Touch panel and the manufacturing method

• US 20060044284A1
• Filed: 07/27/2005
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Tanabe, Koji
• Granted Patent: US 7,351,922 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/045 using resistive elements, e.g. a single continuous surface or two parallel surfaces put in contact

Abstract

A touch panel uses a plurality of spacers shaped in the form of a letter L. The L-shape spacers can be manufactured by densely patterning the shapes of L in a certain specific orientation on a spacer sheet. Thus, a large number of such spacers can be made available out of a unit spacer sheet of a certain specific size, at a lowered rate of loss in the material utilization.

Claims

1. A touch panel comprising

a light transmitting lower substrate having a lower conductive layer on an upper surface thereof,

a light transmitting upper substrate with an upper conductive layer on a lower surface thereof, a space formed between said lower conductive layer and said upper conductive layer, and

a plurality of spacers provided with adhesive layers between said upper conductive layer and said lower conductive layer;

wherein

the plurality of spacers along sides of the upper and the lower substrates.

2. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein

a gap between the plurality of spacers is filled with a sealing material.

7. A touch panel according to claim 1, wherein said spacers are L shaped.

3. A method for manufacturing a touch panel comprising the steps of

providing a plurality of spacers, and

attaching the spacers with adhesive between a light transmitting lower substrate having a lower conductive layer formed on an upper surface thereof and a light transmitting upper substrate having an upper conductive layer formed on a lower surface thereof, so that a space is formed between said lower conductive layer and said upper conductive layer.

4. The method of manufacturing a touch panel recited in claim 3, the step of providing the spacers wherein comprises the steps of;

applying an upper release sheet on an upper surface of said spacer adhesive layer, and a lower release sheet on a lower surface of the spacer having a second adhesive layer to form an integrated sheet, and

cutting the integrated sheet,

5. The method of manufacturing a touch panel recited in claim 4, the step of attaching the spacers wherein comprises the step of;

attaching the spacers between the upper substrate and the lower substrate after separating the upper release sheet and the lower release sheet from the spacers.

6. The method of manufacturing a touch panel recited in claim 4, in the step of providing the spacers wherein,

peel strength of the upper release sheet is made to be different from that of the lower release sheet.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein said spacers are L shaped.