TOUCH PANEL

• US 20130242485A1
• Filed: 05/03/2013
• Published: 09/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: KURIKI, Tadashi, OHTANI, Sumio
• Granted Patent: US 9,295,176 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 361/679.01
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04103 Manufacturing, i.e. details related to manufacturing processes specially suited for touch sensitive devices
• 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 2203/04112 Electrode mesh in capacitive digitiser: electrode for touch sensing is formed of a mesh of very fine, normally metallic, interconnected lines that are almost invisible to see. This provides a quite large but transparent electrode surface, without need for ITO or similar transparent conductive material
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• 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 3/045 using resistive elements, e.g. a single continuous surface or two parallel surfaces put in contact
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/02 Arrangements of circuit components or wiring on supporting structure

Abstract

A touch panel includes: a first electrode in which second-direction parallel bands having a plurality of conducting wires disposed to extend in parallel with one another and along a second direction intersecting with a first direction are formed repeatedly in the first direction with interposition of first-direction gaps in the first direction, and first-direction cross bands having conducting wires disposed to extend in the first direction and intersect with the second-direction parallel bands are formed repeatedly in the second direction; and a second electrode in which first-direction parallel bands are formed as defined herein, and second-direction cross bands are formed as defined herein, and the first electrode and the second electrode are laid on each other so that the second-direction cross bands correspond to positions of the first-direction gaps and the first-direction cross bands correspond to positions of the second-direction gaps.

Claims

1. A touch panel comprising:

a first electrode in which second-direction parallel bands having a plurality of conducting wires disposed to extend in parallel with one another and along a second direction intersecting with a first direction are formed repeatedly in the first direction with interposition of first-direction gaps in the first direction, and first-direction cross bands having conducting wires disposed to extend in the first direction and intersect with the second-direction parallel bands are formed repeatedly in the second direction; and

a second electrode in which first-direction parallel bands having a plurality of conducting wires disposed to extend in parallel with one another and along the first direction are formed repeatedly in the second direction with interposition of second-direction gaps in the second direction, and second-direction cross bands having conducting wires disposed to extend in the second direction and intersect with the first-direction parallel bands are formed repeatedly in the first direction,

wherein the first electrode and the second electrode are laid on each other so that the second-direction cross bands correspond to positions of the first-direction gaps and the first-direction cross bands correspond to positions of the second-direction gaps.

2. The touch panel according to claim 1, wherein:

when the first electrode and the second electrode are seen through;

the conducting wires included in the first-direction parallel bands and the first-direction cross bands are arranged at a fixed interval to each other;

the conducting wires included in the second-direction parallel bands and the second-direction cross bands are arranged at a fixed interval to each other; and

a uniform grid-like pattern is formed out of the first-direction parallel bands, the second-direction parallel bands, the first-direction cross bands and the second-direction cross bands.

3. The touch panel according to claim 1, wherein:

each of the number of conducting wires making up each of the first-direction parallel bands and the number of conducting wires making up each of the second-direction parallel bands is at least three; and

each of the number of conducting wires making up each of the first-direction cross bands and the number of conducting wires making up each of the second-direction cross bands is not smaller than 1 and not larger than 10, but is smaller than each of the number of conducting wires making up each of the first-direction parallel bands and the number of conducting wires making up each of the second-direction parallel bands.

4. The touch panel according to claim 1, wherein:

the conducting wires included in each of the first-direction parallel bands and the second-direction parallel bands are disposed densely at a lower pitch than the pitch of each of the first-direction cross bands and the second-direction cross bands.

5. The touch panel according to claim 4, wherein:

the pitch of the conducting wires included in each of the first-direction parallel bands and the second-direction parallel bands is not lower than 150 μ

m and not higher than 400 μ

m; and

the pitch of each of the first-direction cross bands and the second-direction cross bands is not lower than 2,000 μ

m and not higher than 10,000 μ

m.

6. The touch panel according to claim 1, wherein:

the first-direction cross bands of the first electrode are arranged at a pitch equal to the total width of each of the first-direction parallel bands and each of the second-direction gaps formed in the second electrode; and

the second-direction cross bands of the second electrode are arranged at a pitch equal to the total width of each of the second-direction parallel bands and each of the first-direction gaps formed in the first electrode.

7. The touch panel according to claim 1, wherein:

the width of each of the conducting wires making up the first-direction parallel bands and the second-direction parallel bands is not smaller than 2 vim and not larger than 10 μ

m; and

the pitch of the conducting wires in each of the first-direction parallel bands and the second-direction parallel bands is not lower than 250 μ

m and not higher than 350 nm.

8. The touch panel according to claim 1, wherein:

the first electrode has first electrode arrays in each of which electrode pieces are arrayed, each of the electrode pieces being sectioned by selective disconnection of portions of the conducting wires intersecting with an edge line of a closed figure assumed on the first electrode;

the second electrode has second electrode arrays in each of which electrode pieces are arrayed in a direction intersecting with a direction in which the first electrode arrays are arrayed, each of the electrode pieces being sectioned by selective disconnection of portions of the conducting wires intersecting with an edge line of a closed figure assumed on the second electrode;

the first electrode arrays and the second electrode arrays are disposed repeatedly in fixed directions intersecting with each other respectively; and

the electrode pieces of the first electrode and the second electrode are arrayed not to be superimposed on each other when the first electrode and the second electrode are seen through.

9. The touch panel according to claim 8, wherein a mirror-image relationship is established between a pattern of the conducting wires included in the first electrode and a pattern of the conducting wires included in the second electrode.

10. The touch panel according to claim 8, wherein:

each of the electrode pieces in each of the first electrode arrays is formed inside the closed figure by disconnection of a portion of each of the second-direction parallel bands intersecting with the edge line of the closed figure passing through the first-direction gaps at two places on each of the first-direction cross bands, and the electrode pieces are arranged in the first direction in a state in which electric continuity among the electrode pieces is secured by the conducting wires of each of the first-direction cross bands; and

each of the electrode pieces in each of the second electrode arrays is formed inside the closed figure by disconnection of a portion of each of the first-direction parallel bands intersecting with the edge line of the closed figure passing through the second-direction gaps at two places on each of the second-direction cross bands, and the electrode pieces are arranged in the second direction in a state in which electric continuity among the electrode pieces is secured by the conducting wires of each of the second-direction cross wires.

11. The touch panel according to claim 8, wherein:

each of the electrode pieces in each of the first electrode arrays is formed inside the closed figure by disconnection of a portion of each of the first-direction cross bands intersecting with the edge line of the closed figure passing through one point on the first electrode and another point on the first electrode spaced apart from the one point in a third direction intersecting both the first direction and the second direction, and a portion of each of the second-direction parallel bands intersecting with the edge line of the closed figure excluding non-disconnection parts near the one point and the other point, and the electrode pieces are arranged in a state in which the electrode pieces are electrically connected to one another through the non-disconnection parts; and

each of the electrode pieces in each of the second electrode arrays is formed inside the closed figure by disconnection of a portion of each of the second-direction cross bands intersecting with the edge line of the closed figure passing through one point on the second electrode and another point on the second electrode spaced apart from the one point in a fourth direction intersecting the first direction, the second direction and the third direction, and a portion of each of the first-direction parallel bands intersecting with the edge line of the closed figure excluding non-disconnection parts near the one point and the other point, and the electrode pieces are arranged in a state in which the electrode pieces are electrically connected to one another through the non-disconnection parts.

12. The touch panel according to claim 1, wherein the conducting wires extending along the first direction and the conducting wires extending along the second direction are inclined with respect to a direction in which pixels belonging to a display on which the touch panel is stacked are arranged.

13. The touch panel according to claim 1, wherein the first direction is set to be parallel or perpendicular to a direction in which pixels belonging to a display on which the touch panel is stacked are arranged, and the second direction is set to be perpendicular or parallel to the direction.

14. The touch panel according to claim 8, wherein in each disconnection part which is a set of the disconnected portions of the conducting wires intersecting with the edge line of the closed figure, at least one of disconnection lengths in a direction intersecting with the edge line, and disconnection positions in a direction intersecting with the edge line change at random in a direction along the edge line.

15. The touch panel according to claim 11, wherein each non-disconnection part formed to include the portions of the conducting wires which are not disconnected when the electrode pieces are sectioned is formed out of at least two conducting wires.

16. The touch panel according to claim 8, wherein the closed figure is a polygon.

17. An image display apparatus comprising:

the touch panel according to claim 1; and

a display on which the touch panel is stacked.