U.S. patent application number 14/140400 was filed with the patent office on 2014-04-17 for color filter and liquid crystal display device.
This patent application is currently assigned to WINTEK CORPORATION. The applicant listed for this patent is WINTEK CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Chien-Chung KUO.
Application Number | 20140104516 14/140400 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 40997831 |
Filed Date | 2014-04-17 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140104516 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
KUO; Chien-Chung |
April 17, 2014 |
COLOR FILTER AND LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY DEVICE
Abstract
A color filter includes a transparent substrate, a conductive
layer, a color filtering layer, and a protection layer. The
conductive layer is formed on the transparent substrate for sensing
touch signals, and the periphery of the conductive layer is
provided with peripheral electrodes. The color filtering layer is
formed on the conductive layer and includes multiple red light
filtering sections, multiple green light filtering sections, and
multiple blue light filtering sections, and a pixel of a liquid
crystal display device includes at least one red light filtering
section, at least one green light filtering section and at least
one blue light filtering section. The protection layer is formed on
the color filtering layer.
Inventors: |
KUO; Chien-Chung; (Feng Yuan
City, TW) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
WINTEK CORPORATION |
Taichung City |
|
TW |
|
|
Assignee: |
WINTEK CORPORATION
Taichung City
TW
|
Family ID: |
40997831 |
Appl. No.: |
14/140400 |
Filed: |
December 24, 2013 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
12395207 |
Feb 27, 2009 |
8643629 |
|
|
14140400 |
|
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
349/12 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G02F 1/13338 20130101;
G02B 5/201 20130101; G09G 3/3607 20130101; G02F 1/133514
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
349/12 |
International
Class: |
G02F 1/1333 20060101
G02F001/1333; G02F 1/1335 20060101 G02F001/1335; G02B 5/20 20060101
G02B005/20 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Feb 27, 2008 |
TW |
097106728 |
Claims
1. A color filter, comprising: a transparent substrate; a first
conductive layer disposed on the transparent substrate for sensing
touch signals; a color filtering layer disposed on the first
conductive layer and comprises multiple red light filtering
sections, multiple green light filtering sections, and multiple
blue light filtering sections; and a second conductive layer being
disposed on the color filtering layer and grounded to serve as a
shielding layer.
2. The color filter as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: at
least one peripheral electrode disposed on a periphery of the first
conductive layer.
3. The color filter as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the
first conductive layer and the second conductive layer is a
transflective conductive layer, and the color filtering layer
comprises: a spacer layer formed on the first conductive layer and
comprises multiple first regions, second regions, and third regions
that are distinguished from one another according to respective
thicknesses, wherein each first region, each second region and each
third region respectively overlap a red light filtering section, a
green light filtering section and a blue light filtering
section.
4. The color filter as claimed in claim 3, wherein the first
conductive layer and the second conductive layer are made of silver
or silver alloy.
5. The color filter as claimed in claim 3, wherein the spacer layer
is made of dielectric material.
6. The color filter as claimed in claim 5, wherein the dielectric
material is selected from the group consisting of MgF.sub.2,
SiO.sub.2, Si.sub.3N.sub.4, Al.sub.2O.sub.3, TiO.sub.2, ZrO.sub.2,
and Nb.sub.2O.sub.5.
7. The color filter as claimed in claim 3, further comprising: a
flattened insulating layer disposed on the color filtering
layer.
8. The color filter as claimed in claim 1, wherein the color
filtering layer comprises multiple red light filtering sections,
multiple green light filtering sections and multiple blue light
filtering sections, and each of the light filtering sections is
dyed a specific color by an organic pigment.
9. The color filter as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a
black matrix disposed between each two adjacent light filtering
sections.
10. The color filter as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transparent
substrate is a glass substrate, a plastic sheet, or a plastic
film.
11. A liquid crystal display device, comprising: a color filter
substrate, comprising: a first transparent substrate; a first
conductive layer disposed on the first transparent substrate for
sensing touch signals; a spacer layer disposed on the first
conductive layer; a second conductive layer being disposed on the
spacer layer and grounded to serve as a shielding layer; a
flattened insulating layer disposed on the second conductive layer;
and a common electrode formed on the flattened insulating layer; an
active matrix substrate, comprising: a second transparent
substrate; and multiple active devices and multiple pixel
electrodes formed on the second transparent substrate; and a liquid
crystal layer interposed between the color filter substrate and the
active matrix substrate.
12. The liquid crystal display device as claimed in claim 11,
wherein the spacer layer comprises multiple first regions, second
regions, and third regions that are distinguished from one another
according to respective thicknesses, and each first region, each
second region and each third region respectively overlap a red
pixel portion, a green pixel portion and a blue pixel portion.
13. The liquid crystal display device as claimed in claim 11,
wherein each of the first conductive layer and the second
conductive layer is a transflective conductive layer.
14. The liquid crystal display device as claimed in claim 13,
wherein the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer
are made of silver or silver alloy.
15. The liquid crystal display device as claimed in claim 11,
further comprising: at least one peripheral electrode disposed on a
periphery of the first conductive layer.
16. The liquid crystal display device as claimed in claim 11,
wherein the spacer layer is made of dielectric material.
17. The liquid crystal display device as claimed in claim 16,
wherein the dielectric material is selected from the group
consisting of MgF.sub.2, SiO.sub.2, Si.sub.3N.sub.4,
Al.sub.2O.sub.3, TiO.sub.2, ZrO.sub.2, and Nb.sub.2O.sub.5.
18. The liquid crystal display device as claimed in claim 11,
wherein the first conductive layer, the spacer layer, and the
second conductive layer are arranged to form a plurality of single
cavity Fabry-Perot filters.
19. The liquid crystal display device as claimed in claim 11,
wherein each of the first transparent substrate and the second
transparent substrate is a glass substrate, a plastic sheet, or a
plastic film.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation of application Ser. No.
12/395,207, filed on Feb. 27, 2009, which claims priority of
application No. 097106728 filed in Taiwan R.O.C on Feb. 27,
2008.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The invention relates to a color filter with a touch screen
function and a liquid crystal display device having the color
filter.
[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0005] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a conventional liquid
crystal display device 100 with a touch activated control.
Referring to FIG. 1, the liquid crystal display device 100 includes
a touch panel 102 and a liquid crystal panel 104. The touch panel
102 is attached to the liquid crystal panel 104 by a double-sided
adhesive tape 106. However, such assembly may have considerably
large empty spaces between the touch panel 102 and the liquid
crystal panel 104 to produce light leakage and reduce light
transmittance as a result. Hence, in another liquid crystal display
device 200 shown in FIG. 2, an entire plane of a touch panel 202
and an entire plane of a liquid crystal panel 204 are bonded with
each other by optical cement 206 to avoid light leakage. However,
the adhering of the optical cement 206 has inferior reliability and
is liable to produce bubbles. Further, the constituting members of
above design shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2 are too many and thus their
assembly is difficult to be miniaturized.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0006] The invention relates to a color filter with a touch screen
function and a liquid crystal display device having the color
filter that are allowed to overcome the disadvantages of
conventional designs.
[0007] According to an embodiment of the invention, a color filter
with a touch screen function includes a transparent substrate, a
conductive layer, a color filtering layer, and a protection layer.
The conductive layer is formed on the transparent substrate for
sensing touch signals, and the periphery of the conductive layer is
provided with peripheral electrodes. The color filtering layer is
formed on the conductive layer and includes multiple red light
filtering sections, multiple green light filtering sections, and
multiple blue light filtering sections, and a pixel of a liquid
crystal display device includes at least one red light filtering
section, at least one green light filtering section and at least
one blue light filtering section. The protection layer is formed on
the color filtering layer.
[0008] According to another embodiment of the invention, a liquid
crystal display device with a touch activated control includes a
color filter substrate, an active matrix substrate and a liquid
crystal layer. The color filter substrate includes a first
transparent substrate; a first transflective conductive layer
formed on the first transparent substrate for sensing touch
signals, the periphery of the first transflective conductive layer
being provided with peripheral electrodes; a spacer layer formed on
the first transflective conductive layer and comprising multiple
first regions, second regions, and third regions that are
distinguished from one another according to their respective
thicknesses, wherein each first region, each second region and each
third region overlap a red pixel portion, a green pixel portion and
a blue pixel portion of a pixel, respectively; a second
transflective conductive layer formed on the spacer layer; a
flattened insulating layer formed on the second transflective
conductive layer; and a common electrode formed on the flattened
insulating layer. The active matrix substrate includes a second
transparent substrate and multiple active devices and multiple
pixel electrodes formed on the second transparent substrate. The
liquid crystal layer is interposed between the color filter
substrate and the active matrix substrate.
[0009] Through the above embodiments, since the first transflective
conductive layer of the color filter also serves as a conductive
layer for sensing touch signals, the color filter may have both
functions of filtering incoming light and exercising a touch
activated control. Hence, when the color filter is integrated into
the liquid crystal display device, the double-sided adhesive tape
or optical cement are no longer needed to avoid light leakage and
improve light transmittance and assembling reliability. Further,
the constituting members are reduced to facilitate miniaturization
and the fabrication processes are also simplified; for example,
compared with the conventional design, the two transparent
substrates that in contact with each other and respectively belong
to a touch panel and a liquid crystal panel are omitted from the
above embodiments.
[0010] Other objectives, features and advantages of the present
invention will be further understood from the further technological
features disclosed by the embodiments of the present invention
wherein there are shown and described preferred embodiments of this
invention, simply by way of illustration of modes best suited to
carry out the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a conventional liquid
crystal display device with a touch activated control.
[0012] FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of another conventional
liquid crystal display device with a touch activated control.
[0013] FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram illustrating a color filter
with a touch screen function according to an embodiment of the
invention.
[0014] FIGS. 4-6 show spectrum diagrams illustrating different
color light transmissions filtered out by a color filter.
[0015] FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram illustrating a liquid
crystal display device with a touch activated control according to
another embodiment of the invention.
[0016] FIG. 8 shows a schematic diagram illustrating peripheral
electrodes according to an embodiment of the invention.
[0017] FIGS. 9A and 9B show schematic diagrams illustrating two
different ways of detecting a touch point.
[0018] FIG. 10 shows a schematic diagram illustrating a color
filter with a touch screen function according to another embodiment
of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0019] In the following detailed description of the preferred
embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which
form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration
specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. In
this regard, directional terminology, such as "top," "bottom,"
"front," "back," etc., is used with reference to the orientation of
the Figure(s) being described. The components of the present
invention can be positioned in a number of different orientations.
As such, the directional terminology is used for purposes of
illustration and is in no way limiting. On the other hand, the
drawings are only schematic and the sizes of components may be
exaggerated for clarity. It is to be understood that other
embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made
without departing from the scope of the present invention. Also, it
is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used
herein are for the purpose of description and should not be
regarded as limiting. The use of "including," "comprising," or
"having" and variations thereof herein is meant to encompass the
items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as
additional items. Unless limited otherwise, the terms "connected,"
and variations thereof herein are used broadly and encompass direct
and indirect connections, couplings, and mountings. Similarly,
"adjacent to" and variations thereof herein are used broadly and
encompass directly and indirectly "adjacent to". Therefore, the
description of "A" component "adjacent to" "B" component herein may
contain the situations that "A" component directly faces "B"
component or one or more additional components are between "A"
component and "B" component. Also, the description of "A" component
"adjacent to" "B" component herein may contain the situations that
"A" component is directly "adjacent to" "B" component or one or
more additional components are between "A" component and "B"
component. Accordingly, the drawings and descriptions will be
regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.
[0020] FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram illustrating a color filter
10 with a touch screen function according to an embodiment of the
invention. Referring to FIG. 3, a first transflective conductive
layer 14, a spacer layer 16, and a second transflective conductive
layer 18 are deposited on a transparent substrate 12 in succession.
The first and the second transflective conductive layers 14 and 18
and the spacer layer 16 are provided through a variety of vacuum
deposition processes such as thin film evaporation or sputtering.
The transparent substrate 12 may be a glass substrate, a plastic
sheet, or a plastic film.
[0021] According to the embodiment, the two transflective
conductive layers 14 and 18 with a thickness-tunable spacer layer
16 interposed between them constitute multiple single-cavity
Fabry-Perot filters. In a Fabry-Perot filter, resonance peaks with
high resolution occur when the thickness of the spacer layer is an
integer multiple of one half the wavelength of resonant frequency.
Thus the thickness of the spacer layer 16 determines the output
center wavelength of the single cavity Fabry-Perot filter. Hence,
in this embodiment, the spacer layer 16 includes a plurality of
first regions, second regions, and third regions that are
distinguished from one another according to their respective
thicknesses to provide red, green, and blue light transmissions,
and the first, the second and the third regions overlap a red, a
green, and a blue pixel portions of a pixel, respectively. The
transflective conductive layers 14 and 18 are preferably made of
silver or silver alloy. The spacer layer 20 may be made of
dielectric films or conductive metal-oxide films. The dielectric
films may be composed of MgF.sub.2, SiO.sub.2, Si.sub.3N.sub.4,
Al.sub.2O.sub.3, TiO.sub.2, ZrO.sub.2, or Nb.sub.2O.sub.5. The
conductive metal-oxide films may be composed of indium tin oxide
(ITO), indium zinc oxide (IZO), or aluminum zinc oxide (AZO). For
example, when the transflective conductive layers 14 and 18 are
made of silver and the spacer layer 16 is made of Si.sub.3N.sub.4,
the color filter 10 is allowed to transmit a blue spectrum (FIG.
4), a green spectrum (FIG. 5), and a red spectrum (FIG. 6).
[0022] FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram illustrating a liquid
crystal display device 20 with a touch activated control according
to another embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 7, the
liquid crystal display device 20 includes a color filter substrate
30, an active matrix substrate 40, and a liquid crystal layer 38
interposed between them. In the color filter substrate 30, the
first transflective conductive layer 14 shown in FIG. 7 is capable
of sensing touch signals, and the second transflective conductive
layer 18 is a shielding layer. A flattened insulating layer 22
covers the second transflective conductive layer 18, a common
electrode 24 is formed on an entire surface of the flattened
insulating layer 22, and an alignment layer 26 is formed on the
common electrode 24. In the active matrix substrate 40, multiple
switching devices 32 such as TFTs, multiple pixel electrodes 34,
and an alignment layer 36 are formed on a transparent substrate 28.
Further, as shown in FIG. 8, peripheral electrodes 17 are formed on
the periphery of the transflective conductive layer 14, and the
peripheral electrodes 17 are arranged in specific patterns
repeatedly along each side of the transflective conductive layer
14. When a finger 42 (shown in FIG. 7) does not touch the
transparent substrate 12 on the transflective conductive layer 14,
all peripheral electrodes 17 are equipotential and thus no current
flows through the transflective conductive layer 14. In comparison,
when the finger 42 touches the transparent substrate 12, the static
electricity in a human body flows down to the ground to generate a
tiny current. The variation of the tiny current is sensed by a
controller (not shown) to calculate the location of a touch point
of the finger 42, and the liquid crystal display device 20 responds
the touch of the finger 42. The location of a touch point is
detected by measuring the currents that are input from four corners
or four sides of the peripheral electrodes 17. In FIGS. 9A and 9B,
a symbol "P" denotes a touch point. In case the currents are input
from four sides of the peripheral electrodes 17 as shown in FIG.
9A, the resistances in four corners are set as smaller than the
resistances in four sides to obtain an equipotential electrical
field, and the location of a touch point P is detected by measuring
a top/down or a left/right ratio of currents. In case the currents
are input from four corners of the peripheral electrodes 17 as
shown in FIG. 9B, the location of a touch point P is detected
according to a basis where a distance between the touch point P and
each corner is in proportion to the current flowing through
neighboring peripheral electrodes.
[0023] According to the above embodiments, since the first
transflective conductive layer 14 of the color filter 10 also
serves as a conductive layer for sensing touch signals, the color
filter 10 may have both functions of filtering incoming light and
exercising a touch activated control. Hence, when the color filter
10 is integrated into the liquid crystal display device 20, the
double-sided adhesive tape 106 or optical cement 206 are no longer
needed to avoid light leakage and improve light transmittance and
assembling reliability. Further, the constituting members are
reduced to facilitate miniaturization and the fabrication processes
are also simplified; for example, compared with the conventional
design, the two transparent substrates that in contact with each
other and respectively belong to a touch panel and a liquid crystal
panel are omitted from the above embodiments.
[0024] FIG. 10 shows a schematic diagram illustrating a color
filter 50 with a touch screen function according to another
embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 10, a conductive
layer 54 for sensing touch signals, a color filtering layer 56, and
an overcoat layer 58 are formed on a transparent substrate 52 in
succession. The color filtering layer 56 includes a red light
filtering section 56a, a green light filtering section 56b and a
blue light filtering section 56c, and a black matrix 56d is
provided between two filtering sections for blocking light. Each
filtering section is dyed a specific color by an organic pigment.
Since a transmissive or transflective conductive layer is directly
formed on the color filtering layer and serves to sense touch
signals, the color filter 50 is allowed to filter incoming light
and exercise a touch activated control similar to afore-mentioned
embodiments. Similarly, in this embodiment, the transparent
substrate 52 may be a glass substrate, a plastic sheet, or a
plastic film.
[0025] The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of
the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and
description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the
invention to the precise form or to exemplary embodiments
disclosed. Accordingly, the foregoing description should be
regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. Obviously, many
modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners
skilled in this art. The embodiments are chosen and described in
order to best explain the principles of the invention and its best
mode practical application, thereby to enable persons skilled in
the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and
with various modifications as are suited to the particular use or
implementation contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the
invention be defined by the claims appended hereto and their
equivalents in which all terms are meant in their broadest
reasonable sense unless otherwise indicated. Therefore, the term
"the invention", "the present invention" or the like does not
necessarily limit the claim scope to a specific embodiment, and the
reference to particularly preferred exemplary embodiments of the
invention does not imply a limitation on the invention, and no such
limitation is to be inferred. The invention is limited only by the
spirit and scope of the appended claims. The abstract of the
disclosure is provided to comply with the rules requiring an
abstract, which will allow a searcher to quickly ascertain the
subject matter of the technical disclosure of any patent issued
from this disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that
it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of
the claims. Any advantages and benefits described may not apply to
all embodiments of the invention. It should be appreciated that
variations may be made in the embodiments described by persons
skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present
invention as defined by the following claims. Moreover, no element
and component in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated
to the public regardless of whether the element or component is
explicitly recited in the following claims.
* * * * *