Patent ID: 7781722

Claim:
An optical touch panel comprising: a support defining a detection region; an optical illumination assembly including: at least two edge emitting optical light guides extending along adjacent portions of said detection region and having ends adjacent to one another; and at least one mechanical coupling and optical coupling assembly comprising: first and second mechanical coupling portions mechanically coupled to said ends of said optical light guides for mechanically retaining said ends; at least one illumination source; and first and second optical coupling portions optically coupled to said ends of said optical light guides for optically coupling said ends to said at least one illumination source; at least one sensor, illumination, mechanical coupling and optical coupling assembly comprising: at least one sensor assembly, operative to detect changes in the light received from said optical illumination assembly produced by the presence of an object in said detection region, said at least one sensor assembly comprising: a support plate defining a reference surface; a lens assembly fixed to said reference surface; and a chip scale packaged solid state detector fixed to said reference surface and disposed in predetermined alignment with said lens assembly; and a pair of mechanical and optical coupling elements connected to said at least one sensor assembly; an edge connection printed circuit board connected to said chip scale packaged solid state detector; and detection circuitry receiving at least one output from said at least one sensor assembly and providing an output indication of the two dimensional location of object impingement in said detection region.