Patent Application
20200274534
This application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2019-0021902, filed on Feb. 25, 2019 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, which is incorporated herein by reference in its(their) entirety.
The present disclosure relates to a touch-type button for operating an electronic device, an air conditioning device or the like of a vehicle.
A vehicle is provided with buttons for operating an electronic device, such as an audio, video, navigation (AVN) device and the like, or an air conditioning device, an illuminating device including a light emitting diode (LED), and the like, the buttons having different characters thereon through which a user can know functions of the buttons.
A conventional mechanical button is configured such that light emitted from the LED is transmitted through an empty space of a button holding frame to allow the light to penetrate a surface of the button. When a user pushes such a button employing a push-pull type mechanical contact, electricity flows to allow a switch to be operated.
The button is configured such that the light emitting from the LED can penetrate the button which is generally formed from light-transmitting plastic material (mainly, polycarbonate (PC)) and has transmissivity (5 to 18%) for visible light.
In addition, instead of the above-described mechanical type button, an electrode for a touch-type button is used, which is made of a conductive material. When a human's hand approaches thereto, the touch-type button detects a change in signal relative to initial capacitance to recognize whether the button is turned on or off. The touch-type button has an advantage in that material having a high electric conductivity can produce larger capacitance.
In recent years, a transparent electrode has been precisely manufactured through a deposition process or the like in order to provide a high-definition display device with a touch function.
Silver (Ag) nanowire, silver metal mesh, copper, conductive polymer, indium tin oxide and the like are mainly used for the electrode of the touch-type button, and characteristics of button illumination of a vehicle are influenced by transmissivity of light-transmitting plastic material. Here, the higher brightness is and the more uniform a brightness distribution is, the better the quality of illumination is.
Referring to
In other words, black paint is applied on a surface of white resin formed by injection-molding polycarbonate to which white coloring agent is added, a surface portion of the white resin corresponding to a letter font is then laser-cut to manufacture a button cover, and a touch panel is formed on a rear surface of the button cover.
Therefore, according to this conventional method, when illumination is turned off in the daytime, a white colored switch font letter is visible as shown in
However, in the above-described conventional method, although the font is clearly visible in white by the white coloring agent in the daytime, the LED light is blocked by the coloring agent, whereby transmissivity is reduced.
In addition, as shown in
In addition, because the LED light comes out through a portion on which the hole is formed, an illumination region is limited.
In the letters used in the vehicle, that is, the letters such as “A/C” has a short font, but when the letters such as “TRACK” has a long font, it is difficult to form a large hole, so that there is a problem that the illumination region becomes smaller. If the illumination region becomes small as described above, uniformity of illumination on the font is deteriorated, and thus a restriction in terms of design such a size of the font and the like is also accompanied.
Furthermore, as can be seen from
In addition, as can be seen from
The contents described in Description of Related Art are to help the understanding of the background of the present disclosure and may include what is not previously known to those skilled in the art to which the present disclosure pertains.
The present disclosure has been made to solve the above-described problems, and the object of the present disclosure is to provide a touch-type button for a vehicle which can recognize a letter, day and night, using illumination, enlarge and uniformize an illumination region.
A touch-type button for a vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may include: a hidden cover defining an external appearance of the touch-type button and having a pattern which corresponds to a letter font; and a transparent electrode attached to a rear surface of the hidden cover and configured to generate a signal in response to a change in capacitance. Here, the transparent electrode transmits light emitted from a light source disposed behind thereof to allow the letter font to be revealed and recognized.
Here, the hidden cover may include a black film in which a portion corresponding to the letter font is cut, and a smoky resin injection molded product attached to the black film and containing polycarbonate base to which black coloring agent and light diffusing additive are added.
The hidden cover may have a thickness of 1 to 3 mm.
The hidden cover may have transmissivity of 30 to 45%.
The hidden cover may have turbidity of 90% or more.
The hidden cover may have brightness (L*) of less than 70.
The transparent electrode may have a thickness of less than 150 μm.
The transparent electrode may have transmissivity of 85% or more.
The transparent electrode may have turbidity of less than 2%.
The transparent electrode may have yellowness (b*) of less than 2.
The transparent electrode may have a surface resistance of less than 200Ω.
The touch-type may further include a light diffusing film attached to the transparent electrode, and the light diffusing film may have transmissivity of 85% or more and turbidity of 90% or more.
A touch-type button for a vehicle according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may include: a hidden cover defining an external appearance of the touch-type button and comprising a black film in which a portion corresponding to a letter font is cut, and a smoky resin injection molded product attached to the black film and containing a polycarbonate base to which a black coloring agent and a light diffusing additive are added, and a transparent electrode attached to a rear surface of the hidden cover and configured to generate a signal in response to a change in capacitance. Here, the hidden cover may have transmissivity of 30 to 45%, and the transparent electrode may have transmissivity of 85% or more.
In order to fully understand the present disclosure, operational advantages of the present disclosure and objects achieved by implementing embodiments of the present disclosure, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings illustrating exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure and the description on the accompanying drawings.
In describing exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, a description on well-known technologies or a repetitive description which may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present disclosure will be abbreviated or omitted.
In addition,
Below, the touch-type button for the vehicle according to one exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is described with reference to
A conventional touch-type button for a vehicle adopts a simple method in which a font of button is appeared in white in the daytime and illumination is turned on only at night. According to the above, brightness of the night illumination should be thus low, because glare and light blur occur when illumination is bright. Therefore, the conventional touch-type button does not require high brightness.
On the contrary, in the present disclosure, a hidden function by which a font of letter is not visible as shown in
As illustrated in
The hidden cover 10 corresponds to an external appearance of the button which is exposed to the outside and allows a user to touch the hidden cover, and the transparent electrode is attached to a rear surface of the hidden cover 10, so that the amount of change in capacitance is transmitted through a printed circuit board (PCB) (not shown) connected to the transparent electrode, and a touch input is thus recognized.
The hidden cover 10 and the transparent electrode transmit light emitted from a light emitting diode (LED) 30, so that letter fonts patterned on the hidden cover 10 are brighter than surroundings thereof to enable the user to recognize the letter fonts.
Referring to
The hidden cover 10 is manufactured by laser-cutting a black film in accordance with the letter fonts and then attaching the black film to the smoky resin injection molded product, which is a composition of polycarbonate (PC), black coloring agent and light diffusing additive, in an in-mold label (IML) process.
By configuring the hidden cover as above, the letter font is not exposed in the absence of illumination, and the illuminated region can be widened due to the high light transmittance of the transparent electrode. In addition, a conductor area is increased as shown in
The conditions of the hidden cover 10 and the transparent electrode of the present disclosure described above are summarized in Table 1, and the ITO touch film 20 was employed as an example of the transparent electrode.
First of all, a thickness of the hidden cover 10 may be 1 to 3 mm.
When the thickness of the hidden cover 10 is out of the above range and is less than 1 mm, flexure of the hidden may be occurred after performing an environmental durability test, and when the thickness of the hidden cover exceeds 3 mm, a distance between the electrode and the user's finger is increased, and so the touch performance may be degraded.
In addition, within this thickness range, the hidden cover should have transmissivity of 30 to 45%.
When transmissivity of the hidden cover 10 is less than 30%, the light transmittance of the LED is deteriorated, and brightness performance of the illumination is thus degraded. In addition, if the transmissivity exceeds 45%, even when the lighting is turned off, the font is recognized with the naked eye and a hidden characteristic is thus degraded, and a hot spot phenomenon, in which the illumination is brightly looked as a point light source due to a straight advancing property of the LED illumination, occurs to lower uniformity of the illumination.
Brightness can be determined according to the transmittance, and when the brightness L* exceeds 70, the font is also recognized with the naked eye and the hidden characteristic is thus degraded.
In addition, the LED light is not diffused well in a condition of turbidity of less than 90%, and therefore, there is a problem that uniformity of the illumination is deteriorated.
Next, the total thickness of the ITO touch film 20 should not exceed 150 μm.
If the total thickness exceeds 150 μm, durability of the ITO touch film may be degraded due to bending. In addition, transmissivity of the ITO touch film should be 85% or more in accordance with Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS)-K-7361 which is the internal standard, and turbidity should be less than 2% in accordance with JIS-K-7136.
When the transmissivity is less than 85%, light loss of the LED light is increased, and so brightness of the illumination may be deteriorated. If the turbidity is 2% or more, the brightness of the illumination may be deteriorated due to light scattering of the LED light.
Yellowness b* should be less than 2 in accordance with JIS-Z-8722 (Methods of colour measurement—Reflecting and transmitting objects).
If the yellowness is 2 or more, a color coordinate of the LED illumination color may be shifted due to yellowing of the film and the illumination color may be thus changed.
In addition, when surface resistance is 200Ω or more, touch performance may be degraded and it is thus desirable that surface resistance is less than 200Ω.
In the case where the thickness, the brightness, the turbidity, the transmissivity of the hidden cover, and the thickness, the transmissivity, the turbidity, the yellowness and the surface resistance of the ITO touch film satisfy the above-mentioned conditions, a hidden function is realized when the illumination is turned off, and the light may be bright and uniform when the illumination is turned on and performance desired by the present disclosure can be achieved.
In addition, the brightness at the button 1 which is 30 cm away from a lens of the measuring instrument should be more than 400 cd/m2 so that the touch-type button can be used in the daytime.
The present disclosure includes the hidden cover 10 and the ITO touch film 20 having the above-described conditions, thereby functioning as a button configured to transmit a touch input signal to a controller (not shown) through a user's operation.
In other words, the hidden cover 10 is a plastic insulator, and the touch film 20 made of ITO acts as an electrode. Basically, when a human's hand touches the electrode in a state where the electrode has constant capacitance, a touch signal is sensed by a change in capacitance.
Since as compared to a conventional flexible printed circuit board (FPCB), ITO has a large electrode area, ITO has a large capacitance and excellent touch sensitivity.
In addition, the hidden cover 10 is provided for preventing the font from being revealed in the absence of illumination, and as shown in
Thus, as shown in
In other words,
In addition,
In addition, since the light of the LED has the straight advancing property, the light diffusing agent is added. By adjusting an addition of the light diffusing agent, the optimum transmissivity range, turbidity range and brightness value of the hidden cover were derived.
Even when the same hidden cover is applied, a characteristic of illumination is varied depending on the type of the touch film.
On the contrary, in the case where the ITO touch film of the present disclosure is employed as shown in
The characteristics derived from the experimental results according to characteristic ranges of the hidden cover and the electrode of the present disclosure are summarized in the following tables together with comparative examples. Table 2 shows Example and Comparative examples, and Table 3 shows experimental results.
Here, in Table 2, A indicates Thickness (mm), B indicates Transmissivity (%), C indicates Turbidity (%), D indicates Brightness (L*), E indicates Yellowness (b*), F indicates Sheet resistance (Ω), and G indicates whether flexibility is satisfied.
As summarized in the above tables, in the case of Comparative examples 1 and 2, it can be seen that the font is recognized with the naked eye by white coloring agent in the daytime, so that it is impossible to realize the hidden function.
Even when the cover is made of smoky resin, if the cover is thin as in Comparative example 3, the transmissivity is also increased and the light of the LED having the strong straight advancing property is not diffused well in the resin, resulting in the illumination in the form of spot. As a result, the uniformity of illumination is deteriorated.
On the contrary, as in the case of Comparative example 4, when the thickness of the cover is increased by a predetermined value or more, the transmissivity is decreased, and so luminance of the illumination is lowered.
In addition, as can be seen from Comparative examples 5 and 6, when the transmissivity of the cover is smaller than a reference value, luminance of the illumination is lowered. On the contrary, when the transmissivity of the cover is higher than the reference value, the luminance of the illumination is improved, but the uniformity of illumination is deteriorated.
Further, as in Comparative example 7, when turbidity of the cover is smaller than a certain value, the uniformity of illumination is deteriorated, and when brightness of the cover is higher than a certain value as in Comparative example 8, it is difficult to realize a hidden function to a level at which the font is recognized with the naked eye, and the transmissivity is somewhat decreased due to an addition of white coloring agent, so that the luminance of illumination is deteriorated.
Next, when a material of the electrode is FPCB, as in Comparative example 9, there is a problem that the luminance is insufficient and the uniformity is deteriorated even if the electrode is formed of smoky resin and has the optimum structure.
In addition, when a thickness of the electrode is greater than a predetermined value, as in Comparative example 10, when an evaluation of bending ability of the film on which ITO is deposited is conducted, surface resistance is generated due to fine cracks of ITO. Therefore, the touch performance is degraded.
In the case of Comparative example 11, the transmissivity of the electrode is lowered to a certain value, so that the transmittance of the light of the LED is deteriorated and the luminance of the illumination is reduced. In the case of Comparative example 12, the turbidity of the electrode is increased to a certain value or more, a decrease in the luminance of illumination is generated.
In addition, when yellowness of the electrode is high as in Comparative example 13, light characteristic such as absorption of light is changed when the LED illumination is transmitted, so that the illumination color is changed. When surface resistance of the electrode is higher than a certain value or more, touch performance is degraded due to a decrease in capacitance.
As shown in
That is, when the transmissivity is smaller than the above range, the brightness of the LED illumination is deteriorated, and when the haze is smaller than the above range, the light uniformity is deteriorated due to lowered light diffusivity.
A conventional touch-type button has been configured to be operated in a manner in which the font of the button is appeared in white in the daytime and the lighting is turned on only at night. Consequently, when night illumination is too bright, glare and light blur occur, so that brightness of the night illumination has to be low.
However, according to the touch-type button for a vehicle of the present disclosure, a hidden function by which the font is not visible before a vehicle is started-up is realized, and the font is illuminated by the illumination at the moment of starting-up the vehicle. Therefore, it is possible to recognize the font, day and night, using the illumination, and to obtain high brightness performance.
In addition, since the ITO touch film employed as the transparent electrode is directly attached to the rear surface of the hidden cover, the illumination area can be widened through the high light transmittance, and by realizing the uniform illumination, size of the font can be variously made.
In addition, there is an advantage that since the conductor area is increased, the touch sensitivity is improved more than twice.
Although the present disclosure has been described with reference to the exemplary drawings, the present disclosure is not limited to the described embodiments, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present disclosure may be variously modified and changed without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, such modifications or changes are intended to fall within the scope the appended claims of the present disclosure, and the scope of the present disclosure should be construed on the basis of the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2019-0021902 | Feb 2019 | KR | national |
