Abstract:
The present disclosure relates to a touch technology, more particularly to a touch panel and a manufacturing method thereof. The touch panel comprises a touch area and a peripheral area. The touch panel further comprises: at least one peripheral line, each of which has a stacking structure and is disposed in the peripheral area surrounding the touch area for transmitting touch signals generated by the touch area. The stacking structure of each peripheral line improves stability of the touch signals transmission in the touch panel.

Description:
[0001]    This application claims the benefit of Chinese application No. 201110305252.1 , filed on Sep. 23, 2011. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0003]    The present disclosure relates to touch technology, more particularly to a touch panel and a manufacturing method thereof. 
         [0004]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0005]    In the current consumer electronic, product market, integrating touch function with display has become a mainstream trend for the development of portable electronic products. The touch display panels have been applied to many electronic products, including smart phones, mobile phones, tablet PCs and notebooks. Since a user can, in such products, operate directly through objects displayed on display and order instructions, the touch screen panels serve as an interface between the user and the electronic, products. 
         [0006]    Conventional touch panel technologies usually include resistive, capacitive, and fluctuating technologies etc. The touch panels usually comprise a touch area, and a peripheral area surrounding the touch area. The touch area is used for generating touch signals, and a plurality of peripheral lines are disposed at interior sides of the peripheral area, which are used for transmitting the touch signals to a controller to determine coordinates of the touch location. 
         [0007]    However, in the conventional touch panel structures, peripheral lines usually are single-layer structures and are made of metal materials. Therefore, if the peripheral lines are exposed to external knocks or erosion from outside environment, they get disconnected easily, as a result of which some of the touch area signals are not appropriately transmitted to the controller for conducting subsequent touch position operations. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0008]    An objective of the present disclosure is to provide a touch panel and a manufacturing method thereof which adopts peripheral lines with a stacking structure to improve stability of transmitting touch signals in the touch panel. 
         [0009]    The present disclosure provides a touch panel which has a touch area and a peripheral area, comprising: at least one peripheral line, each of which has a stacking structure and is disposed in the peripheral area surrounding the touch area for transmitting touch signals generated by the touch area. 
         [0010]    The present disclosure further provides a manufacturing method of a touch panel comprising a touch area and a peripheral area, the method comprising: forming at least a peripheral line, each of which has a stacking structure and is disposed in the peripheral area surrounding the touch area for transmitting the touch signals generated by the touch area. 
         [0011]    The touch panel and the manufacturing method of a touch panel provided in the present disclosure adopt peripheral lines with a stacking structure. When the superstructure (or the understructure) of the peripheral lines in the touch panel are subjected to external knocks or erosion from outside environment, touch signals of the touch panel are transferred to a controller through the understructure (or the superstructure) of the peripheral lines for calculating subsequent touch position operation, and thereby enhancing stability of touch signal transmission. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]    For those skilled in the art o understand this disclosure, numerous embodiments combined with drawings described below are for illustration purpose only and do not limit the scope of the present disclosure in any manner. 
           [0013]      FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2  are flow charts of a manufacturing method of a touch panel in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and 
           [0014]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram of a cross-sectional structure of the peripheral lines along tangent lines A-A′ in  FIG. 2 ; 
       
    
    
       [0015]    It would be understood that all the schemas disclosed herein are only by way of representation. In order to attain the interpretation objective, dimensions and proportions of components drawn in the schema may be amplified or reduced. In the different embodiments, the same component symbols can be used for representing corresponding or similar characters. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
       [0016]    In the following embodiments, capacitive touch panel technology is taken by way of illustration. However, spirit of the present disclosure can be extended to other touch panel technologies and not limited to resistive type, infrared type and surface acoustic wave type, etc. 
         [0017]      FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2  are the flow charts of a manufacturing method of a touch panel in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in  FIG. 1 , firstly, a transparent substrate  13  is provided. The transparent substrate  13  comprises a touch area  11  and a peripheral area  12 , wherein the touch area  11  is a major sensing area, and the peripheral area  12  is an area for disposing peripheral lines  35  and  36 . The transparent substrate  13  is a hard substrate such as a glass substrate, or any other flexible substrate selected from a group comprising polycarbonate (PC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethylmesacrylate (PMMA), Polysulfone (PES) and other cyclic olefin copolymers. 
         [0018]    Understructures  19  and  21  in the peripheral area  12 , first axial electrodes  14  and second axial electrodes  15  in the touch area  11 , are formed subsequently. In the present embodiment, a transparent conductive layer (not shown) can first be formed on a surface of the transparent substrate  13 . The transparent conductive layer comprises indium tin oxide (ITO), indium zinc oxide (IZO), cadmium tin oxide (CTO), aluminum zinc oxide (AZO), indium tin zinc oxide (ITZO), zinc oxide, cadmium oxide, hafnium oxide (HfO), indium gallium zinc oxide (InGaZnO), indium gallium zinc magnesium oxide (InGaZnMgO), indium gallium magnesium oxide (InGaMgO) or indium gallium aluminum oxide (InGaAlO). Next, etching of the transparent conductive layer on the substrate  13  takes place to form desired patterns on the touch area  11  and the peripheral area  12 . As shown in  FIG. 1 , the first axial electrode  14  extends along a first direction X in the touch area  11 , and the second axial electrode  15  extends along a second direction Y, wherein the first axial electrodes  14  comprise a plurality of first sensing units  14   a  and a plurality of first conductive lines  14   b  connected to the first sensing units  14   a.  The second axial electrodes  15  comprise a plurality of second sensing units  15   a.  It would be noted that, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first axial electrodes  14 , the second axial electrodes  15 , and the plurality of the understructures  19  and  21  can be formed in the peripheral area  12  simultaneously. The understructures  19  and  21  are electrically connected to the corresponding first axial electrodes  14  and the corresponding second axial electrodes  15 , wherein the understructures  19  and  21  serve as one portion of the stacking structure in peripheral lines  35  and  36 . Therefore, the understructures  19  and  21 , which are situated on the same plane and have same composite materials, are formed in the same etching manufacturing process as the first axial electrodes  14  and the second axial electrodes  15 . However, in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure, the first axial electrodes  14  and the second axial electrodes  15  can be formed first and then the plurality of the understructures  19  and  21  can be formed, or vice versa. It would be noted that the method of forming the first axial electrodes  14 , the second axial electrodes  15 , and the understructures  19  and  21  can use the etching manufacturing process which can further employ sputtering, depositing, laser incising, or screen-printing. However, other known methods for forming the electrodes and understructures can also be used. 
         [0019]    Referring to  FIG. 2 , insulation blocks  37 , second conductive line  31 , superstructures  33 - 34 , and cover layer  39  are formed subsequently. 
         [0020]    As shown in  FIG. 2 , first, a plurality of insulation blocks  37  are formed between first conductive line  14   b  and the second conductive line  31 , the objective of which is to electrically insulate the first axial electrodes  14  and the second axial electrodes  15 , wherein the insulation blocks  37  can include multi-layered polymer resin films of high transmittance or inorganic materials, which satisfy the demand of electric insulation and high transmittance simultaneously. Next, by taking advantage of electroplating, non-electroplating, screen printing or any other manufacturing process capable of reaching the same efficiency, the second conductive lines  31  on the corresponding insulation blocks  37  are formed. The second conductive lines  31  can be made of either one metal or a combination of metallic materials such as gold, silver, copper, aluminum or molybdenum. The superstructures  33  and  34  on the surface of the understructures  19  and  21  are formed simultaneously with the second conductive lines  31 . The second conductive line  31  is electrically connected to the corresponding second sensing units  15   a  so as to align the plurality of the second sensing units  15   a  with the second axial electrodes  15  and electrically connect to each other. In addition, under the premise of not influencing the transmittance, the second conductive lines  31  have relatively broad contact terminal which assists contact area between the second conductive lines  31  and the second axial sensing unit  15   a . Therefore, the superstructures  33  and  34  and the understructures  19  and  21  respectively constitute at least one first peripheral line  35  with the stacking structure and at least one second peripheral line  36  with the stacking structure. In accordance with the above description, the first peripheral line  35  and the second peripheral line  36  are in electrical connection between the corresponding first axial electrodes  14  and between the corresponding second axial electrodes  15  so as to transfer the touch signals of the touch area to an external circuit so that the controller can conduct subsequent touch position operations. 
         [0021]    It is noticed that in accordance with the embodiment, the second conductive lines  31  and the superstructures  33  and  34  can be formed simultaneously through the same manufacturing process. However, according to another preferred embodiment, the second conductive lines  31  are formed first and then the superstructures  33  and  34  are formed, or vice versa. Therefore, by means of different manufacturing process, the second conductive line  31  and the superstructures  33  and  34  may or may not contain different composite materials, illustratively, the superstructures  33  and  34 , besides being composed of metal materials, can also be made up of inorganic conductive materials with low-resistances. 
         [0022]    Next, a cover layer  39  is formed on the transparent substrate  13 , which aims to protect various components within the touch area  11  and the peripheral area  12  from being subjected to chemical erosion or physical damage. The cover layer  39  can be made of inorganic materials such as silicon nitride, silicon oxide and silicon oxynitride, organic materials such as acrylic resin or other suitable materials. 
         [0023]      FIG. 3  shows a schematic diagram of a cross-sectional structure of the peripheral lines along tangent lines A-A′ in  FIG. 2 . According to  FIG. 3 , the peripheral lines have a stacking structure  38  comprising an understructure  21  and a superstructure  34 . The cover layer  39  coats the understructure  21  and the superstructure  34  integrally. As shown in  FIG. 3 , the short axial width of the superstructure  34  is narrower than the short axial width of the understructure  21 . In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, the short axial side of the superstructure  34  and the short axial side of the corresponding understructure  21  is spaced with an interval D, the value of which is preferably 3-5 μm. By means of the foregoing stacking structure, an electrostatic shielding effect can be generated, that is, the electrostatic charges can diffuse through the understructure  21  so as to promote reliability of the touch panels. It would be noted that the stacking construction  38 , having a multi-layered superstructure (not shown), can either be composed of metal materials, or inorganic conductive materials with low-resistance. In addition, compositions of the multi-layered superstructures in the same stacking construction  38  may differ from each other. It must be emphasized that the foregoing touch panel, which is not limited to the capacitive touch panel, can comprise capacitive, resistive, infrared ray, acoustic or optical touch panels, with the peripheral lines having foregoing stacking structure  38 . 
         [0024]    In accordance with the foregoing statements, the disclosure provides a touch panel  10  with the peripheral lines  35  and  36 , both having a stacking structure  38  comprising understructures  19  and  21  and at least one superstructure  33  and  34 , wherein width of superstructures  33 ,  34  is less than that of the understructures  19  and  21 . The stacking structures  38 , even if the superstructures  33  and  34  are subjected to external knocks or erosion of outside environment which results in circuit disconnection, allow the touch signals of the touch area  11  to be transferred to the outer circuit through the understructures  19  and  21 . Thus, the integral touch efficiency of the touch panel can be maintained. Therefore, this disclosure increases stability of the touch signal transmission in the touch panel. 
         [0025]    While certain embodiments have been shown and described, various modifications and substitutions may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Therefore, it is to be understood that the present disclosure has been described by way of illustration and not limitations.