Patent Application
20140327844
The present invention relates to a touch screen panel and a method of manufacturing the same, and, more particularly, to a touch screen panel for multi-touching and a method of manufacturing the same.
As a touch screen system has been introduced into user interfaces of various electronic appliances, various touch panels for realizing a touch screen have also been introduced. Table 1 below shows the results of analyzing the characteristics, application fields, application markets and disadvantages of typical touch panels according to the kinds thereof.
Currently, as a transparent electrode material, indium tin oxide (ITO) is frequently used by sputtering. However, when ITO is used, there are problems in that an ITO layer is not suitable for flexible substrates because its flexibility is poor, and in that it is costly to form an ITO layer.
Due to the above problems, novel materials and process technologies are required in order to apply ITO to low-priced flexible elements. Thus, in order to replace ITO with microelectrode wires using electronic printing, there has been required a novel touch screen panel manufacturing method, which can assure the reliability of uniform electrode wires by overcoming the problem of difficulty in forming thin and uniform electrode wires using inkjet printing, which can enhance the durability of electrode wires by minimizing the occurrence of damage to electrode wires and insufficient adhesion between electrode wires and a substrate.
(Patent document 1) 1020040103129 A
(Patent document 2) 1020060100584 A
(Patent document 3) 1020060122217 A
(Patent document 4) 1020090039803 A
(Patent document 5) 1020090101310 A
(Patent document 6) 1020090101313 A
(Patent document 7) 1020070132251 A
(Patent document 8) JP-P-2001-0020584
(Patent document 9) US10/017,268
Accordingly, the present invention has been devised to solve the above-mentioned problems, and a first object of the present invention is to provide a touch screen panel for multi-touching.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a touch screen panel for multi-touching.
In order to accomplish the above objects, an aspect of the present invention provides method of manufacturing a touch screen panel, including the steps of: (A) preparing a transparent upper plate having a horizontal groove array including two or more horizontal grooves having a channel shape of predetermined depth and width and a transparent lower plate having a vertical groove array including two or more vertical grooves having a channel shape of predetermined depth and width; (B) charging conductive ink in the horizontal groove array and the vertical groove array and then treating the conductive ink to form a conductive array; and (C) attaching the upper plate to the lower plate.
The method may further include the step of forming a spacer array having a predetermined height on at least one of the upper plate and the lower plate.
The spacer array may be formed by any one of a first process micropatterning a liquid resin or polymer solution on at least one of the upper plate and the lower plate using screen printing and then drying the liquid resin or polymer solution and a second process of applying a microball-dispersed or microcapsule-dispersed solution onto at least one of the upper plate and the lower plate.
The amount of the conductive ink may be adjusted such that convex portions having a predetermined shape are formed in the horizontal grooves and vertical grooves.
The conductive ink may be treated by any one of a first process of heating the conductive ink to room temperature or predetermined temperature for predetermined time to dry the conductive ink and a second process of additionally heating the conductive ink dried in the first process using laser heat or electric heating to sinter the conductive ink to improve the conductivity thereof.
The height of the convex portions may be lower than that of the spacer array by a predetermined difference, and thus the convex portions of the upper plate may be spaced apart from the convex portions of the lower plate such that they are brought into contact with each other even when the lower plate is attached to the lower plate.
The conductive ink may be charged using an inkjet printer.
The conductive ink may be at least one of metal nanoparticle ink and conductive polymer ink.
The metal nanoparticle ink may include at least one of silver, copper and gold, and the conductive polymer ink may include at least one of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and polyaniline (PANI).
The diameter of droplets of the conductive ink is greater than the width of the channel shape when the conductive ink is charged.
The method may further include the step of (B2) hydrophobic-coating the surface of the upper plate and the surface of the lower plate, before the step (B).
The method may further include the step of (B3) UV-irradiating the surface of the upper plate and the surface of the lower plate, before the step (B).
Each of the upper plate and the lower plate may be a flexible substrate, and may be made by the thermal imprinting of a thermoplastic material or the UV molding of a UV-curable material.
A spacer array may be formed on at least one of the upper plate and the lower plate in the step (A), and the spacer array may be made of the same material as the upper plate or the lower plate.
The spacer array may be formed simultaneously with the formation of the upper plate or the lower plate, and the spacer array, the horizontal groove array and the vertical groove array may be formed using a mold having a predetermined shape.
When the engraved horizontal groove array, the engraved vertical groove array and the embossed spacer array are formed using the mold, the mold may be coated with an anti-sticking layer, and then hot embossing is used.
The mold may be a nickel stamper, and the nickel stamper may be fabricated by a process of fabricating an inkjet groove pattern master using photo-etching, a process of fabricating a spacer pattern master using photo-etching or a process of fabricating a nickel stamper using electro-forming.
In order to accomplish the above objects, another aspect of the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a touch screen panel, including the steps of: (D) forming a spacer array and a mold having a shape corresponding to that of a horizontal groove array or a vertical groove array; (E) fabricating a transparent upper plate having a horizontal groove array including two or more horizontal grooves and a transparent lower plate having a vertical groove array including two or more vertical grooves using the mold; (F) charging a predetermined amount of conductive ink in the horizontal groove array and the vertical groove array; and (G) drying the conductive ink to form a conductive array and then attaching the upper plate to the lower plate.
The step of forming the mold may include the steps of: (D1) forming a groove pattern master using photolithography; (D2) forming a spacer pattern master using photolithography; and (D3) forming a metal stamper using electro-forming.
In order to accomplish the above objects, still another aspect of the present invention provides a touch screen panel, manufactured by the method.
In order to accomplish the above objects, still another aspect of the present invention provides a touch screen panel, including: a transparent upper plate having a horizontal groove array including two or more horizontal grooves having a channel shape of predetermined depth and width; a transparent lower plate having a vertical groove array including two or more vertical grooves having a channel shape of predetermined depth and width; an upper conductive array formed in the horizontal groove array of the upper plate and made of conductive ink; a lower conductive array formed in the vertical groove array of the lower plate and made of conductive ink; and a spacer array formed on at least one of the upper plate and the lower plate, wherein the upper plate and the lower plate are attached to each other.
The spacer array may be made of the same material as the upper plate or the lower plate, and the spacer array may be integrated with the upper plate or the lower plate without the interfacial boundary therebetween.
The spacer array may be formed by applying a predetermined spacer forming material onto the upper plate or the lower plate.
The width of the channel shape may be equal to or greater than the depth thereof.
The upper conductive array may have convex portions protruding from the surface of the upper plate by a predetermined height, and the lower conductive array may have convex portions protruding from the surface of the lower plate by a predetermined height.
The spacer array has a sufficient height, so the upper conductive array and the lower conductive array may be spaced apart from each other at a predetermined interval as long as external pressure is not applied to at least one of the upper plate and the lower plate.
The upper plate and the lower plate may be made of a flexible thermoplastic resin or a UV-curable material.
The conductive ink may be at least one of metal nanoparticle ink and conductive polymer ink.
The spacer array may be formed in two or more selected from among a plurality of lattice spaces forming the horizontal groove array and the vertical groove array, or the spacer array may be formed with respect to each of a plurality of lattice spaces forming the horizontal groove array and the vertical groove array.
When the present invention is used, there are advantages as follows.
First, thin, continuous and uniform wiring can be formed, compared to when conventional flat substrate printing is used, thus increasing the light transmittance of a product and the reliability of a manufacturing process.
Second, the adhesion between wiring and a substrate is increased, compared to when conventional flat substrate printing is used, so damage to wiring is decreased, thereby improving the durability of wiring.
Third, since the electrode wiring of the present invention has excellent flexibility compared to a conventional ceramic transparent conductive oxide (TCO) electrode wiring, it is more suitable for flexible substrates.
Fourth, the number of processes and process cost of the present invention using printing is remarkably decreased, compared to a conventional TCO electrode process using sputtering or deposition.
Fifth, since the present invention uses printing or imprinting, it easily copes with large-area TSP for windows and doors or large-size screens.
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference the accompanying drawings.
As shown in
The conductive ink charged in the grooves 400 is dried to form a conductive array 500. It is preferred that the conductive ink be metal nanoparticle ink or conductive polymer ink. The metal nanoparticle ink may include one or more of silver, copper and gold, and the conductive polymer ink may include one or more of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and polyaniline (PANI). The conductive ink must have other physical properties, such as viscosity, surface tension and the like, in addition to conductivity.
In the present invention, the conductive ink is charged in the grooves by an inkjet printer. As an example of inkjet printer, there is a multi-inkjet printer, manufactured by Dimatrix Corporation. This multi-inkjet printer has a nozzle diameter of 9 to 19 μm. The multi-inkjet printer is configured such that a stage for moving a substrate by synchronizing the substrate with drive signals has a drive precision of several micrometers (μm), and the temperature of a nozzle head and a substrate is controlled by integrating the stage and nozzle head with a temperature controller. Further, the multi-inkjet printer is configured such that, in order to observe the droplets of charged conductive ink, high-brightness LED light sources and CCD cameras synchronized with signals for driving inkjet are arranged, thus observing the spray characteristics, such as droplet size, charging speed, droplet route and the like, according to electrical drive signals, and such that nozzles are aligned to spray droplets to desired locations by compensating the position information of droplets injected through nozzles, the origin of injected patterns, the angle of a substrate located on the stage and the like using a fiducial camera spaced apart from the nozzle at a predetermined offset distance.
The inkjet printer of the present invention configured such that the behavior of droplets sprayed through nozzles can be controlled by changing the wave form attributable to the change of voltage according to applied time, and conductive ink can be sprayed through nozzles by a single cycle or a combination of cycles having a sine wave form as a function consisting of voltage, rise time, dwell time, fall time, echo time and final rise time. When the relation between voltage and applied time is maintained stable, droplets are stably sprayed through nozzles, and when the relation therebetween is unstable, droplets are not sprayed or are unstably sprayed.
The conductive ink is charged in the horizontally and vertically-formed groove arrays 400 by an inkjet printer, and then dried to remove a solvent from the conductive ink, thus forming a conductive pattern. Then, the conductive pattern is heated and sintered by heat, electricity, laser or the like, thereby improving the conductivity of the conductive pattern.
As shown in
The formation of the conductive array 500 can be checked by a substrate analysis apparatus. The groove width (line width) of the conductive array 500 may be analyzed by a DZ-2 microscope, and the groove depth (line depth) thereof may be analyzed by an alpha step IQ. The substrate analysis apparatus may be FESEM or S-4000, and may have the following specifications of 1) Magnification: 20× to 300,000, 2) Accelerating Voltage: 0.5 to 30 kV, and 3) Resolution: 1.5 nm guaranteed at 30 kV with a working distance of 5 nm.
Meanwhile, before the step of charging conductive ink in the horizontal groove array 410 and the vertical groove array 420, the surface of the upper plate 100 and lower plate 200 is hydrophobic-coated or UV-irradiated, thus adjusting the surface energy of a substrate provided with the horizontal groove array 410 and the vertical groove array 420.
Subsequently, a method of manufacturing a touch screen panel 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
A method of manufacturing a touch screen panel 10 according to another embodiment of the present invention will be described. The method according to the above-embodiment is characterized in that a spacer array 300 is formed by screen-printing a resin structure, but the method according to this embodiment is characterized in that a spacer array is formed by applying a microball-dispersed or microcapsule-dispersed solution. The method of manufacturing a touch screen panel 10 according to this embodiment includes the steps of: (S21) forming a mold having a shape corresponding to that of a horizontal groove array 410 or a vertical groove array 420; (S22) fabricating a transparent upper plate 100 having a horizontal groove array 410 including two or more horizontal grooves and a transparent lower plate 200 having a vertical groove array 420 including two or more vertical grooves using the mold; (S23) charging conductive ink in the horizontal groove array 410 and the vertical groove array 420 and then drying and sintering the conductive ink to form a conductive array 500; (S24-2) coating one or more of the upper plate 100 and the lower plate 200 with a microball-dispersed or microcapsule-dispersed solution to form a spacer array 300; and (S25) attaching the upper plate 100 to the lower plate 200.
Subsequently, a method of manufacturing a touch screen panel 10 according to still another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
The method of manufacturing a touch screen panel 10 includes the steps of: (S31) forming a mold 695 having a shape corresponding to that of a horizontal groove array 410 or a vertical groove array 420; (S32) fabricating a transparent upper plate 100 having a horizontal groove array 410 including two or more horizontal grooves and a transparent lower plate 200 having a vertical groove array 420 including two or more vertical grooves using the mold 695; (S33) charging conductive ink in the horizontal groove array 410 and the vertical groove array 420 and then drying and sintering the conductive ink to form a conductive array 500; and (S34) attaching the upper plate 100 to the lower plate 200.
This method is characterized in that it does not need the step of forming a spacer array 300 because the spacer array 300 is formed on the upper plate 100 and/or the lower plate 200. The spacer array 300 is formed using the mold 695, simultaneously with the formation of the upper plate 100 and/or the lower plate 200. In this case, the spacer array 300, the horizontal groove array 410 and the vertical groove array 420 are formed using the mold 695 having a predetermined shape. The mold 695 is provided with both the spacer array and the channel-shaped groove pattern 400. Hereinafter, a method of fabricating the mold 695 will be described in detail with reference to
Further, the anti-sticking layer 670 may be unnecessary depending on the aspect ratio of a pattern.
In order to accomplish the above objects, an aspect of the present invention provides a touch screen panel 10, manufactured by any one of the above-mentioned methods.
In order to accomplish the above objects, another aspect of the present invention provides a touch screen panel 10, including: a transparent upper plate 100 having a horizontal groove array 410 including two or more horizontal grooves having a channel shape of predetermined depth and width; a transparent lower plate 200 having a vertical groove array 420 including two or more vertical grooves having a channel shape of predetermined depth and width; an upper conductive array 530 formed in the horizontal groove array 410 of the upper plate 100 and made of conductive ink; a lower conductive array 500 formed in the vertical groove array 420 of the lower plate 200 and made of conductive ink; and a spacer array 300 formed on one or more of the upper plate 100 and the lower plate 200, wherein the upper plate 100 and the lower plate 200 are attached to each other.
The spacer array 300 is made of the same material as the upper plate 1000 or the lower plate 200, when the mold 695 is used. In this case, the spacer array 300 is integrated with the upper plate 100 or the lower plate 200 without the interfacial boundary therebetween. Since the spacer array 300 has a sufficient height, it preferred that the upper conductive array 530 and the lower conductive array 530-1 be spaced apart from each other at a predetermined interval as long as external pressure is not applied to one or more of the upper plate 100 and the lower plate 200.
The present invention can be used in the industrial fields related to touch screen panels.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2011-0141265 | Dec 2011 | KR | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/KR2012/009914 | 11/22/2012 | WO | 00 | 5/20/2014 |
