Patent Publication Number: US-2015077368-A1

Title: Touch control panel and touch display device

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a touch control panel, and more particularly, to a touch control panel integrating the touch-control element and the circuit board. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     Touch panels have been widely used in various electronic products, such as mobile phones, GPS navigator system, tablet PCs, personal digital assistants (PDA), and laptop PCs, due to the human-machine interaction property thereof. 
     Generally, a flexible printed circuit board is needed for electrically connecting the touch-control element to an external system in conventional art, and therefore a bonding process of the flexible printed circuit board is requested during the assembling, so as to electrically connect the wire(s) of the flexible printed circuit board to the bonding pad(s) of the touch-control element. However, since the relative position alignment and the material of the bonding pad, as well as the parameter of machine, have to be taken into consideration in the bonding process of the circuit board, the arrangement and design of the wires of the touch-control element and the flexible print circuit board are limited. Hence, to provide a solution to achieve the fabrication through a time-and-cost saving process and to improve the aforementioned issues is still a major objective in the field. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is one of the primary objectives of the present invention to provide a touch control panel, which integrates the touch-control element and the circuit board which is configured to couple the touch-control element to an external system, such that a flexible print circuit board is no longer needed to be further attached to the touch control panel, thereby reducing the total fabrication process to save the cost spent on the attaching materials and heavy works and increasing the yield. 
     To achieve the purpose described above, the present invention provides a touch control panel, including a substrate, a touch-control element, and a connection part. The substrate includes a main portion and a protrusion portion positioned at a side of the main portion. The touch-control element is disposed at the main portion of the substrate and includes a light transmittance region and a periphery region positioned at least at a side of the light transmittance region. The touch-control element includes at least one conductive electrode and an electrode wire. The conductive electrode is disposed on a surface of the substrate and positioned at least in the light transmittance region; and the electrode wire is disposed in the periphery region and is electrically connected to the conductive electrode. The connection part is disposed on the protrusion portion of the substrate and includes at least one connecting wire positioned on the surface of the substrate and being electrically connected to the electrode wire. The connection part is used for coupling the touch-control element to an external system, such that sensing signals of the touch-control element can be delivered to the external system directly through the connecting wire without passing through any additional circuit board. 
     These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic top view illustrating a touch control panel according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic side view of the touch control panel shown in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic top view illustrating a touch control panel according to a variant embodiment of the first embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic top view illustrating a touch control panel according to a second embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic side view of the touch control panel shown in  FIG. 4 . 
         FIG. 6  is a schematic top view illustrating a touch control panel according to a third embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 7  is a schematic side view of a touch display device of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     To provide a better understanding of the present invention to users skilled in the technology of the present invention, preferred embodiments are detailed as follows. The preferred embodiments of the present invention are illustrated in accordance with the accompanying figures to clarify the contents and effects to be achieved. 
     Referring to  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 ,  FIG. 1  is a schematic top view illustrating a touch control panel according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and  FIG. 2  is a schematic side view only illustrating the touch control panel shown in  FIG. 1 , without illustrating an external system. A touch control panel  10  according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes a substrate  12 , a touch-control element  14 , and a connection part  16 . The substrate  12  includes a main portion  121  and a protrusion portion  122 , wherein the protrusion portion  122  is positioned at a side of the main portion  121 . In a preferred embodiment, the size of the main portion  121  is greater than the size of the protrusion portion  122  of the substrate  12 , and the protrusion portion  122  protrudes from a side of the main portion  121 , but not limited thereto. In the present embodiment, the substrate  12  is a flexible substrate, for example a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate/film or a polyimide (PI) substrate/film, but not limited thereto. However, the substrate  12  may also be a rigid substrate. Furthermore, the substrate  12  is preferably a transparent substrate, such that the substrate  12  of the touch control panel  10  according to the present invention can be used as a cover lens of a touch display product. Therefore, a display panel can be further disposed on the back side of the touch control panel  10  to allow the substrate  12  to cover on the display panel, thereby the bottom side of the substrate  12  shown in  FIG. 2  is used as a touch control surface for the user. However, in other embodiments, a transparent cover lens, such as a glass substrate, can also be disposed on the top side of the substrate  12 , and the top side of the substrate  12  shown in  FIG. 2  is used as a touch control surface for the user. Otherwise, the substrate  12  can be used as a substrate of a display device, such as a color filter substrate of a liquid crystal display device or an assembly cover-substrate of an organic light emitting device. 
     On the other hand, the touch-control element  14  of the touch control panel  10  according to the present embodiment is disposed at the main portion  121  of the substrate  12 , and includes a light transmittance region  18  and a periphery region  20 . The periphery region  20  is positioned at least at one side of the light transmittance region  18 . In the present embodiment, the periphery region  20  is positioned at a periphery of the light transmittance region  18  and surrounds the light transmittance region  18 , but not limited thereto. The touch-control element  14  includes at least one conductive electrode and at least one electrode wire. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the touch-control element  14  includes two comb-shaped conductive electrodes  22 ,  24  disposed on the surface of the substrate  12  and at least positioned in the light transmittance region  18 . The comb-shaped portions (or tooth-shaped portions) of the two conductive electrodes  22 ,  24  are spaced from each other. Preferably, the material of the conductive electrodes  22 ,  24  is a conductive layer having visual transparence, for example metallic oxide material layer, or metal material layer, but not limited thereto. Wherein, the aforementioned metal material layer may include at least one of aluminum, copper, silver, chromium, titanium, and molybdenum, a composition layer of at least one of the aforementioned materials, or a stack layer of at least two of the aforementioned materials, or an alloy layer of at least two of the aforementioned materials, but not limited thereto, and the aforementioned metal material layer may include mesh-like shapes, such as metal mesh structure. In addition, the aforementioned conductive layer may also include conductive particles, carbon nanotubes, graphene, silicone, or nanoscaled metal wire, such as nano silver, but not limited thereto, and the aforementioned conductive layer may also include mesh-like shape, such as conductive mesh structure. The line width of the aforementioned metal mesh structure or the conductive mesh structure is substantially between 0.5 micrometers (μm) and 8 micrometers, and the unit area thereof has an aperture ratio of light transmittance is up to 85% or greater than 85%. The aforementioned metal mesh structure can be manufactured by the process of lithography, spray-printing, or coating, or forming trenches through stamping process and then filling metal therein. The aforementioned metal mesh structure may include single layer or multilayer structure, and an anti-reflection layer, a hazing layer or a blackening layer may be optionally disposed on its surface facing to the user, for reducing the reflectance. The touch control panel  10  further includes at least one electrode wire (s)  26  disposed in the periphery region  20 . In  FIG. 1 , two electrode wires  26  being respectively corresponding to and electrically connected to the conductive electrodes  22 ,  24  are exemplified, but not limited thereto. Preferably, the material of the conductive electrode  26  is a conductive material having good conductivity, such as metal material(s). Additionally, the electrode wires  26  may include one or more conductive layers. In a preferred embodiment, the material of the conductive material(s) for composing the conductive layer(s) of the electrode wires  26  may include at least one of aluminum, copper, silver, chromium, titanium, molybdenum, neodymium, and gold, an alloy of at least one of the aforementioned materials, a composition layer of the aforementioned materials or a composition layer of at least one of the aforementioned materials and an alloy of at least one of the aforementioned materials, but not limited thereto. It should be noted that, the number, arrangement, disposed position and the number of the layer(s) of the conductive electrodes and the electrode wire shown in  FIG. 1  are only for illustration, which is not adapted to limit the relative positions of the conductive electrodes and the electrode wire of the present invention, and the conductive electrodes may include any other shapes, such as rhombus, rectangle, or triangle, but not limited thereto. In addition, in other embodiments, the connecting condition of the electrode wires  26  and the conductive electrodes  22 ,  24  are not limited to what is illustrated in  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 . For example, in another embodiment, a portion of the conductive electrodes  22 ,  24  may extend to the periphery region  20  and cover the corresponding electrode wires  26 , or the electrode wires  26  may cover a portion of the conductive electrodes  22 ,  24  respectively in the periphery region  20 , thereby electrically connecting the electrode wires  26  and the conductive electrodes  22 ,  24  to each other. 
     Furthermore, the connection part  16  of the touch control panel  10  is disposed at the protrusion portion  122  on the surface of the substrate  12 . The connection part  16  includes at least one connecting wire(s)  28  disposed on the surface of the substrate  12  and being electrically connected to one electrode wire  26 . In the present embodiment, each electrode wire  26  is corresponding to and electrically connected to one connecting wire  28  respectively, but not limited thereto. As shown in the top view, each electrode wire  26  may be positioned between the corresponding connecting wire  28  and the corresponding conductive electrode  22  or  24  in order to electrically connecting the corresponding connecting wire  28  and conductive electrode  22  or  24 . In a preferred embodiment, the connecting wires  28  and the electrode wires  26  are composed of the same conductive material, and are fabricated through the same fabrication process. Therefore, the material of the connecting wires  28  are preferably the same as the aforementioned material(s) of the electrode wires  26 , which will not be further detailed. In one embodiment of the present invention, a PET substrate may be selected for serving as the substrate  12 , the material of wires may be copper or molybdenum/aluminum/molybdenum, and the patterns of the electrode wires  26  and the connecting wires  28  may be defined through a vacuum sputtering process and a photolithography process. In other embodiments, the electrode wires  26  and the connecting wires  28  may be fabricated through a screen printing process. 
     In addition, the connection part  16  may further include one or more bonding pads  32  electrically connected to the connecting wires  28 , wherein the bonding pads  32  are disposed on the surface of the substrate  12 , thereby coupling the connection part  16  to an external system  30  through the bonding pads  32 . The material of the bonding pads  32  may be the same as the connecting wires  28 . For example, the bonding pads  32  may be composed of the same material as the connecting wires  28 , or be fabricated through the same fabrication process of the connecting wires  28 , but not limited thereto. The fabrication process and the material of the bonding pads  32  may be carried out or provided additionally in various embodiments. Moreover, the connection part  16  may optionally include a protection layer  34  disposed on the surface of the protrusion portion  122  of the substrate  12 , and the protection layer  34  covers the connecting wires  28  to shelter the connecting wires  28 . In addition, the protection layer  34  has at least one opening(s)  34   a  to expose at least one portion of the bonding pads  32 , such that the bonding pads  32  can contact to the external system  30  or other electrical elements in order to achieve coupling effect, thereby providing signal delivery function. In the present embodiment, the touch control panel  10  may optionally further include an insulation layer  36 , which is entirely disposed on the surface of the substrate  12 , both on the main portion  121  and the protrusion portion  122 , to cover the conductive electrodes  22 ,  24 , the electrode wires  26  and the connecting wires  28 . The insulation layer  36  preferably has an opening  36   a  which is corresponding to the opening  34   a  of the protection layer  34 , so as to expose at least one portion of the bonding pads  32 . In other embodiments, the connection part  16  may include other protection layers disposed thereon according to the practical requirement, so as to provide further protection to the connection part  16 . 
     The connection part  16  of the touch control panel  10  of the present invention is configured to couple the touch-control element  14  to the external system  30 , so that the sensing signals of the touch-control element  14  can be directly delivered to the external system  30  through the connecting wires  28  of the connection part  16 , without passing through other circuit board(s). Specifically, since the substrate material and the wiring material of the connection part  16  of the touch control panel  10  according to the present invention are similar to those of the flexible print circuit board, the connection part  16  can replace the flexible print circuit board or other types of circuit boards used for coupling the touch-control element to an external system in the convention touch control panel. Therefore, when the touch control panel  10  of the present invention is assembled to other control devices, an additional external circuit board is no longer needed to be disposed between the touch control panel  10  and other control devices. Therefore, the process of conjugating the external circuit board and the touch-control element in the entire assembling process of the electronic product is omitted. Wherein, the aforementioned external system  30  for example is a control unit, a connector, a print circuit board, or a systemic board including a driving chip, but not limited thereto. It is noted that, in a preferred embodiment, the substrate  12  is a flexible substrate or a pliable substrate, and at least the connecting wires  28  have pliability, such that the entire connection part  16  can be pliably bended toward the external system  30  for being coupled to the external system  30  according to the practical requirement of assembling. 
     The touch control panel of the present invention is not limited to the aforementioned embodiments. The following description will detail the other embodiments or variant embodiments of the present invention. To simplify the description, the following description will detail the dissimilarities among those embodiments and the variant embodiments, and the identical features will not be redundantly described. In order to compare the differences between the embodiments easily, the identical components in each of the following embodiments are marked with identical symbols. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , in a variant embodiment of the first embodiment, the connection part  16  of the touch control panel  10 ′ may further include a circuit control element  38 , such as an integrated circuit chip. The circuit control element  38  is disposed on the surface of the protrusion portion  122  of the substrate  12  and is electrically connected to the connecting wires  28 , for receiving the sensing signals delivered from the touch-control element  14  or other signals delivered from the external system  30 , such that the user can manipulate the touch control panel  10 ′. The electrical connection between the circuit control element  38  and the connecting wires  28  may be similar to the connection of the chips in the convention flexible print circuit board, for example (but not limited to) using bonding pad or anisotropic conductive film for bonding these two elements, which will not be further detailed in the present specification. 
     Referring to  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5 , the touch control panel  50  according to a second embodiment of the present invention is different from the first embodiment in that the conductive electrodes  22 ′,  24 ′ are composed of metal layer, and the metal layer includes metal mesh structure. With such design, the conductive electrodes  22 ′,  24 ′, the electrode wires  26  and the connecting wires  28  may all be fabricated from the same single layer of metal layer or multilayered metal layer, and the aforementioned three elements can be fabricated through the same fabrication process. For example, a vacuum sputtering process and a photolithography process may be used for defining the patterns of the shape and the metal mesh structures of the conductive electrodes  22 ′,  24 ′ and the wiring patterns of the electrode wires  26  and the connecting wires  28  at the same time. In addition, the material for composing the conductive electrodes  22 ′,  24 ′, the electrode wires  26  and the connecting wires  28  may be referred to the materials of the electrode wires  26  in the first embodiment, which will not be further detailed. The advantage of the present embodiment is in that the conductive electrodes  22 ′,  24 ′, the electrode wires  26  and the connecting wires  28  are all composed of the same metal layer, such that the fabrication process can be simplified and the cost of the materials can be reduced, and the electrical conductivity of the conductive electrodes  22 ′,  24 ′ can be further improved. It is noted that, the outward-shape patterns of the conductive electrodes  22 ′,  24 ′ are not limited to the illustration in  FIG. 4  and may have the patterns of rectangle, rhombus, or triangle, for example. Furthermore, similar to the variant embodiment of the first embodiment, the touch control panel  50  may further include a circuit control element (not shown in the figure) disposed in the connection part  16 , which will not be further detailed. In other embodiment, the conductive electrodes  22 ′,  24 ′ may respectively include electrodes connected in a series, wherein the serial electrodes cross each other with an insulation layer or an insulation element and a bridge structure being disposed at the crossing portions for electrically isolating the conductive electrodes  22 ′,  24 ′ from each other. 
     As shown in  FIG. 6 , the touch control panel  52  according to a third embodiment of the present invention is different from the second embodiment in that the conductive electrodes include first axis electrodes  22 X and second axis electrodes  24 Y extending along a X direction and a Y direction, perpendicular to the X direction, respectively. Also, an insulation element  23  is further disposed at each of the crossing portions between each first axis electrode  22 X and each second axis electrode  24 Y, so that the first axis electrodes  22 X and the second axis electrodes  24 Y are electrically isolated from each other. Wherein, each first axis electrode  22 X includes bridge wires  22 B disposed on the upper sides of the insulation elements  23  for electrically connecting each conductive electrode unit to each other in the same first axis electrode  22 X. Moreover, the touch control panel  52  further includes a decoration layer  40  disposed on the surface of the substrate  12 . The decoration layer  40  is positioned in the periphery region  20  of the main portion  121  and the protrusion portion  122  (the protection layer  34  is omitted in  FIG. 6  for easy recognizing the elements showing the drawings). The decoration layer  40  functions to beautify the appearance of the touch control panel  52 . In another embodiment, the decoration layer  40  may be disposed only in the periphery region  20  or in at least one part of the periphery region  20 , without being disposed in the protrusion portion  122 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 7 ,  FIG. 7  is a schematic side view of a touch display device according to one embodiment of the present invention. The aforementioned touch control panels of the present invention can be applied to any touch display device, and  FIG. 7  exemplifies a touch display device  100  including the touch control panel  50  shown in  FIG. 5 . In the present embodiment, the touch display device  100  includes a cover lens  42 , a touch control panel  50  and a display panel  44  disposed from bottom to top. The cover lens  42  is corresponding to the touch-control element  14  (namely, the main portion  121  of the substrate  12  in the touch control panel  50 ) and the display panel  44 , to provide protection function. The material of the cover lens  42  for example is glass. The display panel  44  includes a display region  48  and a peripheral circuit region  46 , corresponding to the light transmittance region  18  and the periphery region  20  of the touch control panel  50  respectively. The display panel  44  may be any type of display panel, such as liquid crystal display panel, organic light-emitting diode panel and electrophoretic display panel, but not limited thereto. It should be noted that, in different embodiments, the substrate  12  of the touch control panel  50  itself can be used as a cover plate, such that the cover lens  42  can be omitted. In such design, the touch control panel  50  can be disposed upside down on the top of the display panel  44  for positioning the conductive electrodes  22 ′,  24 ′ between the substrate  12  and the display panel  44 . 
     It should be noted that the wiring design of the connecting wire in the connection part is not limited to what is disclosed in the aforementioned embodiments. For example, if the connection part has a plurality of connecting wires, those connecting wires may be disposed in a multilayered structure or be disposed in two or more layers, such as that some of the connecting wires are disposed directly on the surface of the protrusion portion of the substrate, with an insulation layer disposed thereon, and the other connecting wires are disposed on the insulation layer. The advantage of disposing the connecting wires in the multilayered structure includes that the area of the connection part can be dramatically reduced and the arrangement design of the connecting wires is flexible according to practical requirement. In addition, some specific connecting wires can be electrically connected to each other in the multilayered connecting wire, for example using the contact holes in the insulation layer(s) to electrically connect the connecting wires in different layers. When the connecting wires are formed in a multilayered structure, the fabrication thereof can be carried out accompanied with the fabrication of the touch-control element having the double-layered conductive electrodes or having the bridge structure and the insulation layer or element. 
     Through the aforementioned description, the connection part and the touch-control element of the touch control panel in the present invention shares the same substrate, with the connection part replacing the circuit board in conventional art, so that the conjugation process or bonding process of the circuit board and other following processes can be omitted. As a result, the alignment issue for the boding process can be avoided, and the limitation problem of the wiring design of the touch-control element due to the bonding process is solved. In addition, the fabrication processes of the wires of the connection part and the touch-control element can be integrated together, so as to effectively simplify the fabrication steps and the entire cost of the fabrication. 
     Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.