TOUCH SENSOR PANEL

• US 20120319974A1
• Filed: 07/03/2012
• Published: 12/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Melfas Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Melfas Incorporated
• Inventors: KIM, Jae Hong, Oh, Do Hwan
• Granted Patent: US 9,063,621 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04101 2.5D-digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface and also measures the distance of the input means within a short range in the Z direction, possibly with a separate measurement setup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0445 using two or more layers of sensing electrodes, e.g. using two layers of electrodes separated by a dielectric layer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes

Abstract

A touch sensor panel used for a display device is provided. The touch sensor panel can precisely determine a touch location with a given area of electrodes, can reduce the number of channels required, and can reduce the influence of noise. In addition, the touch sensor panel can improve sensing resolution with a given number of electrode channels, can be robust against noise, and can improve linearity by precisely determining a touch location and visibility of displayed image by dummy electrodes.

Claims

1. A touch sensor panel, comprising:

a touch detection area on a surface of a substrate, the touch detection area including a plurality of sensing regions; and

a wiring area on the surface of the substrate outside the touch detection area,

wherein;

the touch detection area includes

a plurality of vertical electrodes that extend into the wiring area and are arranged along a plurality of vertical axes, each vertical electrode including a plurality of sensing sectors,

a plurality of patches that each forms a part of the sensing regions and constitutes a part of one of a plurality of horizontal electrodes arranged along a plurality of horizontal axes, are arranged to be adjacent to the vertical electrodes,

a plurality of dummy electrodes that are insulated from each other and from at least some of the vertical electrodes and the patches;

the horizontal electrodes include first and second horizontal electrodes that are arranged along a first horizontal axis;

the vertical electrodes include a first vertical electrode having a plurality of sensing sectors including a first sensing sector that is disposed between a first patch of the first horizontal electrode and a second patch of the second horizontal electrode, forms a first sensing area with the first patch, and forms a second sensing area with the second patch;

the first and second patches are adjacent to each other and partially face each other; and

the first and second sensing areas at least partially overlap each other.

2. The touch sensor panel of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of internal wires connected to the patches, respectively, and extending into the wiring area,

wherein;

each of the internal wires comprises a first portion within the touch detection area and a second portion in the wiring area;

the wiring area includes a plurality of external wires including a first external wire that is connected to internal wires connected to the patches of the first horizontal electrode and a second external wire that is connected to internal wires connected to the patches of the second horizontal electrode.

3. The touch sensor panel of claim 2, wherein the substrate is a transparent window and at least one of the vertical electrodes, the horizontal electrodes, and the internal wires are formed in one body with the transparent window.

4. The touch sensor panel of claim 1, wherein the second vertical electrode is adjacent to the first vertical electrode and is disposed between the first and second patches.

5. The touch sensor panel of claim 4, wherein:

the patches of the first horizontal electrode and the patches of the second horizontal electrode are alternatingly arranged along the first horizontal axis;

a third patch of the first horizontal electrode is adjacent to the second patch and partially faces the second patch;

the vertical electrodes further include a third vertical electrode that is adjacent to the second vertical electrode;

the second patch and the third patch are disposed between the second vertical electrode and the third vertical electrode; and

the second vertical electrode and the third vertical electrode are electrically connected to each other.

6. The touch sensor panel of claim 1, wherein at least one of the dummy electrodes is disposed at least one of between adjacent patches, between adjacent vertical electrodes, and between a vertical electrode and a patch that are adjacent to each other.

7. The touch sensor panel of claim 1, wherein a distance between a dummy electrode and a patch that are adjacent to each other or a distance between a dummy electrode and a vertical electrode that are adjacent to each other are 10 to 50 μ

m.

8. The touch sensor panel of claim 1, wherein at least one of distances between adjacent patches, between adjacent vertical electrodes, and between a vertical electrode and a patch that are adjacent to each other is uniform.

9. The touch sensor panel of claim 8, wherein a lower bound of at least one of the distances is determined based on a size of foreign materials infiltrated during a manufacture of the touch sensor panel.

10. The touch sensor panel of claim 8, wherein an upper bound of at least one of the distances is determined based on an average width of the patches or an average width of the vertical electrodes.

11. The touch sensor panel of claim 1, wherein the dummy electrodes include first and second dummy electrodes that are adjacent to each other, a distance between the first and second dummy electrodes is determined by at least one of a gap between foreign materials infiltrated during a manufacture of the touch sensor panel, a distribution probability of the foreign materials, and a shape of the first and second dummy electrodes.

12. The touch sensor panel of claim 1, wherein at least one of the vertical electrodes includes a plurality of protrusions.

13. The touch sensor panel of claim 12, wherein a patch adjacent to at least one of the protrusions includes at least one recess.

14. The touch sensor panel of claim 12, wherein:

the protrusions include first protrusions that are bar-shaped and second protrusions that are also bar-shaped and are adjacent to the first protrusions;

the first protrusions have a first angle with one of the vertical electrodes and the second protrusions have a second angle with one of the vertical electrodes; and

the sum of the first and second angles is substantially 180 degrees.

15. The touch sensor panel of claim 1, wherein:

a first end of one of the vertical electrodes includes a plurality of refraction portions;

angles of the refraction portions are repetitions of a predefined finite sequence; and

the finite sequence includes a first obtuse angle, a direct angle, a direct angle, a first acute angle that forms a straight angle with the first obtuse angle, a second acute angle, a direct angle, a direct angle, and a second obtuse angle that forms a straight angle with the second acute angle.

16. The touch sensor panel of claim 1, further comprising:

a shield layer which is disposed over the touch detection area to electrically shield the touch detection area.

17. A display device comprising the touch sensor panel of claim 1.