U.S. patent application number 13/541207 was filed with the patent office on 2013-10-24 for flexible touch screen panel.
This patent application is currently assigned to SAMSUNG MOBILE DISPLAY CO., LTD.. The applicant listed for this patent is Akira HIRAI, Tae-Hyeog JUNG, Sung-Ku KANG, Hak-Sun KIM. Invention is credited to Akira HIRAI, Tae-Hyeog JUNG, Sung-Ku KANG, Hak-Sun KIM.
Application Number | 20130278511 13/541207 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 49379630 |
Filed Date | 2013-10-24 |
United States Patent
Application |
20130278511 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
KANG; Sung-Ku ; et
al. |
October 24, 2013 |
FLEXIBLE TOUCH SCREEN PANEL
Abstract
In a flexible touch screen panel, sensing patterns as a touch
sensor are formed on the first surface of a flexible thin film
substrate and a coated polarizer layer is formed on the second
surface of the thin film substrate to secure the flexible
characteristic, to reduce the thickness of the touch screen panel,
and to improve the visibility of an image. Particularly, the
flexible touch screen panel includes a flexible substrate
comprising an active region and a non-active region positioned
outside the active region, sensing patterns formed over the active
region of a first surface of the substrate, conductive lines formed
over the non-active region of the first surface of the substrate
and connected to the sensing patterns, and a coated polarizer layer
formed over a second surface of the substrate.
Inventors: |
KANG; Sung-Ku; (Yongin-city,
KR) ; JUNG; Tae-Hyeog; (Yongin-city, KR) ;
KIM; Hak-Sun; (Yongin-city, KR) ; HIRAI; Akira;
(Yongin-city, KR) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
KANG; Sung-Ku
JUNG; Tae-Hyeog
KIM; Hak-Sun
HIRAI; Akira |
Yongin-city
Yongin-city
Yongin-city
Yongin-city |
|
KR
KR
KR
KR |
|
|
Assignee: |
SAMSUNG MOBILE DISPLAY CO.,
LTD.
Yongin-city
KR
|
Family ID: |
49379630 |
Appl. No.: |
13/541207 |
Filed: |
July 3, 2012 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
345/173 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/0443 20190501;
B05D 5/06 20130101; G02B 1/08 20130101; G06F 3/0446 20190501; G02B
1/10 20130101; G06F 2203/04103 20130101; G02B 5/3033 20130101; B05D
7/54 20130101; G06F 2203/04102 20130101; G02B 5/3083 20130101; G06F
3/0412 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
345/173 |
International
Class: |
G06F 3/041 20060101
G06F003/041 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Apr 24, 2012 |
KR |
10-2012-0042628 |
Claims
1. A flexible touch screen panel, comprising: a flexible substrate
comprising an active region and a non-active region positioned
outside the active region; sensing patterns formed over the active
region of a first surface of the substrate; conductive lines formed
over the non-active region of the first surface of the substrate
and connected to the sensing patterns; and a coated polarizer layer
formed over a second surface of the substrate.
2. The flexible touch screen panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein
the coated polarizer layer is a thin crystal film polarizer.
3. The flexible touch screen panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein
the substrate comprises a phase shift film.
4. The flexible touch screen panel as claimed in claim 3, wherein
the substrate is configured to function as a quarter wave plate
(QWP) and comprises a polycarbonate (PC) film, an oriented
polypropylene (OPP) film, or a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film.
5. The flexible touch screen panel as claimed in claim 3, wherein
the substrate comprises a plurality of phase shift films to form a
lamination structure.
6. The flexible touch screen panel as claimed in claim 5, wherein
retardation values of at least two of the plurality of phase shift
films differ from each other.
7. The flexible touch screen panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein
the substrate comprises a cast polycarbonate (PC) film or a cyclic
polyolefin (COP) film.
8. The flexible touch screen panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein
the sensing patterns comprise: first sensing cells arranged in a
first direction; first coupling lines, each of which electrically
connects neighboring two cells among the plurality of first sensing
cells; second sensing cells arranged in a second direction; and
second coupling lines, each of which electrically connects
neighboring two cells among the plurality of second sensing
cells.
9. The flexible touch screen panel as claimed in claim 8, wherein
an insulating layer is interposed between and at an intersection of
one of the first coupling lines and one of the second coupling
lines.
10. The flexible touch screen panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein
a black matrix is further formed in the non-active region of the
first surface of the substrate.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims priority to and the benefit of
Korean Patent Application No. 10-2012-0042628, filed on Apr. 24,
2012, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire
content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] 1. Field
[0003] The present disclosure relates to a touch screen panel, and
more particularly, to a flexible touch screen panel.
[0004] 2. Discussion of the Related Technology
[0005] A touch screen panel is an input device capable of selecting
the indication content or icons displayed on the screen of an image
display device by a human hand or an object to input the command of
a user.
[0006] Generally, the touch screen panel is provided over the
entire surface of the image display device to generate an electric
signal indicative of a contact position of a human hand or an
object. Therefore, the instruction contact selected in the contact
position is received as an input signal.
[0007] Since the touch screen panel may replace other input devices
such as a keyboard or a mouse, which can be coupled to the image
display device, the use range is gradually increasing.
[0008] Generally, there are resistance layer type touch screen
panels, photo-sensing type touch screen panels, and electrostatic
capacitive type touch screen panels. Among the above types of touch
screen panels, the electrostatic capacitive touch screen panel
senses a change in capacitance formed by a conductive sense pattern
together with another peripheral sense pattern or a ground
electrode when the human hand or the object contacts the touch
screen panel to generate an electric signal indicative of the
contact position.
[0009] The touch screen panel is attached to the external surface
of an image display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD)
and an organic light emitting display. Therefore, the touch screen
panel is required to have high transmittance and small
thickness.
SUMMARY
[0010] Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention provides a
flexible touch screen panel in which sensing patterns as a touch
sensor are formed on the first surface of a thin film substrate
having a flexible characteristic and a coated polarizer layer is
formed on the second surface of the thin film substrate while
maintaining the flexible characteristic. This can reduce the
thickness of the flexible touch screen panel, and improve the
visibility of an image.
[0011] One aspect of the present invention provides a flexible
touch screen panel, including a flexible substrate comprising an
active region and a non-active region positioned outside the active
region, sensing patterns formed over the active region of a first
surface of the substrate, conductive lines formed over the
non-active region of the first surface of the substrate and
connected to the sensing patterns, and a coated polarizer layer
formed over a second surface of the substrate.
[0012] The coated polarizer layer is a thin crystal film
polarizer.
[0013] The substrate may comprise a phase shift film. The substrate
is configured to function as a quarter wave plate (QWP) and
comprises a polycarbonate (PC) film, an oriented polypropylene
(OPP) film, or a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film.
[0014] The substrate comprises a plurality of phase shift films to
form a lamination structure. The retardation values of at least two
of the plurality of phase shift films differ from each other.
[0015] The substrate comprises a cast polycarbonate (PC) film or a
cyclic polyolefin (COP) film.
[0016] The sensing patterns include first sensing cells arranged in
a first direction, first coupling lines, each of which electrically
connects neighboring two cells among the plurality of first sensing
cells, second sensing cells arranged in a second direction, and
second coupling lines, each of which electrically connects
neighboring two cells among the plurality of second sensing
cells.
[0017] An insulating layer is interposed between and at an
intersection of one of the first coupling lines and one of the
second coupling lines. A black matrix is further formed in the
non-active region of the first surface of the substrate.
[0018] As described above, according to embodiments of the present
invention, the coated polarizer layer is formed on the thin film
substrate having the flexible characteristic and the sensing
patterns as the touch sensor are formed on the bottom surface of
the flexible substrate to secure the flexible characteristic, to
reduce the thickness of the flexible touch screen panel, and to
improve the visibility of an image.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0019] The accompanying drawings, together with the specification,
illustrate embodiments of the present invention, and, together with
the description, serve to explain the principles of the present
invention.
[0020] FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically illustrating a touch
screen panel according to an embodiment of the present
invention;
[0021] FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a main part illustrating an
example of the sensing pattern illustrated in FIG. 1; and
[0022] FIG. 3 is a sectional view illustrating a region (I-I') of
the touch screen panel according to embodiments of the present
invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
[0023] In the following detailed description, only certain
embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described,
simply by way of illustration. As those skilled in the art would
realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various
different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of
the present invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description
are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not restrictive.
In addition, when an element is referred to as being "on" another
element, it can be directly on the element or be indirectly on the
element with one or more intervening elements interposed
therebetween. Also, when an element is referred to as being
"connected to" another element, it can be directly connected to the
element or be indirectly connected to the element with one or more
intervening elements interposed therebetween. Hereinafter, like
reference numerals refer to like elements.
[0024] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be
described in detail with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
[0025] Recently, a flexible image display device is being
developed. In this case, the touch screen panel attached onto the
flexible image display device is required to be flexible.
[0026] Since the electrostatic capacitive touch screen panel
requires processes of forming a thin film and a pattern in order to
form sensing patterns for realizing a touch sensor, the
electrostatic capacitive touch screen panel is required to have
high thermal resistance and chemical resistance.
[0027] In an example of electrostatic capacitive touch screen
panels, sensing patterns are formed on a glass substrate that fits
the process characteristics. Since the glass substrate has a
thickness greater than a certain thickness to ensure safe transfer
in a fabricating process, such glass substrate would not be
appropriate for a flexible touch screen panel.
[0028] In an example of image display devices, a polarizing plate
is attached onto the external surface of the image display device
in order to improve outdoor visibility by blocking the reflection
of outdoor daylight. When the touch screen panel is attached onto
the display panel of the image display device, the polarizing plate
may be attached or bonded onto the external surface of the touch
screen panel.
[0029] The polarizing plate and the touch screen panel is
manufactured independently from each other and attached to each
other or assembled, for example, by using an adhesive material, and
thus, such assembling structure and process of the polarizing plate
and the touch screen panel cause increase of the entire thickness
of the display device, and reduce production efficiency and yield
of the touch screen panel.
[0030] FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically illustrating a touch
screen panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a main part illustrating an example
of the sensing pattern illustrated in FIG. 1.
[0031] FIG. 3 is a sectional view illustrating a region (IT) of the
touch screen panel according to embodiments of the present
invention.
[0032] Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, the touch screen panel according
to embodiments of the present invention includes a thin film
substrate 10 having a flexible characteristic, sensing patterns 220
formed on a first surface of the thin film substrate 10, and
conductive sensing lines 230 for connecting the sensing patterns
220 to an external driving circuit (not shown) through a pad unit
250. A coated polarizer layer 30 is formed on a second surface of
the thin film substrate 10 which is opposite to the first
surface.
[0033] The thin film substrate 10 according to embodiments of the
present invention may perform the function of a phase shift film.
In embodiments, the thin film substrate 10 may function as a
quarter wave plate (QWP) having a phase shift function, and may be
formed of a polycarbonate (PC) film, an oriented polypropylene
(OPP) film, or a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film.
[0034] That is, the thin film substrate 10 as the phase shift film
provides a phase shift or retardation to light polarized by the
coated polarizer layer formed on the second surface to
left-circularly polarize or right-circularly polarize incident
light and to perform circular polarization or substantial circular
polarization.
[0035] In addition, in FIG. 3, an embodiment in which the thin film
substrate 10 is formed of one layer is illustrated. However, the
substrate may be formed of a lamination structure of a plurality of
phase shift films. In embodiments, the retardation values of the
plurality of phase difference films may be set to vary in order to
secure the optimal black characteristic of the light that passes
through the coated polarizer layer.
[0036] In addition, the thin film substrate 10 according to
embodiments of the present invention may be formed of a cast
polycarbonate (PC) film or a cyclic polyolefin (COP) film as a
material without double refraction other than the phase difference
film.
[0037] The thin film substrate 10 according to embodiments of the
present invention is formed to have thickness of about 0.005 to
0.05 mm regardless of whether the thin film substrate 10 has the
phase shift function so that the thin film substrate 10 secure the
flexibility.
[0038] In addition, according to embodiments of the present
invention, the coated polarizer layer 30 is formed on the thin film
substrate 10, and thus, the thickness of a polarizer plate may be
minimized in comparison with a structure using a pre-formed,
separate polarizing plate.
[0039] One example of such separate polarizing plate has a three
layer structure of triacetyl cellulose (TAC), polyvinyl alcohol
(PVA), and TAC. Since the TAC has thickness of about 20 .mu.m and
the PVA has thickness of about 80 .mu.m, the separate polarizing
plate has the entire thickness of about 180 .mu.m. When the
separate polarizing plate is attached to the touch screen panel,
the entire thickness of the touch screen panel increases contrary
to the trend to make the touch screen panel thin.
[0040] According to embodiments of the present invention, in order
to realize the function of the polarizer plate and to minimize the
thickness of the polarizer plate, as illustrated in FIG. 3, the
coated polarizer layer 30 is formed on the second surface, that is,
the top surface of the thin film substrate 10. In some embodiments,
the coated polarizer layer can be formed by depositing or coating a
material for forming a polarizer layer on the thin film substrate.
In such embodiments, no adhesive material is interposed between the
coated polarizer layer and the thin film substrate as no
pre-formed, separate polarizing plate is used.
[0041] The coated polarizer layer 30 may be formed in various
structures and by using various methods. According to embodiments
of the present invention, the coated polarizer layer 30 is formed
of a thin crystal film polarizer.
[0042] Since the thin crystal film polarizer 30 may have a
thickness of or smaller than about 5 .mu.m, in comparison with the
above-described case in which the pre-formed, separate polarizing
plate is provided, the thickness of the thin crystal film polarizer
30 is significantly reduced.
[0043] According to an embodiment, when the thin crystal film
polarizer 30 may have a special molecular crystal structure formed
as a result of crystallizing a liquid crystal phase when liquid
crystal is coated on the thin film substrate and is aligned and
dried.
[0044] In embodiments, the liquid crystal phase includes at least
one organic material capable of forming a stable lyotropic or
thermotropic liquid crystal phase. An organic material includes at
least one organic compound. In some embodiments, the chemical
formula includes (i) at least one ionogenic group that guarantees
solubility in polar solvents for obtaining the lyotropic liquid
crystal phase, (ii) at least one nonionogenic group that guarantees
solubility in non-polar solvents for obtaining the thermotropic
liquid crystal phase, and/or (iii) at least one counterion that may
be contained or may not be contained in a molecular structure after
forming a film.
[0045] In embodiments, an optically anisotropic dichroic crystal
layer includes a plurality of supramolecular complexes formed of
one or a plurality of organic compounds. The supramolecular
complexes are deflected in a specific method to provide
polarization and electric conductivity of transmitted light.
[0046] The layer is formed of rod like supramolecules. The
supramolecules include at least one disk shaped polycyclic organic
compound having a conjugated .pi.-system. The layer has
intermolecular distance of 3.4.+-.0.3 .ANG. along the polarizing
axis and entirely has a well ordering crystal structure.
[0047] The base material of the optically anisotropic dichroic
crystal layer is selected based on the existence of a group such as
amine, phenol, and ketone coupled to a conjugated bond system and
put on molecular planes and the existence of the developed .pi.
conjugated bond system of conjugated aromatic cyclic compounds.
Molecules and/or molecular fragments have a flat structure. The
base material is, for example, indanthrone (Vat blue 4),
1,4,5,8-parylenetetracarboxylaciddibenzoimidazole (Vat Red 14),
3,4,9,10-parylenetetracarboxylaciddibenzoimidazole, and
quinacridone (pigment violet 19). The compound derivatives of the
base material may form a stable lyotropic liquid crystal phase.
[0048] In the optically anisotropic dichroic crystal layer, the
molecular planes are parallel with each other and the molecules
form a three dimensional crystal structure at least in the crystal
layer part. An optically anisotropic dichroic single crystal layer
may be formed by optimizing a manufacturing technology. An optical
axis in the single crystal is vertical to the molecular planes. The
thin crystal layer has high anisotropy and represents high
refractive index and/or high absorption coefficient.
[0049] That is, in the touch screen panel according to embodiments
of the present invention, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3, the
coated polarizer layer 30 is formed on the top surface of the thin
film substrate 10 and the sensing patterns 220 and the sensing
lines 230 are formed on the bottom surface of the thin film
substrate 10. Therefore, the flexible touch screen panel integrated
with the polarizer may be realized.
[0050] In addition, a functional coating layer 32 may be further
formed on the top surface of the coater polarizer layer 30. The
functional coating layer may be a hard coating layer, a reflection
preventing layer, or contamination preventing layer and a
lamination of at least one or two of the above layers.
[0051] The structure of the touch screen panel according to
embodiments of the present invention will be described
hereinbelow.
[0052] As illustrated in FIG. 2, the sensing pattern 220 includes a
plurality of first sensing cells 220a formed to be coupled to each
other in each row line in a row direction, first coupling lines
220a1 for coupling the first sensing cells 220a in the row
direction, second sensing cells 220b formed to be coupled to each
other in each column line in a column direction, and second
coupling lines 220b1 for coupling the second sensing cells 220b in
the column direction.
[0053] For the sake of convenience, in FIG. 2, only a portion of
the sensing patterns is illustrated. However, the touch screen
panel has a structure in which the sensing patterns illustrated in
FIG. 2 are repetitively arranged.
[0054] The first sensing cells 220a and the second sensing cells
220b are alternately arranged not to overlap each other. The first
coupling lines 220a1 and the second coupling lines 220b1 intersect
each other. An insulating layer (not shown) for securing stability
is interposed between the first coupling line 220a1 and the second
coupling line 220b1.
[0055] In embodiments, the first sensing cells 220a are formed to
be integrated with the first coupling lines 220a1 and the second
sensing cells 220b are formed to be integrated with the second
coupling lines 220b1 using a transparent electrode material such as
indium tin oxide (ITO). In other embodiments, the first sensing
cells 220a are formed to be separate from the first coupling lines
220a1, and then, electrically coupled to the first coupling lines
220a1. The second sensing cells 220b are formed to be separated
from the second coupling lines 220b1, and then, electrically
coupled to the second coupling lines 220b1.
[0056] For example, the second sensing cells 220b are patterned to
be integrated with the second coupling lines 220b1 in a column
direction and the first sensing cells 220a are patterned between
the second sensing cells 220b to have independent patterns and may
be coupled to each other by the first coupling lines 220a1
positioned on or under the first sensing cells 220a in a row
direction.
[0057] The first coupling lines 220a1 may directly contact the
first sensing cells 220a on or under the first sensing cells 220a
to be electrically coupled to the first sensing cells 220a or may
be electrically coupled to the first sensing cells 220a through
contact holes.
[0058] The first coupling lines 220a1 may be formed of a
transparent electrode material such as ITO or may be formed of an
opaque low resistance metal material so that the width thereof is
controlled to prevent the patterns from being visible.
[0059] The sensing lines 230 illustrated in FIG. 1 are electrically
coupled to the first and second sensing cells 220a and 220b aligned
along row and column lines to couple the first and second sensing
cells 220a and 220b to an external driving circuit (not shown) such
as a position detecting circuit through the pad unit 250.
[0060] The sensing lines 230 are arranged in a non-active region
positioned outside an active region in which an image is displayed.
The choice range of the material of the sensing lines 230 is large
so that the sensing lines 230 may be formed of a low resistance
metal material such as Mo, Ag, Ti, Cu, Al, and Mo/Al/Mo other than
the transparent conductive material used for forming the sensing
patterns 220.
[0061] When a contact object such as a human hand or a stylus pen
contacts the above-described electrostatic capacitive touch screen
panel according to embodiments of the present invention, a change
in electrostatic capacity caused by contacting at a contact
position is transmitted from the sensing patterns 220 to a driving
circuit (not shown) via the sensing lines 230 and the pad unit 250.
Then, the change in the electrostatic capacity is converted into an
electrical signal by an X and Y input processing circuit (not
shown) to identify the contact position.
[0062] FIG. 3 is a sectional view illustrating parts of the
non-active region and the active region of the touch screen panel
formed on the first surface of the flexible thin film substrate
10.
[0063] The coated polarizer layer 30 is formed on the second
surface of the thin film substrate 10 and, as described above, the
functional coating layer 32 may be further formed on the coated
polarizer layer 30.
[0064] In addition, in FIG. 3, a display device 20 is attached, by
a transparent adhesive layer 260, to the bottom surface of the
touch screen panel such that the first surface of the thin film
substrate faces the display device 20. In embodiments, the display
device is a flexible display device, which may be an organic light
emitting display.
[0065] The transparent adhesive layer 260 formed of a transparent
adhesive material having high light transmittance may be formed of
super-view resin (SVR) or optical cleared adhesive (OCA).
[0066] Referring to FIG. 3, the sensing patterns 220 formed on the
active region of the first surface of the thin film substrate 10
include the first sensing cells 220a formed to be coupled to each
other in each row line in a first direction, the first coupling
lines 220a1 for coupling the first sensing cells 220a in a row
direction, the second sensing cells 220b formed to be coupled to
each other in each column line in a column direction, and the
second coupling lines 220b1 for coupling the second sensing cells
220b in a column direction. An insulating layer 240 is interposed
between and at the intersection of the first coupling line 220a1
and the second coupling line 220b1.
[0067] In FIG. 3, for the sake of convenience, the thickness of the
elements such as the sensing patterns 220 that form the touch
screen panel is illustrated to be large. However, the actual
thickness of the elements is much smaller.
[0068] In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 3, a black matrix 210
and the sensing lines 230 formed to overlap the black matrix 210
and to be electrically coupled to the sensing patterns 220 are
formed in the non-active region positioned outside the active
region.
[0069] At this time, the black matrix 210 prevents the patterns
such as the sensing lines formed in the non-active region from
being visible and forms the frame of the display region.
[0070] In the above-described structure, according to embodiments
of the present invention, the touch screen panel is positioned
between the display device 20 and the coated polarizer layer 30 to
maintain the flexible characteristic, to prevent the sensing
patterns from showing through, and to minimize reflectance.
[0071] While embodiments of the present invention has been
described, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited
to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to
cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included
within the spirit and scope of the appended claims, and equivalents
thereof.
* * * * *