Patent ID: 6911973

Claim:
A touch panel device comprising: a non-piezoelectric substrate; a substantially rectangular touch area located in the middle portion of the non-piezoelectric substrate; a piezoelectric thin film located around the touch area; plural pairs of transmission comb electrodes and reception comb electrodes of surface acoustic wave elements around the touch area, the plural transmission comb electrodes located along one of the neighboring sides of the touch area and the plural reception comb electrodes located along the other of the neighboring sides of the touch area constituting plural pairs, so that surface acoustic wave signals propagate from the transmission comb electrodes to the reception comb electrodes in a slanting direction with respect to four sides of the touch area; the piezoelectric thin film having a linear inside edge along the four sides of the touch area; and a line along an electrode finger of the transmission comb electrode and a line along an electrode finger of the reception comb electrode being non-parallel with each other in accordance with an angle of refraction of the surface acoustic wave at a boundary between the piezoelectric thin film and the touch area.