KR20110017569A

KR20110017569A - Touch panel with transparent liquid nonconductive material

Info

Publication number: KR20110017569A
Application number: KR1020090075090A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 강승곤; 황현하
Original assignee: 이미지랩(주)
Priority date: 2009-08-14
Filing date: 2009-08-14
Publication date: 2011-02-22

Abstract

The present invention relates to a touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator, and in the present invention, a transparent upper substrate, a transparent lower substrate, an upper transparent electrode and a lower transparent electrode provided on opposite surfaces of the upper substrate and the lower substrate, A conductive material formed on the lower transparent electrode and electrically connected to the lower transparent electrode, and having a regular array and a dot spacer formed of a conductive polymer material, and joining edge portions of the upper substrate and the lower substrate; And it is provided with a touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator, characterized in that it has an insulating transparent liquid filled between the upper substrate and the lower substrate bonded by a real material.

Description

TOUCH PANEL WITH TRANSPARENT LIQUID NONCONDUCTIVE MATERIAL}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid transparent insulator touch panel, comprising a liquid transparent insulator between an upper substrate and a lower substrate, a conductive dot spacer formed on the lower substrate, and a conductive film and a conductive dot stager formed on the upper substrate. It relates to a liquid transparent insulator touch panel capable of detecting a touch position through touch.

With the development of mobile communication technology, electronic information terminals such as mobile phones, PDAs, and navigation have expanded their functions to more diverse and complex media providing means such as audio, video, wireless internet web browsers, etc. I'm doing it. Therefore, a larger display screen is required within the limited size of the electronic information terminal, and accordingly, a display method using a touch screen is receiving more attention.

A touch screen display device in which a touch screen is stacked on a display element is integrated, and there is an advantage in that space can be saved as compared with a conventional key input method by integrating a screen and coordinate input means. Accordingly, the electronic information terminal to which the touch screen display device is applied can further increase screen size and user convenience, and thus the use of such a method is increasing.

The touch panel includes a resistive film type or an electrostatic type, and the resistive film type will be described. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional resistive touch panel.

In the conventional resistive touch panel 10, the upper substrate 11, the upper contact electrode 13, the lower substrate 19, and the lower contact electrode 17 are bonded to each other by an adhesive 15 such as a double-sided tape. . Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 1, the air gap 300 is formed in the region except the edge junction, and a plurality of insulating dot spacers 21 are formed on the lower contact electrode 17 to prevent a contact error. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional resistive touch panel 10 is diffusely reflected when external incident light 100 is incident by an air gap 300 formed between the upper substrate 11 and the lower substrate 19. 110 is generated, and the diffuse reflection 210 is generated even when the internal light 200 emitted from the display device is emitted to the outside.

The present invention is to solve the above problems, by injecting a transparent insulating liquid between the upper substrate and the lower substrate, the recovery is excellent while increasing the transmittance, it is possible to smoothly contact the upper substrate and the lower substrate at the point where the pressure is applied. An object of the present invention is to provide a touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator.

The object of the present invention is formed while being electrically connected to the upper transparent electrode, the lower transparent electrode, the upper transparent electrode and the lower transparent electrode provided on each of the opposing surface of the upper substrate, the transparent lower substrate, and the lower transparent electrode, And a dot spacer formed of a conductive polymer material with a regular arrangement, and a material for bonding the edge portions of the upper substrate and the lower substrate and an insulating transparent liquid filled between the upper substrate and the lower substrate bonded by the substance. Achieveable by the touch panel which has a liquid transparent insulator characterized by the above-mentioned.

The touch panel having the liquid transparent insulator according to the present invention is filled with an insulating liquid transparent insulator having a transmittance similar to that of the upper substrate and the lower substrate as compared to the prior art in which air is filled between the upper substrate and the lower substrate, thereby improving the permeability. It was.

In addition, the touch panel having the liquid transparent insulator according to the present invention has a filled liquid transparent insulator, so that the touch position can be smoothly accurately detected through the upper transparent electrode provided on the upper substrate and the conductive dot spacer provided on the lower substrate. It became. In particular, when the conductive ball is used, the conductive ball is concentrated on one side in the liquid transparent insulator, thereby eliminating the problem of generating an unwanted touch, thereby improving touch reliability.

In the present invention, a transparent insulating liquid is injected between the upper substrate and the lower substrate for the touch panel to improve the transmittance. When the transparent insulating liquid is injected between the upper substrate and the lower substrate, the transmittance is improved, but it takes a long time for the touched upper substrate to be restored to its original state after being touched. It has been found that an electrode structure different from that of a conventional touch panel including air between lower substrates is required. In particular, when using a conductive ball as in a conventional touch panel that includes air between the upper substrate and the lower substrate, when the conductive ball is to be improved, the conductive ball is moved between the transparent liquids and is moved to one side to realize that unwanted touch is generated. New touch structures are needed.

In the present invention, a transparent insulating liquid is injected between the upper substrate and the lower substrate, and conductive dot spacers are formed on the lower substrate to allow electrical contact between the conductive dot spacers and the conductors formed on the upper substrate, thereby allowing accurate touch while improving transmittance. A touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator is provided.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, it will be described in detail the technical configuration of the present invention. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a plan view as viewed from the upper substrate direction. The touch panel having the liquid transparent insulator according to the present invention includes a lower substrate 19 and an upper substrate 11, and the upper transparent electrode 13 is disposed on the surfaces of the upper substrate 11 and the lower substrate 19 that face each other. ) And a lower transparent electrode 17, and further, a dot spacer 50 formed of a conductive polymer electrically connected to the lower transparent electrode 17 and regularly arranged on the lower transparent electrode 17. The upper substrate 11 and the lower substrate 19 are joined by a seal 30 along the rim, and the bonded space is filled with an insulating transparent liquid. When a user touches a certain portion of the upper substrate, the ball spacer 51 is mixed in the dot spacer 50 in order to give a supporting effect and increase the elastic force so as to be restored to its original state as soon as possible after the touch. The ball spacer 31 is inserted into the actual material 30 to maintain a proper gap. The antireflection film 33 was coated on the upper substrate 11 to improve visibility.

The material of the upper substrate 11 is not particularly limited as long as the light transmittance is good at least. Examples of specific materials for the upper substrate 11 include engineering plastics such as polycarbonate, polyamide, and polyether, acryl, polyethylene telephthalate, polybutylene telephthalate, polystyrene, cellulose, and the like. At least, it is preferable to use a resin having excellent transparency in the operating region. It is also possible to use tempered glass substrates or ordinary glass substrates which are advantageous in terms of strength.

Materials of the lower substrate 19 include polycarbonate-based, polyamide-based, polyether-based engineering plastics, acryl-based, polyethylene telephthalate-based, polybutylene telephthalate-based, polystyrene-based, cellulose-based, and the like. It is preferable to use a resin having excellent transparency in the operating area. It is also possible to use tempered glass substrates or ordinary glass substrates which are advantageous in terms of strength. In particular, since the lower substrate 19 also serves as a support for the touch panel, a thickness of less than 0.25 mm may cause a problem in durability, so it is preferable to use 0.25 mm or more. Further, in the case of a so-called film-type touch panel, it is preferable to increase the thickness of the lower substrate 19. This is to prevent the touch panel from being curved by the load at the time of input. Of course, there may be a case in which the upper substrate 110 and the lower substrate 19 have the same thickness, and a PC (Polycarbonate) substrate having a thickness of 1.0 to 1.5 mm serving as a support function is provided under the lower substrate 19.

In addition, it is preferable that the upper surface of the upper substrate 11 is subjected to low or no reflection treatment. As a method of such a low reflection or no reflection treatment, a low reflection material using a low refractive index resin such as a fluorine resin or a silicone resin is applied, a metal film is deposited to form a multilayer film, a low reflection film is attached, sandblasting or embossing. The surface treatment is mentioned by a process, a mat coating process, an etching process, etc.

The ball spacers 51 and 31 are used to properly maintain the spacing by being mixed with the material 30 or the upper spacers 11 when the upper substrate 11 is pressed by being mixed with the dot spacers 50 and the upper part. It is used to provide a restoring force so that smooth restoration occurs when the substrate 11 is restored after being pressed. The ball spacers 51 and 31 are formed of a polymer spacer core and may use a polymer spacer core material that forms a conductive ball that is commonly used in liquid crystal displays. Since the ball spacers 31 and 51 used in the present invention do not need to have conductivity, it is necessary to coat Ni (0.1 um) and Au (0.05 um) on the outer surface of the polymer spacer core material like conductive balls used in conventional liquid crystal displays. There is no.

In order to suppress the diffuse reflection of the light incident from the touch panel observer side and to improve the visibility of the touch panel, the insulating transparent liquid 60 is inserted into the space formed by sealing the material 30 around the upper substrate and the lower substrate. .

The insulating transparent liquid 60 must be electrically insulating, must not penetrate other components of the touch panel, and a liquid substance having excellent transmittance of 90% or more in visible light region is required. Do. For example, at least one material selected from silicone oil, fluorine-based active liquid, methylene emulsion, and liquid crystal may be used. In addition, liquid crystals, which are used as materials for controlling polarization of light in liquid crystal displays, may be used because of excellent insulation and transmission characteristics.

In addition, it is preferable to use the defoaming process for the insulating transparent liquid 60. Insulating transparent liquid 60 that has not been degassed may cause gas dissolved in the insulating transparent liquid to bubble in response to repeated input operations and environmental changes. In this case, visibility and switching response of the touch panel may be caused. It causes a problem of deterioration of the sex. If degassing treatment is performed on the insulating transparent liquid 60, bubbles are not generated even by repeated input operation or the like. Degassing treatments include, for example, a method of separating and removing dissolved gases in a vacuum or a method of degassing through centrifugal force separation.

A dot spacer 50 is formed on the lower transparent electrode 17 of the lower substrate 19 at regular intervals and has a property of being electrically conductive with the lower transparent electrode 17. In the present invention, the dot spacer 50 is formed of a conductive polymer including a ball spacer 51 therein. Conductive polymers are materials that share the mechanical and optical properties of metals and semiconductors, and the mechanical properties and processability of polymers.

A conductive polymer is a polymer which can literally flow electricity. The structure of most conductive polymers is characterized by selective single bond and double bond. The dot spacer 50 is formed using at least one conductive polymer selected from polyaniline, polypyrrole, and polythiopene.

Polyaniline can be categorized as fully reduced, partially oxidized, or fully oxidized according to the oxidation state. Any of them can be used in the manufacture of dot spacers according to the present invention. Polyaniline is well soluble in m-cresol or chloroform. That is, it can be dissolved in M-cresol or chromoform and used as a coating, casting or coating. Of course, it remains a problem that the above solvent is a very harmful substance, but in the future, it may be possible to develop an emulsion type using a harmless solvent or water. Indeed, there is also an in situ polymerization coating method for improving processability of polyaniline. Introduction of polyether groups and alkylsulfonate groups to the nitrogen atom of aniline can be dissolved in THF solvent by polyalkylether groups, and when substituted with alkylsulfonate groups, it can be developed as a conductive coating that can be dissolved in water. Do.

Polypyrrole is more thermally stable than polyaniline. The polypyrrole film having a thickness of 100 μm shows stable conductivity even when heated at 200 ° C., whereas the polyaniline has a conductivity decrease of more than 100 times in 15 minutes. Polymerization methods of polypyrrole are classified into two types. One of them is an electrochemical method made from an electrolyte base and made of an electrically conductive film with excellent uniformity and mechanical strength. The second is chemical oxidation, which produces a fine powder. For example, 100 ml of distilled water + 2 g FeCl 3 oxidant + 0.25 g of AQ 2 SA (dopant) + 0.5 g of PPy are agitated at 25 ° C. for 4 hours. After filtration, it is washed with MeOH, acetone, and distilled water and dried.Polypyrrole polymerized with oxidant only has a sharp decrease in conductivity at high temperature, but it has excellent thermal stability when using anthraquinone sulfonic acid or sulfonate with excellent thermal stability as a dopant. Pinols can be prepared. The electrical conductivity can be increased by increasing the amount of oxidant at low temperatures.

In the case of polypyrrole, it is preferable to use 40% mixed with general general purpose resin rather than using it alone. After 40%, the difference between pure polypyrrole and the conductivity is very small. Heat resistance can be allowed up to 200 ° C. In a simple process, blending with general-purpose polymers, for example, the highly transparent polypyrrole / nylon6 composite polymerizes polypyrrole after immersing a nylon6 film in iron trichloride oxidant. As a result of manufacturing the conductive polymer film in the film form, the electrical conductivity was 2.3X10 -3S / cm and the mechanical strength was found to increase. A water-soluble polymer, polyvinyl acetate (PVA, polyvinyl acetate), polyvinylethylether, methyl cellulose, and the like may be mixed with polypyrrole to prepare a conductive colloid. It is easy to produce pyrrole in the in-situ method to the fiber by dipping fibers such as PET (poly (ethylene terephthalte), nylon (nylon) in a pyrrole monomer aqueous solution / solvent and then proceed with polymerization.

The conventional touch panel shown in FIG. 1 uses a general adhesive or double-sided tape when contacting the upper and lower substrates because the upper substrate and the lower substrate are filled with air. On the other hand, since the touch panel according to the present invention uses a flowable insulating liquid, it is necessary to use a material having excellent sealing property when joining the upper substrate and the lower substrate. As a material excellent in sealing property, at least any one of thermosetting resins, such as an acryl-type, an epoxy type, a urethane type, and a silicone type, UV curable resin, or curable resin for UV heat bottles can be selectively used.

The liquid and transparent insulator sealed by the material and the upper substrate and the lower substrate should be filled to maintain a certain pressure or more. This is to solve the problem that when the user puts his hand on the touch panel and writes using a touch pen or the like, the user touches the touched area by the pressure of the hand. In fact, the pressure at which the liquid transparent insulator is filled is related to the distance between the upper and lower substrates (cell gap) and the height of the dot spacer. That is, when the cell gap is constant, the higher the height of the dot spacer formed on the lower transparent electrode, the higher the pressure of the liquid transparent insulator to be filled. The lower the height of the dot spacer, the lower the pressure of the liquid transparent insulator to be filled. It may be maintained. The height of the conductive dot spacer is preferably in the range of 5 μm to 20 μm, and since the distance (cell gap) between the upper and lower substrates is more than twice the height of the dot spacer, 10 μm to 100 μm is preferable. For example, when the height of the conductive dot spacer is 5um, the distance between the upper and lower substrates is preferably 10um or more, which is twice the 5um, and preferably between 10um and 20um.

Table 1 sets the height of the conductive dot spacer to 5 um, fabricates a touch panel having a cell gap of 6 um, 8 um, 10 um, and 12 um, and then touches nine positions at the same position on the top of the touch panel five times (total 45 touches). This is a result of examining the number of touch failures in which a portion which is not touched is touched.

Dot spacer height Cell gap 6um 8um 10um 12um 14um 5um 6th 3rd time 0 times 0 times 0 times

As shown in Table 1, it can be seen that touch defects do not occur when the height of the dot spacer is more than twice.

Hereinafter, two processes for manufacturing a touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator according to the present invention will be briefly described. First, a manufacturing process of a touch panel filled with a liquid transparent insulator by an injection method will be described.

Step 1-1. Upper board manufacturing

After the transparent upper substrate is washed and prepared, the upper transparent electrode is patterned on one surface, and then the wiring electrode Ag is printed and cured.

Step 1-2. Lower substrate manufacturing

The transparent lower substrate is washed and prepared, and the lower transparent electrode is patterned on one surface, and then the wiring electrode Ag is printed and cured. Next, the dot spacer formed of the conductive polymer is printed and cured, and the actual printed material.

Step 3. Upper and lower Substrate Bonding and Insulating Transparent Liquid

The upper and lower substrates are bonded using a real material and then cured, and then an insulating transparent liquid is injected into the interspace. Next, the injection port is sealed and the flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) is bonded to manufacture the touch panel having the liquid transparent insulator.

Next, a manufacturing process of manufacturing a touch panel by dropping a liquid transparent insulator (ODF) will be described.

Step 2-1. Upper board manufacturing

Step 2-2. Lower substrate manufacturing

The transparent lower substrate is washed and prepared, and the lower transparent electrode is patterned on one surface, and then the wiring electrode Ag is printed and cured. Next, the dot spacer formed of the conductive polymer is printed and cured, the actual material is printed, and the liquid transparent insulator is dropped inside the lower substrate real material and then evenly spread.

Step 3. Upper and lower Substrate Bonding and Insulating Transparent Liquid

After the upper and lower substrates are bonded using a real material and cured, the manufacturing of the touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator is completed by bonding a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB).

While the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above using specific terms, such terms are only for clarity of explanation, and the preferred embodiments and technical terms of the present invention deviate from the spirit and scope of the following claims. It is obvious that various changes and changes can be made without being made.

1 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional resistive touch panel.

2 is a cross-sectional view of a touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator according to the present invention.

3 is a plan view seen from the upper substrate direction.

***** Brief description of the main symbols in the drawings *****

11: upper substrate 13: upper transparent electrode

17: lower transparent electrode 19: lower substrate

30: real 31, 51: ball spacer

50: dot spacer 60: insulating transparent liquid

Claims

Transparent upper substrate;

Transparent lower substrate;

An upper transparent electrode and a lower transparent electrode provided on opposite surfaces of the upper substrate and the lower substrate;

A dot spacer formed on the lower transparent electrode while being electrically conductive, and having a regular arrangement and formed of a conductive polymer material;

Real material for joining the edge portion of the upper substrate and the lower substrate; And

Touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator, characterized in that it has an insulating transparent liquid filled between the upper substrate and the lower substrate bonded by the real material.

The method of claim 1,

The touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator, characterized in that a ball spacer is mixed in the dot spacer.

The method according to claim 1 or 2,

The conductive polymer material is a touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator, characterized in that at least one selected from polyaniline, polypyrrole, and polythiopene.

The method according to claim 1 or 2,

The insulating transparent liquid is a touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator, characterized in that formed of at least one material selected from silicone oil, fluorine-based active liquid, methylene emulsion and liquid crystal.

The method according to claim 1 or 2,

The dot spacer is a touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator, characterized in that the conductive ball formed of a polymer spacer core is mixed.

The method according to claim 1 or 2,

The height of the dot spacer is a touch panel having a liquid transparent insulator, characterized in that not more than 1/2 of the distance between the upper substrate and the lower substrate.