The present application claims the priority of the Chinese Patent Application No. 202010460605.4 filed on May 26, 2020, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present disclosure relates to the field of display technology, and in particular to a touch substrate and a manufacturing method thereof.
With the rapid development of display technology, touch screen panels have gradually come throughout the lives of people. Moreover, due to the requirement of large-screen display, there are a large number of tiled display applications in the market at present. The large-size tiled touch screen is manufactured by two main processes: the first process is a yellow light exposure process; the second process is a roll-to-roll process. Such the two processes may be used for manufacturing the large-size tiled touch screen with better performance.
The present disclosure provides a touch substrate, including a base substrate and a touch electrode structure in a display area of the base substrate, the touch substrate further includes a conductive structure and a wiring structure, wherein the conductive structure is in a peripheral area of the base substrate outside the display area, and includes at least one conductive layer, and the at least one conductive layer includes a one-piece layer which is configured to form a lead electrically connected to a driving circuit;
the wiring structure is in a wiring area between the display area and the peripheral area of the base substrate and is configured to electrically connect the conductive structure with the touch electrode structure.
In one embodiment, the touch electrode structure includes two touch electrode layers (that is, a first touch electrode layer and a second touch electrode layer) sequentially arranged along a direction away from the base substrate; the touch substrate further includes a first insulating protection layer and a second insulating protection layer, the first insulating protection layer is between the two touch electrode layers, the second insulating protection layer is on the second touch electrode layer, and the first insulating protection layer and the second insulating protection layer are in the display area and a part of the wiring area;
In one embodiment, both the two touch electrode layers are in a mesh shape.
In one embodiment, the first conductive layer and/or the second conductive layer includes an indium tin oxide layer or a nano silver layer.
In one embodiment, the at least one conductive layer includes a conductive layer which is the one-piece layer; the touch electrode structure includes a plurality of first electrodes and a plurality of second electrodes; each of the first electrodes includes a plurality of first electrode units; each of the second electrodes includes a plurality of second electrode units; every two adjacent first electrode units are connected to each other through a first bridging portion; every two adjacent second electrode units are connected to each other through a second bridging portion; each first bridging portion and the corresponding second bridging portion intersect with each other, and the touch electrode structure further includes an insulating layer at the intersection between the first bridging portion and the corresponding second bridging portion;
In one embodiment, the conductive layer includes an indium tin oxide layer or a nano silver layer.
In one embodiment, the touch substrate further includes a peelable protection layer covering the display area, the peripheral area, and the wiring area of the base substrate and on a side of the base substrate with the touch electrode structure.
In one embodiment, the peelable protection layer includes a first adhesive segment covering the display area of the base substrate and a second adhesive segment covering the wiring area and the peripheral area of the base substrate; the first adhesive segment and the second adhesive segment are separated from each other.
The present disclosure also provides a method for manufacturing a touch substrate, including steps of:
In one embodiment, the method specifically includes steps of:
In one embodiment, the first conductive layer and/or the second conductive layer includes an indium tin oxide layer or a nano silver layer.
In one embodiment, the method specifically includes steps of:
In one embodiment, the plurality of first electrodes and the plurality of second electrodes are in a same layer.
In one embodiment, the method further includes forming a peelable protection layer in the display area, the peripheral area, and the wiring area of the base substrate and on a side of the base substrate where the touch electrode structure is provided.
The present disclosure has the following beneficial effects:
In the technical solution for a touch substrate and the manufacturing method of a touch substrate of the present disclosure, the conductive layer is arranged in the peripheral area outside the display area of the base substrate, the wiring area of the base substrate between the display area and the peripheral area is provided with the wiring layer configured to electrically connect the conductive layer and the touch electrode layer. Since the conductive layer is a one-piece layer (e.g., a whole layer without any pattern design), when positions of the PIN outgoing line needs to be adjusted, the one-piece layer may be processed to obtain a wiring structure adapted to the needs (meeting the requirements), so that the positions of the wirings may be secondarily adjusted without newly setting up a mask. In this way, the development cost is reduced and the feasibility is improved. In addition, the conductive layer and the touch electrode layer are electrically connected to each other through the wiring layer, and alignment processing is not needed to be performed on conductive materials in the display area and the wiring area. In this way, the problems of poor alignment and lapping, increased contact impedance, insufficient adhesive force and the like may be solved.
To enable one of ordinary skill in the art to better understand technical solutions of the present disclosure, a touch substrate and a manufacturing method thereof provided by the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The inventor of the present disclosure has found in the process of research that in a yellow light exposure process, due to the limitation of a size of a mask, a plurality of touch screens cannot be simultaneously manufactured through a single exposure process, which requires that touch screens are manufactured separately and then spliced to form a complete screen. However, in different complete screen designs, requirements for positions of Pin outgoing line (external pin) of the touch screens may be different. When the Pin outgoing line positions need to be changed, a mask needs to be newly set up during a conventional exposure process, resulting in a higher development cost and a lower feasibility of a scheme.
For the roll-to-roll process, because a display area and a wiring area are made of different conductive materials, alignment processing is required, easily resulting in problems of poor alignment and lapping (overlapping), increased contact impedance, insufficient adhesive force and the like.
Referring to
The touch substrate further includes a conductive structure 3 and a wiring structure 4, wherein the conductive structure 3 is disposed in a peripheral area C outside the display area A of the base substrate 1. In this embodiment, the conductive structure 3 includes two layers, including a first conductive layer 3a and a second conductive layer 3b sequentially stacked along the direction away from the base substrate 1. Each of the first conductive layer 3a and the second conductive layer 3b is a one-piece layer, for example, a whole layer without any pattern design, for manufacturing wirings electrically connected to the driving circuit. For example, the wirings 3b′ shown in
In one embodiment, the first conductive layer 3a and/or the second conductive layer 3b includes an indium tin oxide layer (ITO layer) or a nano silver layer.
The touch substrate further includes an insulating protection layer 5, which is two layers, i.e., a first insulating protection layer 5a and a second insulating protection layer 5b. The first insulating protection layer 5a is arranged between the first touch electrode layer 2a and the second touch electrode layer 2b; the second insulating protection layer 5b is disposed on the second touch electrode layer 2b, and the first insulating protection layer 5a and the second insulating protection layer 5b both cover the display area A and a portion of a wiring area B, and are configured to protect and insulate the lower touch electrode layer and a portion of a wiring layer. For example, a portion of the wiring area B covered by the insulating protection layer 5 is an area where the wiring layer and the touch electrode layer are bonded to each other, and the area is an area of the wiring area B close to the display area A.
The wiring layer 4 is disposed in the wiring area B of the base substrate 1 between the display area A and the peripheral area C, and is configured to electrically connect the conductive layer 3 to the touch electrode layer 2. In this embodiment, the wiring layer includes two layers, namely a first wiring layer 4a and the second wiring layer 4b sequentially arranged in the direction away from the base substrate 1. The first wiring layer 4a is disposed on the base substrate 1, and is configured to electrically connect the first conductive layer 3a to the first touch electrode layer 2a; the second wiring layer 4b is disposed on the first insulating protection layer 5a, and is configured to electrically connect the second conductive layer 3b to the second touch electrode layer 2b.
Since the conductive layer 3 is a one-piece layer (e.g., a whole layer without any pattern design), when positions of the PIN outgoing line (e.g., the wirings 3b′ shown in
Compared with the embodiments shown in
Specifically, referring to
The wiring layer 9 includes a plurality of first wirings 9a and a plurality of second wirings 9b; the plurality of first wirings 9a are configured to electrically connect first electrodes 61 to the conductive layer 10; the plurality of second wirings 9b are configured to electrically connect second electrodes 62 to the conductive layer 10.
In this embodiment, as shown in
In one embodiment, the plurality of first electrodes 61 and the plurality of second electrodes 62 are, for example, Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) electrodes.
In one embodiment, the conductive layer 10 may include an ITO layer or a nano silver layer.
In the touch substrate in the embodiment, the one-piece layer may be processed to obtain a wiring structure adapted to the needs (meeting the requirements), so that the positions of the wirings may be secondarily adjusted without newly setting up a mask. In this way, the development cost is reduced and the feasibility is improved. In addition, the conductive layer and the touch electrode layer are electrically connected to each other through the wiring layer, and alignment processing is not needed to be performed on conductive materials in the display area and the wiring area. In this way, the problems of poor alignment and lapping, increased contact impedance, insufficient adhesive force and the like may be solved.
In one embodiment, on the basis of the above embodiments, the touch substrate further includes a peelable protection layer 100, as shown in
As another technical solution, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a method for manufacturing a touch substrate. By taking the manufacturing of the touch substrate shown in
Specifically, referring to
Step 101, as shown in
In practical applications, the first touch electrode layer 2a, the first conductive layer 3a and the first wiring layer 4a may be simultaneously formed through sputtering, photoresist coating, exposure, etching, and the like.
In one embodiment, the first touch electrode layer 2a is in a mesh shape, and a line width of each electrode line is less than or equal to 15 μm.
Step 102, as shown in
Since the first conductive layer 3a is a one-piece layer (e.g., a whole layer without any pattern design), when positions of the PIN outgoing line (e.g., the wirings 3b′ shown in
Step 103, as shown in
The second wiring layer 4b is configured to electrically connect the second conductive layer 3b to the second touch electrode layer 2b.
The second touch electrode layer 2b, the second conductive layer 3b and the second wiring layer 4b are formed in a manner similar to that in the above step 101, that is, may be formed simultaneously through sputtering, photoresist coating, exposure, etching, and the like.
In one embodiment, the second touch electrode layer 2b is in a mesh shape, and a line width of each electrode line is less than or equal to 15 μm.
Since the second conductive layer 3b is a one-piece layer (e.g., a whole layer without any pattern design), when positions of the PIN outgoing line (e.g., the wirings 3b′ shown in
Step 104, as shown in
The second insulating protection layer 5b further covers the display area A and a portion of the wiring area B, that is, the second insulating protection layer 5b further covers a portion of the second wiring layer 4b proximal to the touch electrode structure 2.
Referring to
In particular, by taking the manufacturing of the touch substrate shown in
Step 201, as shown in
wherein the touch electrode structure includes a plurality of first electrodes 61, a plurality of second electrodes 62 and a plurality of first bridging portion 71; the plurality of first electrodes 61 and the plurality of second electrodes 62 are disposed in a same layer; each first electrode 61 includes a plurality of first electrode units, and every two adjacent first electrode units are 61a and 61b, respectively; each second electrode 62 includes a plurality of second electrode units, and every two adjacent second electrode units are 62a and 62b, respectively; every two adjacent first electrode units 61a and 61b are connected to each other through a corresponding first bridging portion 71, so that the first electrode units in a same column are connected in series to form one first electrode 61;
Step 202, as shown in
Step 203, forming a second bridging portion 72 on each insulating layer 8 and at a position where the second bridging portion 71 and the corresponding first bridging portion 72 intersect with each other, and forming a wiring layer 9 serving as the wiring structure and a conductive layer 10 serving as the conductive structure in the wiring area and the peripheral area of the base substrate, through a single patterning process;
The wiring layer 9 includes a plurality of first wirings 9a and a plurality of second wirings 9b; the plurality of first wirings 9a are configured to electrically connect first electrodes 61 to the conductive layer 10; the plurality of second wirings 9b are configured to electrically connect second electrodes 62 to the conductive layer 10.
Step 204, as shown in
Since the conductive layer 10 is a one-piece layer (e.g., a whole layer without any pattern design), when positions of the PIN outgoing line needs to be adjusted, the one-piece layer may be processed to obtain an external lead adapted to the wiring structure according to actual needs, so that the position of the external lead may be secondarily designed without newly setting up a mask. In this way, the development cost is reduced and the feasibility is improved. In addition, the conductive layer and the touch electrode layer are electrically connected to each other through the second wiring layer, and alignment processing is not needed to be performed on conductive materials in the display area and the wiring area. In this way, the problems of poor alignment and lapping, increased contact impedance, insufficient adhesive force and the like may be solved.
It should be understood that the above embodiments are merely exemplary embodiments adopted to explain the principles of the present disclosure, and the present disclosure is not limited thereto. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, and such changes and modifications also fall within the scope of the present disclosure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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202010460605.4 | May 2020 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/CN2021/089263 | 4/23/2021 | WO |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2021/238530 | 12/2/2021 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
20160170524 | Kim | Jun 2016 | A1 |
20190235702 | Wang | Aug 2019 | A1 |
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103870044 | Jun 2014 | CN |
106468972 | Mar 2017 | CN |
107678596 | Feb 2018 | CN |
108415601 | Aug 2018 | CN |
109407869 | Mar 2019 | CN |
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3316103 | May 2018 | EP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20220283688 A1 | Sep 2022 | US |