Patent Application
20130168215
This Application claims the benefit of the People's Republic of China Application No. 201110461220.0, filed on Dec. 31, 2011.
The present disclosure relates to a touch panel and a method of manufacturing the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a touch panel having a special graph region and a method of manufacturing the same.
In the current market of consumer electronic products, integrating touch function into displays has become a main development trend for portable electronic products. Touch panels have been applied to various electronic products such as smart phones, mobile phones, tablets and laptops. When using a touch panel, a user can perform operations and give instructions directly through the objects displayed on the screen, thereby providing a humanized operation interface between the user and the electronic product.
At present, conventional touch technologies include resistive type, capacitive type, and acoustic wave type. A touch panel generally comprises a transparent touch region and a non-transparent peripheral region surrounding the touch region. The touch region is used to generate a touch sensing signal. A plurality of peripheral leads are disposed in the peripheral region to transmit a touch sensing signal to a signal processer for calculation of coordinates of the touch location.
For some designs, some transparent graph regions may be designed in a peripheral region of a touch panel to show special patterns, such as a trademark, an icon, or other patterns, or used to dispose an IR module.
However, in the above design, the peripheral leads in the peripheral region pass through the graph region. In consideration of manufacturing process, the peripheral leads in the peripheral region are usually made of a non-transparent conductive material such as silver, copper, etc. Thus, viewing from the front side of the touch panel, a user can see the peripheral leads exposed from the graph region, thereby affecting visual effect. of the appearance and possibly affecting presentation of the special patterns or function of the devices disposed subsequently in the graph region.
In view of the above defects of the conventional technology, the present disclosure provides a touch panel and a method of manufacturing the same. In the present disclosure, a transparent conductive material is used to form part of the peripheral leads in graph regions of a touch panel, thereby overcoming the defect of the peripheral leads in graph regions being easily seen by a user in the conventional technology.
The present disclosure is to provide a touch panel. The touch panel comprises a transparent substrate, a non-transparent insulation layer disposed on the transparent substrate, wherein the non-transparent insulation layer has a first opening and a second opening exposing parts of the transparent substrate, transparent conductive patterns disposed on the exposed transparent substrate in the first opening and the second opening, and non-transparent conductive patterns disposed on the non-transparent insulation layer beyond the first opening and the second opening, wherein the non-transparent conductive patterns electrically connect the transparent conductive pattern in the first opening and the transparent conductive pattern in the second opening.
The present disclosure is to also provide a method of manufacturing a touch panel, wherein the method comprises the steps of: forming a non-transparent insulation layer having a first opening and a second opening on a transparent substrate to expose parts of the transparent substrate; forming transparent conductive patterns on the exposed transparent substrate in the first opening and the second opening; and forming non-transparent conductive patterns on the non-transparent insulation layer beyond the first opening and the second opening, wherein the non-transparent conductive patterns electrically connect the transparent conductive pattern in the first opening and the transparent conductive pattern in the second opening.
For those skilled in the art to understand the present disclosure, numerous embodiments are described below, annexing drawings to minutely illustrate the matters of the disclosure and the purpose thereof.
The process of manufacturing a touch panel is illustrated in sequence according to
As shown in
Moreover, the non-transparent peripheral region 306 presents an outer frame model on the surface of the substrate 300, and it is a non-touch region. Other additional patterns can also be presented in the peripheral region 306 through design, thereby achieving more appearance changes of the touch panel. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a plurality of transparent second openings 310 are formed on the non-transparent insulation layer 302 to delimit a peripheral region 306 and a graph region 312 of the touch panel. Graphs to be presented on the panel, such as a trademark, an icon, etc., can be printed on the inner surface of the substrate 300 within the regions of the second openings 310. Alternatively, a camera, an IR module or other devices disposed inside the touch panel can also be exposed from the touch surface of the substrate through the second openings 310 so as to emit or receive light of a certain wavelength.
After completing the delimitation of the display region 308 and the peripheral region 306 on the substrate 300, formation of conductive patterns inside the touch panel is performed. In the present disclosure, the conductive patterns are classified into transparent conductive patterns and non-transparent conductive patterns. The transparent conductive patterns are disposed in areas not covered by the non-transparent insulation layer 302 on the substrate 300, wherein the areas comprise the display region 308 and the graph region 312. In the present embodiment, the transparent conductive patterns comprise a transparent conductive sensing pattern 314 located in the display region 308 and a transparent conductive circuit pattern 316 located in the graph region 312 of the peripheral region 306. As shown in
Furthermore, the transparent conductive circuit pattern 316 is formed in the graph region 312 of the substrate and is used to transmit the touch signal generated by the transparent conductive sensing pattern 314. It should be noted that the transparent conductive circuit pattern 316 does not yet electrically connect the transparent conductive sensing pattern 314 in the phase of formation. In order to not block image display in the display region, the transparent conductive sensing pattern 314 and the transparent conductive circuit pattern 316 are made of a transparent conductive material, such as ITO, IZO, etc. In the method of present disclosure, the transparent conductive sensing pattern 314 and the transparent conductive circuit pattern 316 can be formed simultaneously, for example, by printing the two patterns in the display region 308 and the graph region 312 simultaneously by a same printing process, but it would be appreciated that other methods can also be incorporated. Order of forming the transparent conductive sensing pattern 314 and the transparent conductive circuit pattern 316 is changeable, for example, the transparent conductive sensing pattern 314 can be formed first, and then the transparent conductive circuit pattern 316 can be formed, or visa-versa.
Referring to
After the insulation blocks 318 are formed, formation of non-transparent conductive patterns is performed. As shown in
Moreover, the non-transparent conductive circuit pattern 322 is formed on the non-transparent insulation layer 302 in the peripheral region 306. The non-transparent conductive circuit pattern 322 electrically connects the transparent conductive sensing pattern 314 in the display region 308 and the transparent conductive circuit pattern 316 in the graph region 312 such that touch signals generated by the transparent conductive sensing pattern 314 can be transmitted to the separated transparent conductive circuit pattern 316. In the method of the present disclosure, the jumpers 320 and the non-transparent conductive circuit pattern 322 can be formed simultaneously, for example, by printing the two patterns in the display region 308 and on the non-transparent insulation layer 302 respectively by a same printing process, and the material can be silver paste, copper wire, etc.
After completing the formation of the transparent conductive patterns and the non-transparent conductive patterns, a special graph layer (not shown), such as a trademark or an icon, can be additionally formed in the graph region 312 on the substrate 300. The special graph layer can be directly printed on the substrate 300 in the graph region 312 and on the transparent conductive circuit pattern 316 from the inner surface of the substrate 300, thereby completing the manufacturing of the touch panel of the present disclosure. Viewing from the outer surface of the substrate 300, the user can see the special patterns exposed from the second openings 310. Furthermore, the conductive circuit pattern disposed in the graph region 312 is transparent, thereby not affecting presentation of the special patterns, or similarly, not affecting the camera, IR module or other devices disposed inside the touch panel emitting or receiving light of a certain wavelength. Details for disposition of the special graph layer are described in the subsequent embodiment.
In the present disclosure, the inner surface (namely, the surface having conductive patterns) of the substrate 300 of the completed touch panel is laminated to a display panel (not shown). Thus, the conductive patterns formed are covered by the substrate 300 and the display panel, thereby achieving a protection effect. The conductive circuit patterns on the substrate can be extended beyond the substrate and connected to a processing unit, such as an IC circuit board of a portable electronic device, to process the touch signals generated by the touch panel.
Integrating with the above manufacturing steps,
According to the above process, the present disclosure further provides a touch panel structure. Referring to
While certain embodiments have been shown and described, various modifications and substitutions may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Therefore, it is to be understood that the present disclosure has been described by way of illustration and not limitations.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201110461220.0 | Dec 2011 | CN | national |
