sensing electrodes of the same row (X direction) shown in FIG. 2 does not show the diamond-shaped capacitive sensing electrodes 108 in the same column (Y direction).

Next, a third insulating layer 112 is formed on the capacitive touch sensing electrode structure S of the first substrate 102. The material of the third insulating layer 112 is, for example, acrylic resin, silicon nitride, silicon oxide, or silicon oxynitride. , and then form a color filter layer CF on the third insulating layer 112, which includes a black matrix layer (black matrix; BM) 116 and color filters including red, green, and blue (R, G, B) ( color filter: CF) 118, the color filter layer is located in the touch sensing area 100A of the touch panel 100.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a protrusion 114 is formed in the touch signal transmission area 100B of the first substrate 102, which includes a photo spacer (photo spacer) 115, and a first photo spacer covering the photo spacer 115. The transparent conductive layer 120 is, for example, an indium tin oxide (ITO) layer, wherein the photosensitive spacer 115 is directly formed on the second conductive layer 108 by photoresist coating and photolithography process, and the first transparent conductive layer 120 covers the photosensitive spacer 115 and extends to the second conductive layer 108 , so the protrusion 114 is electrically connected to the capacitive touch sensing electrode structure S on the first substrate 102 .

Next, a second substrate 130 is provided opposite to the first substrate 102. The second substrate 130 is, for example, a thin-film transistor (TFT) array substrate, with a plurality of thin-film transistors (not shown) formed on on it. Form the conductive layer 132 on the second substrate 130, its material is such as metal materials such as gold, silver, copper, aluminum, titanium, molybdenum or aluminum neodymium alloy (AlNd), and the conductive layer on the protrusion 114 and the second substrate 130 132 , so that the touch signal generated by the capacitive touch sensing electrode structure S on the first substrate 102 can be transmitted to the side of the second substrate 130 through the protrusion 114 .

As shown in FIG. 2, the conductive layer 132 on the second substrate 130 is electrically connected to a flexible circuit board (FPC) 136, so the touch signal generated by the capacitive touch sensing electrode structure S can pass through the protrusion 114 and the conductive layer. 132 is transmitted to the flexible circuit board 136, and then transmitted to the integrated circuit (IC) (not shown) in the display device through the flexible circuit board 136 to process the touch signal, and the thin film transistor and the conductive film arranged on the second substrate 130 The layer 132 is electrically connected to read the touch signal generated by the capacitive touch sensing electrode structure S.

Next, form a second transparent conductive layer 122 on the color filter layer CF, such as an indium tin oxide (ITO) layer, the second transparent conductive layer 122 and the first transparent conductive layer 120 covering the surface of the photosensitive spacer 115 It can be formed on the first substrate 102 simultaneously through a comprehensive deposition process, and the first transparent conductive layer 120 and the second transparent conductive layer 122 are separated from each other and electrically insulated from each other through a patterning process, wherein the first transparent conductive layer 120 is used to transmit the touch signal of the capacitive touch sensing electrode structure S, and the second transparent conductive layer 122 is used as a common electrode of the display device.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a liquid crystal layer 128 can be interposed between the first substrate 102 and the second substrate 130 as a display element. The first alignment layer 124 and the second alignment layer 126 are respectively formed on the second substrate 130 to interpose the liquid crystal layer 128 . The first alignment layer 124 and the second alignment layer 126 are usually made of polyimide (PI). Generally speaking, the thicknesses of the first alignment layer 124 and the second alignment layer 126 will increase the contact resistance between the protrusion 114 and the conductive layer 132 on the second substrate 130 , resulting in lower transmission performance of touch signals. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, the touch signal transmission region 100B of the touch panel 100 is disposed away from the positions of the first alignment layer 124 and the second alignment layer 126 .

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the photosensitive spacer 115 in the protrusion 114 is formed by photoresist coating and photolithography process, therefore, the contact area between the protrusion 114 and the conductive layer 132 can be passed through the photosensitive spacer. The object 115 is fixed by the photolithography process, so that the resistance value of each signal line of the capacitive sensing electrode in electrical contact with the conductive layer 132 through the protrusion 114 is fixed, and the sensing accuracy of the touch panel is improved.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the protrusion 114 can be directly made of conductive material, for example, can be formed by depositing a metal layer and using photolithography and etching processes. In this embodiment, the contact area between the protrusion 114 and the conductive layer 132 can also be fixed through a photolithography process.

In other embodiments, the protrusions 114 may be made of conductive organic or inorganic materials, such as organic or inorganic materials doped with conductive particles, such as gold, silver or carbon black particles.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the protrusion 114 itself has conductivity, the first transparent conductive layer 120 may not be needed on the surface of the protrusion 114 .

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the protrusion 114 may be formed on the conductive layer 132 of the second substrate 130 and electrically connected to the second conductive layer 108 of the first substrate 102 .

Since the protrusions 114 in the embodiment of the present invention can transmit electrical signals from the side of the first substrate 102 to the side of the second substrate 130, other protrusions (not shown) may be additionally formed according to an embodiment of the present invention. ) is electrically connected to the common electrode 122 on the first substrate 102, and transmits the voltage (Vcom) signal of the common electrode 122 to the second substrate 130, so that the sealant material 134 does not need to be doped with conductive particles, Furthermore, the manufacturing cost of the panel is reduced, wherein the protrusion 114 and the protrusion used for transmitting the required voltage of the common electrode 122 are in non-electrical contact with each other.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the protrusion 114 is manufactured by first forming the photosensitive spacer 115, and then forming the first transparent conductive layer 120. Therefore, the process of the embodiment of the present invention can be compared with the existing liquid crystal display The process of the panel is combined, when forming the spacer (not shown) in the liquid crystal layer 128, the photosensitive spacer 115 of the protrusion 114 is formed at the same time, and when the common electrode 122 of the liquid crystal display panel is formed, the protrusion 114 is formed at the same time The first transparent conductive layer 120, and in this embodiment, the process sequence of the protrusion is the same as the process sequence of the pressure sensing structure of the embedded resistive touch panel, therefore, in an embodiment of the present invention , the process of capacitive and resistive touch panels can be combined to form a hybrid touch panel of capacitive and resistive.

To sum up, in the embedded touch panel of the embodiment of the present invention, the capacitive touch sensing electrode and the color filter layer are arranged on the same side of the color filter substrate. Compared with the plug-in touch panel, the present invention The embodiments of the present invention can reduce the overall thickness of the touch display device. In addition, the embodiments of the present invention can also avoid the scratch problem caused by the double-sided process of the current touch panel on the color filter substrate, thereby improving the manufacturing yield of the touch panel.

At the same time, the in-cell touch panel of the embodiment of the present invention uses the protrusions to electrically connect the capacitive touch sensing electrodes on the first substrate and the conductive layer on the second substrate, and then the touch control on the first substrate side The signal is transmitted to the side of the second substrate, thereby avoiding the problem of signal unevenness caused by the traditional use of conductive particles in the sealant for signal transmission.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the area of the transmission area of the voltage (Vcom) signal of the common electrode of the original display device will not be affected by the touch signal transmission area, so the touch display panel of the embodiment of the present invention can improve The problem of poor display image quality derived from the uneven Vcom signal of the traditional touch display panel.

Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been disclosed as above, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Any person skilled in the art may make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention The scope of protection shall prevail as defined by the appended claims.

Claims (13)

1. an embedded touch control panel has a touch-control sensing district and a touching signals transmission region, comprising:

One first substrate;

One capacitance type touch control sensing electrode is arranged in this touch-control sensing district of this first substrate;

One second substrate arranges with this first substrate subtend;

One conductive layer is arranged on this touching signals transmission region of this second substrate; And

One thrust is arranged between this first substrate and this second substrate, and is positioned on this touching signals transmission region,

Wherein this thrust and this capacitance type touch control sensing electrode are electrically connected, and contact with this conductive layer on this second substrate, so that a touching signals of this capacitance type touch control sensing electrode is passed to this second substrate via this thrust.

2. embedded touch control panel as claimed in claim 1 comprises that also a chromatic filter layer is arranged on this capacitance type touch control sensing electrode, in the face of this second substrate.

3. embedded touch control panel as claimed in claim 2, wherein this thrust comprises a photosensitive type sept, and one first transparency conducting layer be covered on this photosensitive type sept, and wherein this conductive layer on this first transparency conducting layer and this capacitance type touch control sensing electrode and this second substrate is electrically connected.

4. embedded touch control panel as claimed in claim 3 comprises that also one second transparency conducting layer is covered on this chromatic filter layer, and wherein this second transparency conducting layer and this first transparency conducting layer are isolated mutually via a Patternized technique.

5. embedded touch control panel as claimed in claim 4, wherein this first transparency conducting layer transmits this touching signals of this capacitance type touch control sensing electrode, and this second transparency conducting layer is a common electrode.

6. embedded touch control panel as claimed in claim 5 comprises that also another thrust is arranged between this first substrate and this second substrate, and in order to this second transparency conducting layer one common voltage to be provided, and this thrust and this another thrust are each other without being electrically connected.

7. embedded touch control panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein this thrust comprises an electric conductivity thrust.

8. embedded touch control panel as claimed in claim 7, wherein the material of this conductive prominence thing comprises the inorganic material of organic material or the conductive doped particle of metal, conductive doped particle.

9. embedded touch control panel as claimed in claim 1 also comprises a frame glue, is arranged between this first substrate and this second substrate, and wherein mixes without conducting particles in this frame glue.

10. embedded touch control panel as claimed in claim 1 also comprises:

One first both alignment layers is arranged on this first substrate;

One second both alignment layers is arranged on this second substrate, in the face of this first both alignment layers; And

One liquid crystal layer is located between this first both alignment layers and this second both alignment layers,

Wherein the position of this first both alignment layers and this second both alignment layers and this touching signals transmission region separate.

11. embedded touch control panel as claimed in claim 10 wherein comprises a plurality of septs in this liquid crystal layer, and this thrust comprises a photosensitive type sept, this photosensitive type sept of wherein said a plurality of septs and this thrust forms simultaneously.

12. embedded touch control panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein this thrust is formed on this first substrate or this second substrate.

13. embedded touch control panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein this capacitance type touch control sensing electrode has many signal line, and each signal line is identical via the contact area of this conductive layer on this thrust and this second substrate.

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