CN103197806A - Touch panel and electronic device using same - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a touch panel and an electronic device using the same. The sensing structure is arranged on the first flexible substrate and comprises at least one first sensing electrode, at least two second sensing electrodes, at least one connecting structure and at least one insulating structure. The second sensing electrodes are respectively arranged at two sides of the first sensing electrodes and are not directly connected with each other. The connecting structure is electrically connected with the two second sensing electrodes and is not electrically connected with the first sensing electrodes, wherein the material of the connecting structure comprises a non-metal conductive material or a compound. The insulation structure is at least partially arranged among the connecting structure, the two second sensing electrodes and the first sensing electrode. The electronic device and the touch panel thereof are not easy to break and crack because the electronic device and the touch panel thereof are composed of the flexible substrate and the sensing structure.

Description

Touch panel and electronic device using same

technical field

The invention relates to a touch panel and an electronic device using the same, in particular to a capacitive touch panel with a flexible substrate and an electronic device using the same.

Background technique

Due to the advantages of easy operation, humanization and space saving, the touch panel has been widely used in various electronic devices in recent years, replacing the mouse and the keyboard as input tools.

According to the sensing principle, touch panels can be roughly divided into resistive and capacitive touch panels. Among them, the capacitive touch panel uses the capacitance change generated by the electrostatic combination between the electrode and the human body to detect the coordinates of the touch position. The substrate used in the capacitive touch panel is usually a glass substrate.

The wiring of a traditional capacitive touch panel is composed of an X-axis metal sensing line, a Y-axis metal sensing line and a plurality of metal bridge lines. The Y-axis sensing line is formed by interconnecting a plurality of Y-axis sensing units and a plurality of metal bridge lines spanning above the X-axis metal sensing line.

Since the sensing lines and bridge lines are made of hard and opaque materials, and the material difference between the sensing lines, bridge lines and the substrate is too large, a large amount of optical glue must be used in the touch panel manufacturing process Bonding between sensing wires, bridging wires, and substrate is performed. In addition, due to the above-mentioned problems, the assembly process of traditional touch panels requires high lamination and alignment, resulting in poor production efficiency or process yield, which greatly increases process time, cost and number of process procedures.

In addition, with the trend of miniaturization and higher resolution requirements, the display area originally covered by sensing lines and bridge lines has gradually become the main factor hindering the increase of display rate. In view of this, how to improve the display rate has also become an important issue.

Contents of the invention

In view of the above problems, the object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device and a touch panel with a flexible substrate, so as to greatly increase the display ratio.

The present invention further provides an electronic device and its substrate with a flexible touch panel, so as to greatly increase the service life.

The present invention further provides an electronic device and its substrate with a flexible touch panel, so as to greatly reduce the production cost and improve the production efficiency.

Therefore, the present invention provides a touch panel, which includes a first flexible substrate and a sensing structure. The sensing structure is disposed on the first flexible substrate, and the sensing structure includes at least one first sensing electrode, at least two second sensing electrodes, at least one connecting structure and at least one insulating structure. The two second sensing electrodes are respectively arranged on two sides of the first sensing electrode and are not directly connected to each other. The connecting structure is electrically connected to the two second sensing electrodes, and not electrically connected to the first sensing electrode, wherein the material of the connecting structure includes non-metal conductive material or compound. The insulating structure is at least partially disposed between the connection structure, the two second sensing electrodes and the first sensing electrodes.

In the aforementioned touch panel, the connection structure may be light-transmissive. In addition, the insulating structure can cover the exposed parts of the two second sensing electrodes and the first sensing electrodes. The connection structure includes Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), Zinc Oxide (ZnO), Zinc Aluminum Oxide (AZO) or Antimony Tin Oxide (ATO).

The present invention further provides a touch panel, which includes a first flexible substrate and a sensing structure. The sensing structure is disposed on the first flexible substrate, and the sensing structure includes at least one first sensing electrode, at least one insulating structure and at least one second sensing electrode. The first sensing electrodes are arranged along a first direction, and at least part of the insulating structure is disposed on the first sensing electrodes. At least part of the second sensing electrode is disposed on the insulating structure and arranged along a second direction, wherein the first sensing electrode, the insulating structure and the second sensing electrode are all flexible.

In the aforementioned touch panels, the first sensing electrodes or the second sensing electrodes may be in the shape of strips, polygons, circles or ellipses. In addition, the first sensing electrode or the second sensing electrode may be transparent to light.

Each of the aforementioned touch panels may further include at least one signal shielding structure, and the signal shielding structure is disposed on the sensing structure or the first flexible substrate.

Each of the aforementioned touch panels may further include at least one second flexible substrate, and the sensing structure is preferably disposed between the second flexible substrate and the first flexible substrate.

Each of the aforementioned touch panels may further include a protection structure, and the protection structure is disposed on the sensing structure or the first flexible substrate.

The invention provides an electronic device, which includes a casing, a system circuit board and a touch panel. The system circuit board is arranged in the casing. The touch panel is electrically connected to the system circuit board, and the touch panel is the aforementioned touch panels.

As mentioned above, the above-mentioned electronic device and its touch panel are composed of a flexible substrate and a sensing structure, so when the user uses the electronic device, the touch panel is not easy to break or break. Efficacy and even service life have been greatly improved. In addition, the above-mentioned electronic device and its touch panel use non-metallic conductive materials or compounds as the connection structure, so the adhesion between the substrate and the sensing structure is better, which can greatly reduce the use of optical glue, and even greatly Simplify process, improve yield and reduce production cost. In addition, because the aforementioned touch panel is flexible enough, it can adopt full-process automatic production, which can greatly simplify the process, improve the yield rate and reduce the production cost.

In addition, the above-mentioned touch panel can have better light penetration due to each composition structure, so compared with the traditional technology, the above-mentioned touch panel can have better light penetration, and thus has better performance. display rate.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic partial top view of a touch panel according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

2A is a partial cross-sectional schematic diagram of a touch panel according to the first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

2B is a partial cross-sectional schematic diagram of another aspect of the touch panel according to the first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic partial top view of a touch panel according to yet another aspect of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a touch panel according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention;

5 to 9 are schematic cross-sectional views of touch panels in different aspects of the present invention; and

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Wherein, the reference signs are explained as follows:

1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 2e, 2f, TP: touch panel

11, 11, 21: The first flexible substrate

12a, 12b, 22: Sensing structures

121, 221: the first sensing electrode

122, 222: second sensing electrodes

123a, 123b, 123c: connection structure

124a, 124b, 224: insulation structure

23: Protective structure

24, 24a: the second flexible substrate

25: Signal shielding structure

A-A: hatching

C: Shell

E: electronic device

X: Second direction

Y: first direction

Detailed ways

A touch panel and an electronic device using the same according to preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to related drawings, wherein the same elements will be described with the same reference symbols.

FIG. 1 is a schematic partial top view of a touch panel according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2A is a schematic cross-sectional view along the section line A-A in FIG. 1 . As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2A , the touch panel 1 a includes a first flexible substrate 11 and a sensing structure 12 a.

The material of the first flexible substrate 11 can be a cycloolefin copolymer (Cyclic olefincopolymer, COC), polyethersulfone (Polyether-sulfones, PES), polyethylene naphthalate (Polyethylene naphthalate, PEN), Polyimide (Polyimide, PI), polycarbonate (Polycarbonate, PC), Zeonor (product name), Arton (product name) or polyester (Polyethyleneterephthalate, PET), etc., but the present invention is not limited to the above materials.

The sensing structure 12 a is disposed on the first flexible substrate 11 , and the sensing structure 12 a includes at least one first sensing electrode 121 , at least two second sensing electrodes 122 , at least one connecting structure 123 and at least one insulating structure 124 .

The second sensing electrodes 122 are separately disposed on two sides of the first sensing electrodes 121 and are not directly connected to each other. Here, in FIG. 1, the touch panel 1a has a plurality of first sensing electrodes 121 and a plurality of second sensing electrodes 122 as an example, but it is not used to limit the number of the first sensing electrodes 121 and the second sensing electrodes 122. quantity. Specifically, the first sensing electrodes 121 are arranged along the first direction Y and connected to each other in a straight line. As shown in FIG. The first sensing electrodes 121 of each row are not connected to each other; the second sensing electrodes 122 are arranged along the second direction X and are not connected to each other at intervals. Similarly, the sensing structure 12a is also provided with A plurality of second sensing electrodes 122 in the second direction X are not connected to each other. Although here, the first direction Y and the second direction X are two directions perpendicular to each other, the present invention is not limited thereto.

Wherein, the first sensing electrode 121 and the second sensing electrode 122 can be made of the same or different conductive materials, such as but not limited to metal or non-metal transparent conductive film, such as indium tin oxide (Indium Tin Oxide, ITO ), zinc oxide (ZnO), aluminum zinc oxide (AZO) or antimony tin oxide (Antimony Tin Oxide, ATO) film, etc. The first sensing electrode 121 and the second sensing electrode 122 with light permeability can reduce the shaded display area of the touch panel 1a, thereby improving the display rate of the touch panel 1a.

In addition, the first sensing electrode 121 and/or the second sensing electrode 122 may be, for example but not limited to, a strip shape, a polygon shape, a circle shape, an ellipse shape or a combination of other geometric shapes. But preferably, the first sensing electrode 121 and/or the second sensing electrode 122 can be a polygon with more than five sides, and the first sensing electrode 121 and the second sensing electrode 122 in this embodiment are regarded as Taking hexagon as an example, the polygonal shape with more than five sides is not only easier for layout planning, but also has a wider connection between the first sensing electrodes 121 due to its shape design, which is beneficial to signal transmission.

The connection structure 123a is electrically connected to the two second sensing electrodes 122, and is not electrically connected to the first sensing electrode 121, wherein the material forming the connection structure 123a may include non-metallic conductive materials or compounds, and its formation method is more traditional than metal Wires are easy. Here, an implementation of the connection structure 123a is shown in FIG. 2A . The connection structure 123a electrically connects at least two adjacent second sensing electrodes 222 in the second direction X, so as to display the second sensing electrode 222 in the second direction X. The arranged second sensing electrodes 122 are connected in series. In addition to being a non-metal conductive layer or a compound layer, the connection structure 123a is preferably light-transmissible, such as indium tin oxide (ITO), zinc oxide (ZnO), zinc aluminum oxide (AZO) or antimony oxide Tin (Antimony Tin Oxide, ATO) film, compared with general metal conductive materials, has better light transmission and conductivity. When the touch panel 1a is combined with the display panel (not shown) to form a touch display screen, It can help to improve the brightness of the touch display screen. In addition, it should be noted that the term connection structure used here collectively refers to conductive materials that have the same function and are substantially arranged on the same horizontal plane in a three-dimensional spatial relationship, rather than limiting their installation size or structure by name. connected to each other.

The insulating structure 124a is at least partially disposed between the connecting structure 123a, the two second measuring electrodes 122 and the first sensing electrode 121 . In detail, here, the insulating structure 124a may cover the portion where the first sensing electrodes 121 are connected to each other, so as to separate and insulate the first sensing electrode 121 from two adjacent second sensing electrodes 122 . Through the arrangement of the insulating structure 124a, the above-mentioned first sensing electrodes 121 and the second sensing electrodes 122 can be insulated without electrical connection, so that the touch panel 1a can have, for example, mutually perpendicular and mutually insulated sensing electrodes. electrode structure. As described above for the connecting structure 123a, similarly, the word insulating structure used here can not be used to limit the size of the insulating material or the connection with each other.

It is worth mentioning that the connection structure (non-metal conductive layer or compound layer) 123 a in this embodiment is a segmented connection, and only connects two adjacent second sensing electrodes 122 individually. In addition, please refer to FIG. 3, in another aspect of this embodiment, the connection structure can also be a continuous connection structure 123c as shown in FIG. More than three second sensing electrodes 122 , and even the connection structure 123c can connect all the second sensing electrodes 122 in the second direction X at one time. Of course, the shape of the connection structure 123c may be straight or curved, which is not limited in the present invention.

In addition, FIG. 2B is a partial cross-sectional schematic diagram of a touch panel 1b according to another aspect of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2B , the touch panel 1b also includes a first flexible substrate 11 and a sensing structure 12b. The difference from the aspect shown in FIG. 2A is that, in the sensing structure 12a of FIG. 2A , the insulating structure 124a is only formed between the first sensing electrode 121 and the second sensing electrode 122, and then the connecting structure 123a is formed again. On the first sensing electrode 121, the second sensing electrode 122 and the connection structure 123a, two second sensing electrodes 122 that are not connected to each other are connected; and the sensing structure 12b in FIG. 2B is formed by forming a whole layer The insulating structure 124b not only covers between the first sensing electrode 121 and the second sensing electrode 122, but also covers the exposed part of the two second sensing electrodes 122 and the first sensing electrode 121, and then in the second The connecting portion of the sensing electrode 122 is etched, so that two adjacent second sensing electrodes 122 can be connected when forming the connecting structure 123b.

The above-mentioned structures in this embodiment can be formed on a single first flexible substrate 11 by a discontinuous or continuous process, so as to reduce the number of substrates used and improve production efficiency.

Please refer to FIG. 4 , which is a schematic cross-sectional view of a touch panel 2 a according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention. Wherein, the cross-sectional position can refer to the relationship between FIG. 1 and FIG. 2A , and will not be repeated here. The touch panel 2 a includes a first flexible substrate 21 and a sensing structure 22 . The sensing structure 22 is also disposed on the first flexible substrate 21 , and the sensing structure 22 includes at least one first sensing electrode 221 , at least two second sensing electrodes 222 and at least one insulating structure 224 . Here, although FIG. 4 exemplifies the touch panel 2 a having a plurality of second sensing electrodes 222 , it is not intended to limit the number of the second sensing electrodes 222 .

In this embodiment, the first sensing electrodes 221 are arranged along a first direction Y, the insulating structure 224 is at least partially disposed on the first sensing electrodes 221, and the second sensing electrodes 222 are at least partially disposed on the insulating structure 224. and arranged along a second direction X. It should be noted that the first direction Y and the second direction X mentioned here are not shown in FIG. direction.

Wherein, the first sensing electrode 221 , the insulating structure 224 and the second sensing electrode 222 are all flexible. Therefore, full-thread automatic production can be adopted, which can improve production efficiency and process yield, greatly reduce process time, and reduce production costs. In addition, both the first sensing electrode 221 and the second sensing electrode 222 can have variations as described in the previous embodiment, and their shapes can be strips, polygons, circles or ellipses, and can have light. Penetrability, so no restatement.

The following introduces multiple variations of the touch panel of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and based on the aspect of the touch panel 2a shown in FIG. 4, other structures are added. It should be emphasized that although only The touch panel 2a is taken as an example for subsequent description. However, the touch panels 1a and 1b shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 can also replace the touch panel 2a for the following changes, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

5 to 9 are schematic cross-sectional views of touch panels in different aspects of the present invention. The touch panel 2b shown in FIG. 5 includes all elements of the touch panel 2a described above: the first flexible substrate 21 and the sensing structure 22, the touch panel 2b may further include a protective structure (Cover lens) 23, Set on the sensing structure 22 .

The protective structure 23 can prevent the sensing structure 22 or the first flexible substrate 21 from being damaged by being adhered on the sensing structure 22 by an adhesive layer (not shown in the figure). The protective structure 23 can be light-transmissive, such as but not limited to glass, polyester or acrylic (Polymethylmethacrylate, PMMA) and other materials. In addition to being disposed on the sensing structure 22, the protection structure 23 can also be bonded by an adhesive layer (not shown) as shown in FIG. 6 but disposed under the first flexible substrate 21, so as to Strengthen protection of the first flexible substrate 21 or the sensing structure 22 from scratches and damages in different directions.

The touch panel 2c shown in FIG. 6 includes all elements of the touch panel 2b in FIG. A second flexible substrate 24 is included.

The second flexible substrate 24 can be arranged on the sensing structure 22 by an adhesive layer (not shown), which can be made of the same material as the first flexible substrate 21, and is similar to the protective structure in FIG. 23 also has the function of protecting the sensing structure 22 or the first flexible substrate 21 . Of course, as shown in FIG. 7 , the second flexible substrate 24 can also be disposed under the first flexible substrate 21 to strengthen and protect the first flexible substrate 21 or the sensing structure 22 in different directions.

The touch panel 2d shown in FIG. 7 includes all elements of the touch panel 2c in FIG. Outside the flexible substrate 24, a signal shielding structure 25 may be further included.

The signal shielding structure 25 is used to shield noise interference, and its material can be a conductive material with light permeability, such as but not limited to an indium tin oxide film. The signal shielding structure 25 can be disposed under the first flexible substrate 21 as shown in FIG. 7 and/or disposed on the sensing structure 22 as shown in FIG. 8 . In detail, compared with the touch panel 2a shown in FIG. 4, the touch panels 2d and 2e shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. The two flexible substrates 24 are used for protection, and the signal shielding structure 25 is used to shield the noise interference of the upper or lower circuits of the touch panels 2d, 2e, thereby preventing the touch panels 2d, 2e from interacting with the display device (FIG. (not shown) in combination, the electrical properties of the display device affect the electrical properties of the touch panels 2d and 2e.

Fig. 9 shows another embodiment of the touch panel 2f according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. Its cross-sectional structure is roughly the same as the embodiment shown in Fig. 8, but the touch panel 2f uses another adhesive layer (not shown in the figure) display) another layer of second flexible substrate 24a is bonded on the second flexible substrate 24 and the signal shielding structure 25 to further strengthen the protective effect of the overall touch panel 2f. The present invention does not limit the first 2. The number of flexible substrates 24a installed. Wherein, the material of the second flexible substrate 24 a can be the same as or different from the second flexible substrate 24 .

In particular, it should be noted that, in addition to the above-mentioned ones shown in Figure 4, the arrangement relationship of each layer in the above embodiments can be adjusted according to actual needs, or the order and connection relationship can be adjusted, or other structures with predictable functions can be added. The present invention is hereby unlimited.

As shown in FIG. 10, the present invention also discloses an electronic device E using the above-mentioned touch panel, such as a tablet computer or a portable communication device, which includes a casing C and a system circuit board (not shown in the figure). ) and a touch panel TP, the system circuit board is arranged in the housing C, the touch panel TP is electrically connected to the system circuit board inside the housing C, the detailed structure and arrangement relationship of the touch panel TP can be the aforementioned embodiments and Implement any variation described in the aspects. Since the embodiments and implementation aspects of the touch panel TP have been described in detail above, they will not be repeated here.

To sum up, the above-mentioned electronic device and its touch panel are composed of a flexible substrate and a sensing structure, so when the user uses the electronic device, the touch panel is not easy to break or break. Efficacy and even service life have been greatly improved. In addition, the above-mentioned electronic device and its touch panel use non-metallic conductive materials or compounds as the connection structure, so the use of optical glue can be greatly reduced, even to the extent that no optical glue is needed, which can greatly simplify the process and improve the yield rate and reduce production costs. In addition, because the aforementioned touch panel is flexible enough, it can adopt full-process automatic production, which can greatly simplify the process, improve the yield rate and reduce the production cost.

In addition, the above-mentioned touch panel can have better light penetration due to each composition structure, so compared with the traditional technology, the above-mentioned touch panel can have better light penetration, and thus has better performance. display rate.

The above description is for illustration only, not for limitation. Any equivalent modifications or changes made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention shall be included in the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (10)

1. A touch panel, characterized in that, comprising: a first flexible substrate; and A sensing structure, disposed on the first flexible substrate, the sensing structure includes: at least one first sensing electrode; At least two second sensing electrodes are separately arranged on two sides of the first sensing electrode and are not directly connected to each other; At least one connecting structure is electrically connected to the two second sensing electrodes and not electrically connected to the first sensing electrode, wherein the material of the connecting structure includes a non-metallic conductive material or compound; and At least one insulating structure is at least partially disposed between the connecting structure, the two second sensing electrodes and the first sensing electrode. 2. The touch panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein the connection structure has light permeability. 3. The touch panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein the insulating structure covers the exposed parts of the two second sensing electrodes and the first sensing electrodes. 4. The touch panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein the connection structure comprises indium tin oxide, zinc oxide, zinc aluminum oxide or antimony tin oxide. 5. A touch panel, characterized in that, comprising: a first flexible substrate; and A sensing structure, disposed on the first flexible substrate, the sensing structure includes: at least one first sensing electrode arranged along a first direction; at least one insulating structure at least partially disposed on the first sensing electrode; and At least one second sensing electrode is at least partially disposed on the insulating structure and arranged along a second direction, wherein the first sensing electrode, the insulating structure and the second sensing electrode are all flexible. 6. The touch panel according to claim 1 or 5, wherein the first sensing electrode or the second sensing electrode is strip-shaped, polygonal, circular or elliptical. 7. The touch panel according to claim 1 or 5, wherein the first sensing electrode or the second sensing electrode has light permeability. 8. The touch panel according to claim 1 or 5, further comprising at least one signal shielding structure or a protection structure disposed on the sensing structure or the first flexible substrate. 9. The touch panel according to claim 1 or 5, further comprising at least one second flexible substrate, the sensing structure is disposed between the second flexible substrate and the first flexible substrate . 10. An electronic device, characterized in that it comprises: a shell; a system circuit board arranged in the housing; and A touch panel, electrically connected to the system circuit board, the touch panel is the touch panel according to any one of claims 1-5.

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