Patent Application
20110109562
The present invention relates to frame of a touch panel, and particular to a decorating frame formed to a top surface of the touch panel for sheltering and prettifying conducting wires arranged to edges of the touch panel.
Touch panels nowadays are widely applied to consuming electronics such as mobile phone, digital camera, and global positioning system (GPS) to improve operating efficiency and make the interface friendly. On these electronic devices, touch panels are arranged in front of the display for users to perform input so as to improve operating efficiency and make the interface friendly. Normally, a touch panel has a touch sensing unit arranged insulated between a top plate and a substrate. The sensing signal is conducted to a signal processing circuit through conducting wires arranged to edges of the touch sensing unit. Moreover, prior touch panel is fixed to a display by pressing a peripheral of the touch panel with a frame. Although the frame can also cover signal wires on edges of the touch panel so as to improve the appearance, many disadvantages happen such as uneven surface of panel and dust deposited in the gap between the panel and the frame. The dust will cause a hygienic concern and malfunction to conductivity of the touch panel because the fragile signal wires are easily damaged by pressing or moisture leaked. To avoid such problems, a color frame is arranged between the top plate and the substrate for ensure the flatness and protection of the conducting wires. Such color frame is normally thicker than 50 μm and over-gluing and bubble are easily happened to the junction of the plates so that an optic characteristic and appearance are damaged.
Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a decorating frame to a touch panel by forming a color frame to a peripheral of an upper surface of a top plate so as to improve an appearance of the assembly, yield, and optical characteristic and also simplify the manufacturing process without having over-gluing or bubble issues.
To achieve above object, the decorating frame of the present invention is a color frame made of ink, color photo resistance, and organic material or inorganic material but not restricted within previous materials. The above materials are arranged to the periphery of the upper surface of the top plate by means of printing, coating, or metal evaporating but not restricted within above means.
The color frame can be an opaque or nearly opaque thin film made of organic material with a thickness below 35 μm.
The color frame can also be an opaque or nearly opaque thin film made of inorganic material with a thickness below 15 μm.
The color frame can be also formed to a thin film substrate, and the thin film substrate is attached to the upper surface of the top plate so that the color frame is arranged to the peripheral of the upper surface of the top plate. The thin film substrate is made of physical transparent material such as polycarbonate (PC), polyester (PET), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), Cyclo-Olefin Copolymers (COC) but not restricted within previous materials.
In order that those skilled in the art can further understand the present invention, a description will be provided in the following in details. However, these descriptions and the appended drawings are only used to cause those skilled in the art to understand the objects, features, and characteristics of the present invention, but not to be used to confine the scope and spirit of the present invention defined in the appended claims.
A resistive touch panel shown in the following Figures is used as an embodiment of the present invention. A resistive touch sensing unit 5 capable of sensing a pressing by a finger or a tip of a pen is arranged between a top plate 1 and a substrate 2. By sensing the voltage variance generated by the pressing on the touch sensing unit 5, the pressed position will be located.
The substrate 2 is a transparent thin plate such as a thin glass plate. A lower resistive film 51 of the resistive touch sensing unit 5 is formed to an upper surface of the substrate 2. A plurality of protruding spacers 52 are uniformly distributed within the resistive film 51. Conducting wires 53 for sensing signal are formed to four edges of the resistive film 51. A closed gluing loop 54 is formed near the conducting wires 53 on the edges of the substrate 2 (an area outside the dotted line on the surface of the substrate 2 shown in
Moreover, a peripheral of an upper surface of the top plate 1 has a color frame 3. The color frame 3 will cover the conducting wires 53, 56 on the edges of the touch sensing unit so as to have a better appearance. As shown in
Comparing the touch panel assembly assembled by above components with prior touch panel, the color frame 3 is directly formed onto the peripheral of the upper surface of the top plate 1 so as to prevent disadvantages of over-gluing or bubble on the edges of the panel. Also, a yield, an optical characteristic and a surface flatness of product is improved.
The present invention is thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the present invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
