Patent ID: 12242696

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

To make objectives, technical solutions and advantages of embodiments of the present disclosure clearer, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present disclosure. It needs to be noted that sizes and shapes of all figures in the accompanying drawings do not reflect true scales, and are only intended to schematically illustrate the content of the present disclosure. The same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar elements or elements with the same or similar functions all the time. Apparently, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, not all of the embodiments. The embodiments in the present disclosure and features in the embodiments can be combined with each other in the case of not conflicting. Based on the described embodiments of the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by those ordinarily skilled in the art without creative work shall fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.

Unless otherwise defined, technical or scientific terms used in the present disclosure shall have the ordinary meanings understood by those ordinarily skilled in the art to which the present disclosure pertains. The words “first”, “second” and the like used in the present disclosure do not indicate any order, quantity or importance, but are only configured to distinguish different components. The words “comprise” or “include”, and the like indicate that an element or item appearing before such words covers listed elements or items appearing after the words and equivalents thereof, and does not exclude other elements or items. The words “connect”, or “couple” and the like are not limited to physical or mechanical connection, but may include electrical connection, whether direct or indirect. “Inner”, “outer”, “upper” and “lower” and the like are only used to represent relative position relationships, and the relative position relationships may also change accordingly after an absolute position of a described object changes.

As intelligent human-machine interaction interface products, touch display devices have been used in social production and life in an increasingly wide range of applications, and are in the most rapid development especially in the field of electronic products (smart phones, tablet personal computers and other fields). There is a wide variety of technologies of the touch display devices, mainly including resistive, capacitive, infrared and surface acoustic wave (SAW) touch display devices, etc. Based on characteristics of sensitive response, multi-touch support, long life, etc., the capacitive touch display devices have been widely used in social production and life.

With the massive use of the touch display devices, indium tin oxide (ITO) as an optically and electrically superior material is overused; and because the element indium (In) is a rare metal, this material is only becoming less available and more expensive. In this case, people slowly began to look for new materials to replace the ITO material, but the performance should not be inferior to that of the ITO material; and thus a touch display device using a metal mesh appears, which uses common metal materials, such as aluminum, copper and silver. The excellent low resistance performance of the metal mesh allows it to effectively piggyback on an active pen solution.

In the touch display device, a width of mesh lines of the metal mesh is usually 3 μm-6 μm, resulting in large dots at intersections of the mesh lines. When a resolution (PPI) of the touch display device is high, the dots may have an optical blocking effect on sub-pixels, resulting in black dot badness. Exemplarily, when the width of the mesh lines of the metal mesh is 4.5 μm, a size of each of the dots at the intersections of the mesh lines is around 15 μm*20 μm, while a size of each of the sub-pixels in the high-resolution product is about 22 μm*66 μm, so the light blocking effect of the dots on the sub-pixels may be very obvious, which will produce an obvious black dot phenomenon.

In view of the above problems in the related art, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a touch substrate, as shown inFIG.1toFIG.9, including:a base substrate101;a plurality of first touch electrodes102on the base substrate101;a plurality of second touch electrodes103on a side, facing away from the base substrate101, of a layer where the plurality of first touch electrodes102are located; where the plurality of second touch electrodes103are insulated from the plurality of first touch electrodes102; anda plurality of floating electrodes104, where the plurality of floating electrodes104are insulated from the plurality of first touch electrodes102and the plurality of second touch electrodes103; the plurality of floating electrodes104are arranged on the same layer as at least one of the plurality of first touch electrodes102or the plurality of second touch electrodes103; and each floating electrode104has a mesh shape, and at least part of the floating electrodes104are disconnected on at least part of dots.

In the above touch substrate provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, a metal mesh shape of the first touch electrodes102shown inFIG.2is different from a metal mesh shape of the second touch electrodes103shown inFIG.4, resulting in reflectivity of first touch electrodes102being different from reflectivity of the second touch electrodes103, and a difference in reflectivity of different film layers may cause severe shadow elimination badness. By arranging the floating electrodes104, metal meshes of a layer where the first touch electrodes102are located and metal meshes of a layer where the second touch electrodes103are located may be evenly distributed, and thus a problem of shadow elimination caused by uneven distribution of the metal meshes is solved. Since the floating electrodes104are used for shadow elimination and the first touch electrodes102and the second touch electrodes103are used for touch recognition, a disconnection arrangement of the dots of at least part of the floating electrodes104in the present disclosure effectively not only solves black dot badness caused by too many dots, but also ensures normal use of a touch function.

Optionally, in the above touch substrate provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, in order to better alleviate black dot badness, all the floating electrodes104may be arranged to be disconnected at all the dots.

As shown inFIG.10, a dot shape of the floating electrodes104in the related art is generally a rectangle. Based on this, in the above touch substrate provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, in order to effectively disconnect mesh lines at the dots, as shown inFIG.11, distances from endpoints of the floating electrodes104at disconnection positions to a center O of the dot may be set as the same. In some embodiments, the rectangular dots may be excavated out directly, and at this time, the distances from the endpoints of the floating electrodes104at the disconnection positions to the center O of the dot are one half of a rectangular diagonal. In other embodiments, a pattern of the floating electrodes104in a circular area with the center O of the dot as a center of a circle and a distance greater than one half of the rectangular diagonal as a radius may also be excavated out, at this time, it is equivalent to excavating out the rectangular dot and the local mesh lines in its vicinity, and the distances from the endpoints of the floating electrodes104at the disconnection positions to the center O of the dot are equal to the radius of the circular area.

FIG.11toFIG.16shows dot excavation design diagrams with the distances from the endpoints of the floating electrodes104at the disconnection positions to the center O of the dot sequentially being 5 μm, 10 μm, 15 μm, 20 μm, 25 μm, and 30 μm respectively. Table 1 shows results of optical black dot alleviating levels of dot excavation designs ofFIG.11toFIG.16for a 288-resolution product and a 410-resolution product. In Table 1, Lev1 indicates that the black dots are not visible, Lev2 indicates that the black dots are vaguely visible, Lev3 indicates that the black dots are clearly visible, and Lev4 indicates that black dots are unacceptable. As seen from Table 1, when the distances from the endpoints of the floating electrodes104at the disconnection positions to the center O of the dot are 5 μm-10 μm, it has a significant alleviating effect on the black dots and does not bring about moire badness.

TABLE 1Dot designPPI: 288PPI: 410Normal dotLev2.5Lev35 μm from endpoints to aLev1.5Lev2center of the dot10 μm from endpoints to aLev2Lev2.5center of the dot15 μm from endpoints to aLev3, weak moire isLev3, weak moire iscenter of the dotgeneratedgenerated20 μm from endpoints to aLev4, moire isLev4, moire iscenter of the dotgeneratedgenerated25 μm from endpoints to aLev4, moire isLev4, moire iscenter of the dotgeneratedgenerated30 μm from endpoints to aLev4, moire isLev4, moire iscenter of the dotgeneratedgenerated

Optionally, in the above touch substrate provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, the floating electrodes104have the same length of mesh lines between every two adjacent disconnection dots to better improve metal mesh shadow elimination.

Optionally, in the above touch substrate provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown inFIG.1,FIG.4andFIG.9, the plurality of floating electrodes104include: a plurality of first floating electrodes1041on the same layer as the first touch electrodes102, and a plurality of second floating electrodes1042on the same layer as the second touch electrodes103; where orthographic projections of the disconnection dots of the plurality of first floating electrodes1041on the base substrate101do not overlap orthographic projections of the disconnection dots of the plurality of second floating electrodes1042on the base substrate101.

Optionally, in the above touch substrate provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, the first touch electrodes and the second touch electrodes have mesh shapes, as shown inFIG.2andFIG.5. The first floating electrodes1041are located among the first touch electrodes102and located in meshes contained in the first touch electrodes102, as shown inFIG.1. The second floating electrodes1042are located among the second touch electrodes103and located in meshes contained in the second touch electrodes103, as shown inFIG.4. Meshes contained in the first floating electrodes, meshes enclosed by the first floating electrodes and the first touch electrodes, meshes contained in the second floating electrodes, and meshes enclosed by the second floating electrodes and the second touch electrodes have approximately the same shape and size, as shown inFIG.1andFIG.4. Thus, the meshes of a layer where the first touch electrodes102and the first floating electrodes1041are located, and the meshes of a layer where the second touch electrodes103and the second floating electrodes1042are located can be evenly and periodically distributed in an effective touch area (as shown inFIG.7), thereby improving a shadow elimination effect.

It should be noted that in the present disclosure, approximately same may be understood as identical, or as the same within a tolerable margin of error caused by limits of technological conditions or other factors, which is not specifically limited here.

Optionally, in the above touch substrate provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown inFIG.7, in order to ensure the shadow elimination effect, the orthographic projections of the disconnection dots of the first floating electrodes1041on the base substrate101may be located in central areas of orthographic projections of the meshes contained in the second floating electrodes1042and the meshes enclosed by the second floating electrodes1042and the second touch electrodes103on the base substrate101; and the orthographic projections of the disconnection dots of the second floating electrodes1042on the base substrate101may be located in central areas of orthographic projections of the meshes contained in the first floating electrodes1041and the meshes enclosed by the first floating electrodes1041and the first touch electrodes102on the base substrate101. In addition, the orthographic projections of the disconnection dots of the first floating electrodes1041on the base substrate101and the orthographic projections of the disconnection dots of the second floating electrodes1042on the base substrate101may be arranged in an array in an extending direction of the first touch electrodes102and an extending direction of the second touch electrodes103.

Optionally, in the above touch substrate provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown inFIG.1, the first touch electrodes102may be touch sensing electrodes (Rx) extending in a longitudinal direction, and the first touch electrodes102are disconnected from the first floating electrodes1041; and as shown inFIG.4, the second touch electrodes103may be touch driving electrodes (Tx) extending in a transverse direction, and the second touch electrodes103are disconnected from the second floating electrodes1042. It should be understood that the larger a floating region where the first floating electrodes1041and the second floating electrodes1042are located, the more the dots that may be excavated out; and thus the black dot badness may be alleviated more effectively. Therefore, during specific implementation, in order to make an area of the floating region large, lengths of disconnection lines among the first touch electrodes102and the first floating electrodes1041and lengths of disconnection lines among the second touch electrodes103and the second floating electrodes1042may be set as short as possible. In addition, in order to make resistance values of all mesh lines contained in the first touch electrodes102similar, the disconnection lines on the mesh lines may be set to have an equal length and the same quantity; and preferably, the disconnection lines on the same mesh may be symmetrically distributed about a center of the mesh. Similarly, in order to make resistance values of all mesh lines contained in the second touch electrodes103similar, the disconnection lines on the mesh lines may be set to have an equal length and the same quantity, and preferably, the disconnection lines on the same mesh are symmetrically distributed about a center of the mesh.

Based on the same inventive concept, embodiments of the present disclosure further provide a touch display device, including the above touch substrate provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure. A principle for solving problems of the touch display device is similar to that of the aforementioned touch substrate, and thus implementation of the touch display device may refer to implementation of the aforementioned touch substrate, and repetitions are omitted here.

Specifically, embodiments of the present disclosure further provide a touch display device, as shown inFIG.17andFIG.18, including: the above touch substrate01and a display panel02, where the above touch substrate01is located on a display side of the display panel02.

Specifically, the display panel02may include: a plurality of pixel units located in a display area and arranged in an array. Each pixel unit includes a plurality of sub-pixels. Exemplarily, the pixel units may include red sub-pixels, green sub-pixels and blue sub-pixels; and therefore red, green and blue may be mixed to achieve color display. Or, the pixel units may also include red sub-pixels, green sub-pixels, blue sub-pixels and white sub-pixels; and therefore red, green, blue and white may be mixed to achieve color display. Of course, in practical application, light emitting colors of the sub-pixels in the pixel units may be designed and determined according to practical application environments, which is not limited here.

In some embodiments, the display panel02may be a liquid crystal display panel, and at this time, the sub-pixels may include pixel electrodes located on an array substrate and thin film transistors (TFTs) electrically connected to the pixel electrodes. Of course, gate lines for transmitting gate scanning signals and data lines for transmitting data signals may further be arranged on the array substrate. In this way, the gate scanning signal are input to the TFTs through the gate lines to control conduction of the TFTs, and thus the data signals transmitted on the data lines are input to the pixel electrodes to make a voltage be input to the pixel electrodes, so as to drive liquid crystal molecules to rotate to display an image.

In some other embodiments, the display panel02may also be an electroluminescent display panel such as an organic light emitting display panel, a quantum dot light emitting diode or micro light emitting diode display panel, etc. At this time, the sub-pixels may include electroluminescent diodes and drive circuits for driving the electroluminescent diodes to emit light. Each electroluminescent diode includes an anode, a light emitting layer and a cathode; each drive circuit may include a drive transistor, a switching transistor and a storage capacitor; and a specific structure and working principle thereof may be the same as those in the prior art and will not be described here.

Optionally, in the above touch display device provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, a side where the second touch electrodes103are located may be fixed to the display panel02through an adhesive layer03, as shown inFIG.17. In other words, the touch substrate01is mounted externally on the display side of the display panel02. Or, the touch substrate01is embedded in the display panel02, as shown inFIG.18andFIG.19.

Specifically, inFIG.17, the display panel02is shown specifically as a liquid crystal display panel, including an array substrate201, a color film substrate203having a black matrix202, and a polarizer204. In addition, the touch substrate01may further include a shielding layer105distributed around the effective touch area, and a first insulating layer106and a second insulating layer107arranged on a whole layer.FIG.18illustrates that the color film substrate203of the liquid crystal display panel shares a base substrate101with the touch substrate01, and the touch display device further includes a protective cover plate04.FIG.19illustrates that an encapsulation layer205of the electroluminescent display panel is multiplexed as the base substrate101of the touch substrate01; and first touch electrodes102are located on a side, facing away from a layer where a plurality of light emitting devices206contained in the electroluminescent display panel are located, of the encapsulation layer205. In addition, the electroluminescent display panel may further include a drive back plane207.

During specific embodiments, the touch display device provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure may be a cell phone with a full screen shown inFIG.20. Of course, the touch display device provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be: a tablet computer, a television, a monitor, a laptop, a digital photo frame, a navigator, and any other products or components with display functions. Other essential components of the touch display device shall be understood by those ordinarily skilled in the art, are omitted here and also shall not become a restriction to the present disclosure.

The touch display device shown inFIG.17may be fabricated by following steps.Step 1, a shielding layer105is fabricated in an edge area of a base substrate101.Step 2, first touch electrodes102and first floating electrodes1041arranged on the same layer are fabricated on a side, facing away from the base substrate101, of the shielding layer105. The first touch electrodes102and the first floating electrodes1041are disconnected from one another, and the first floating electrodes1041are disconnected at the dots.Step 3, a first insulating layer106is fabricated on a layer where the first touch electrodes102and the first floating electrodes1041are located.Step 4, second touch electrodes103and second floating electrodes1042arranged on the same layer are fabricated on a side, facing away from the base substrate101, of the first insulating layer106. The second touch electrodes103and the second floating electrodes1042are disconnected from one another, and the second floating electrodes1042are disconnected at the dots.Step 5, a second insulating layer107is fabricated on a layer where the second touch electrodes103and the second floating electrodes1042are located.Step 6, a display panel02is fabricated, and a fabricating process of the display panel02is the same as that in the prior art, which is omitted here.Step 7, the second insulating layer107and a polarizer204contained in the display panel02are fixed together through an adhesive layer03.

At this point, fabricating of the touch display device shown inFIG.17is completed.

The touch display device shown inFIG.18may be fabricated by following steps.Step 1, a display panel02including an array substrate201and a color film substrate203is fabricated by using fabricating steps in the related art.Step 2, second touch electrodes103and second floating electrodes1042arranged on the same layer are fabricated on a side, facing away from the array substrate201, of the color film substrate203. The second touch electrodes103and the second floating electrodes1042are disconnected from one another, and the second floating electrodes1042are disconnected at the dots.Step 3, a first insulating layer106is fabricated on a layer where the second touch electrodes103and the second floating electrodes1042are located.Step 4, first touch electrodes102and first floating electrodes1041arranged on the same layer are fabricated on a side, facing away from a base substrate101, of the first insulating layer106. The first touch electrodes102and the first floating electrodes1041are disconnected from one another, and the first floating electrodes1041are disconnected at the dots.Step 5, a second insulating layer107is fabricated on a layer where the first touch electrodes102and the first floating electrodes1041are located.Step 6, a polarizer204is attached to the second insulating layer107, and the polarizer204and a protective cover plate04are fixed together through an adhesive layer03.

At this point, fabricating of the touch display device shown inFIG.18is completed.

It should be noted that in the above fabricating methods provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, composition technologies involved in forming layers of structure may not only include some or all of technological processes such as deposition, coating of photoresist, masking of a mask, exposure, development, etching and stripping of the photoresist, but also include other technological processes, specifically depending on an actual fabricating process of forming a pattern of required composition, which is not be limited here. For example, a post-baking technology may further be included after development and before etching.

The deposition technology may be chemical vapor deposition, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition or physical vapor deposition, which is not limited here; the mask used in the masking technology may be a half tone mask, a single slit mask or a gray tone mask, which is not limited here; and etching may be dry etching or wet etching, which is not limited here.

In addition, it should be understood that in the present disclosure, “arranged on the same layer” refers to a layer structure that is formed through a single composition technology by using the same mask after a film layer for fabricating a specific pattern is formed through the same film forming technology. That is, a single composition technology corresponds to one mask (also known as a photomask). Depending on the difference of specific patterns, a single composition technology may include multiple exposure, development or etching technologies, and the specific patterns in the formed layer structure may be continuous or discontinuous, and these specific patterns may also be at different heights or have different thicknesses.

Apparently, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the embodiments of the present disclosure without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Therefore, if these changes and modifications to the embodiments of the present disclosure fall within the scope of the claims of the present disclosure and their equivalent technologies, the present disclosure is also intended to include these changes and modification.