Patent Application
20140049482
The present invention relates to a touch detection structure, and more particularly to a touch detection structure having a printed circuit layer directly formed on a frame thereof, so that the cost for using a circuit board is saved and the overall thickness of the touch detection structure is reduced to enable convenient assembling thereof. The present invention also relates to a touch display device using the above-described touch detection structure.
Thanks to the constant progress in various technical fields, many currently available electronic products are very small in volume but equipped with a large-size screen. The large-size screen, however, inevitably occupies the space on the electronic product for operating buttons. To enable normal operation of the large-size screen without physical operating buttons, various types of touch screens have been developed and consumers' demands for touch screens quickly increase.
Currently, the most popular large-size touch screens are infrared touch screens. According to the basic structure of an infrared touch screen, a plurality of transmitters and a plurality of receivers are mounted along outer edges of a screen panel in a predetermined sequence. The transmitters and the receivers are arranged in one-to-one correspondence to form an infrared grid consisting of two transmitter-receiver arrays perpendicular to one another. Under the control of a processor, the corresponding transmitters and receivers are electrically connected in a predetermined sequence for detecting whether the infrared beams between the corresponding transmitter-receiver pairs are interrupted, so as to determine whether the touch screen is touched by an object.
In brief, the conventional touch detection device for a touch panel has the following disadvantages: (1) requiring additional costs for using and manufacturing circuit boards; (2) having large overall thickness; and (3) being inconvenient for assembling.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an improved touch detection structure and a touch display device using same to overcome the above problems.
A primary object of the present invention is to solve the problems in the conventional touch detection device by providing an improved touch detection structure that has a printed circuit layer directly formed on a frame thereof to save the cost for circuit boards.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a touch display device that has reduced overall thickness and is more convenient for assembling.
To achieve the above and other objects, the touch detection structure according to the present invention includes a frame, a plurality of transmitters, and a plurality of receivers. The frame is formed of a first frame member, a second frame member, a third frame member and a fourth frame member. The first and the third frame member are correspondingly located at two opposite sides of the frame, while the second and the fourth frame member are correspondingly located at another two opposite sides of the frame. A printed circuit layer is directly formed on surfaces of the first, second, third and fourth frame members by way of mechanical processing. The transmitters and the receivers are arranged on the frame and electrically connected to the printed circuit layer. With the printed circuit layer being directly formed on the frame, the touch detection structure can save the costs for using and manufacturing circuit boards and has reduced overall thickness to enable convenient assembling thereof.
To achieve the above and other objects, the touch display device according to the present invention includes a case, a display panel, and a frame. The case internally defines a receiving space for receiving the display panel therein. The display panel has a display surface corresponding to an opening of the receiving space. The frame is assembled to the case to locate over one side of the display panel having the display surface. The frame is formed of a first, a second, a third, and a fourth frame member; the first and the third frame member are correspondingly located at two opposite sides of the frame while the second and the fourth member are correspondingly located at another two opposite sides of the frame. A printed circuit layer is directly formed on surfaces of the first, second, third and fourth frame members. A plurality of transmitters and a plurality of receivers are arranged on the frame and electrically connected to the printed circuit layer. The transmitters and receivers are located on one face of the frame oriented toward the display surface of the display panel. By directly forming the printed circuit layer on the frame, the touch display device can save the costs for using and manufacturing circuit boards, and has reduced overall thickness to enable convenient assembling thereof.
Therefore, the present invention provides the following advantages: (1) saving the costs for using and manufacturing circuit boards; (2) having reduced overall thickness; and (3) being more convenient for assembling.
The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein
The present invention will now be described with some preferred embodiments thereof and with reference to the accompanying drawings. For the purpose of easy to understand, elements that are the same in the preferred embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals.
Please refer to
The frame 21 is formed of a first frame member 211, a second frame member 212, a third frame member 213, and a fourth frame member 214. The first and the third frame member 211, 213 are correspondingly located at two opposite sides of the frame 21, while the second and the fourth frame member 212, 214 are correspondingly located at another two opposite sides of the frame 21. A printed circuit layer 215 is directly formed on the surfaces of the first, second, third and fourth frame members 211, 212, 213, 214 by way of mechanical processing.
The mechanical processing can be screen printing, laser sculpturing, or any other suitable way for forming electric circuits.
The transmitters 22 and the receivers 23 are arranged on opposite sides of the frame 21 and are electrically connected to the printed circuit layer 215. In the illustrated first preferred embodiment, the transmitters 22 and the receivers 23 are configured as infrared transmitters and infrared receivers, the transmitters 22 are arranged on the first frame member 211 and the second frame member 212, and the receivers 23 are arranged on the third frame member 213 and the fourth frame member 21. However, it is understood the arrangements of the transmitters 22 and the receivers 23 are not necessarily limited to the above-described manners. For example, the transmitters 22 can be otherwise arranged on the third and the fourth frame member 213, 214 while the receivers 23 can be otherwise arranged on the first and the second frame member 211, 212.
In the first preferred embodiment, the transmitters 22 arranged on the first frame member 211 and the receivers 23 arranged on the third frame member 213 form two parallelly spaced rows on the same horizontal plane, and the transmitters 22 arranged on the second frame member 212 and the receivers 23 arranged on the fourth frame member 214 form another two parallelly spaced rows on the same horizontal plane. Further, the transmitters 22 on the first frame member 211 are correspondingly aligned with the receivers 23 on the third frame member 213, while the transmitters 22 on the second frame member 212 are correspondingly aligned with the receivers 23 on the fourth frame member 214. With these arrangements, the touch detection structure 2 not only achieves the touch detection purpose, but also saves the costs for using and manufacturing circuit boards. Moreover, by directly forming the printed circuit layer 215 on the frame 21, the touch detection structure 2 can have reduced overall thickness and can be more conveniently assembled.
The touch detection structure 2 in the second preferred embodiment further includes a connection line 24 electrically connected to the printed circuit layer 215, the transmitters 22 and the receivers 23. The connection line 24 has a plugging end 241, which can be a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connector, a 1394 connector, or a HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) connector.
With the above structural design, the touch display device 3 can achieve the displaying function by touching it. Further, by directly forming the printed circuit layer 215 on the frame 21, the touch display device 3 can save the costs for using and manufacturing circuit boards, and has a reduced overall thickness to enable easy assembling thereof.
The present invention has been described with some preferred embodiments thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the described embodiments can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only by the appended claims.
