METHOD OF PRODUCING CAPACITIVE COPLANAR TOUCH PANEL DEVICES WITH LASER ABLATION

• US 20140009429A1
• Filed: 07/03/2012
• Published: 01/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: InnoLux Corporation
• Original Assignee: Innocom Technology Limited, InnoLux Corporation
• Inventors: VERWEG, Frans, REIJNEN, Edward
• Application Number:
  US13/541,501
• Publication Number:
  US 20140009429A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04103 Manufacturing, i.e. details related to manufacturing processes specially suited for touch sensitive devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04164 Connections between sensors and controllers, e.g. routing lines between electrodes and connection pads
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0443 using a single layer of sensing electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49105 Switch making

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of manufacturing a capacitive coplanar touch panel device based on the following actions:

• • a) Providing a glass sheet having a first size,
  • b) Cutting the glass sheet in glass sheet pieces having a second size smaller than the first size,
  • c) Hardening the glass sheet pieces to a desired level of hardness,
  • d) Applying a transparent conductive layer with a predetermined thickness on a side of at least one glass sheet piece,
  • e) Applying a laser ablation process on the transparent conductive layer such as to provide the transparent conductive layer with a predetermined pattern.

Claims

1. A manufacturing method of a capacitive coplanar touch panel device, the manufacturing method comprising the steps of:

a) Providing a glass sheet having a first size;

b) Cutting the glass sheet in glass sheet pieces having a second size smaller than the first size;

c) Hardening the glass sheet pieces with said second size to a desired level of hardness;

d) Applying a transparent conductive layer with a predetermined thickness on a side of at least one glass sheet piece with said second size;

e) Applying a laser ablation process on the transparent conductive layer such as to provide the transparent conductive layer with a predetermined pattern and thus rendering an at least one glass sheet piece with a patterned transparent conductive layer.

2. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the glass sheet is selected from the following group of glass types:

Soda Lime Float Glass, Borofloat 33, or Gorilla Glass.

3. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the glass sheet has a glass sheet thickness of between 0.5 and 4 mm.

4. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the glass sheet has a preferably glass sheet thickness of between 0.5 and 1.5 mm.

5. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the glass sheet has a thickness tolerance of 0.05 mm.

6. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transparent comprises a first transparent conductive layer, and the glass sheet and the first transparent conductive layer are both non-flat.

7. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the first transparent conductive layer has a first transparent conductive layer thickness between 1000 and 2000 Å

9. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the patterned transparent conductive layer is made of one of ITO and a transparent conductive organic material.

10. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the patterned transparent conductive layer comprises both sensor elements and conductive tracks to provide routing tracks between said sensor elements and a sensor controller.

11. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the width of the said tracking for the said track is greater or equal than 15 μ

m.

12. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the width for the said gap between the said track is between 8 μ

m to 10 μ

m.

13. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 1, comprising applying a non-transparent border area on an outside area of the at least one glass sheet piece prior to applying said transparent conductive layer.

14. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 13, comprising applying a metal conductive layer on the non-transparent border area prior to applying the transparent conductive layer, such that the metal conductive layer is laser-ablated together with the transparent conductive layer in the action e) in order to provide conductive routing tracks in the outside area.

15. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 1, comprising further assembling the touch panel device by:

Providing a product on top of a display device.

16. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the method of assembling the touch panel device comprises providing a sensor electrode layer in the display device made of one of ITO, a metal, and a transparent conductive organic material.

17. A manufacturing method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the display device is made by one of a twisted nematic (TN) effect technology, an in-plane switching (IPS) technology, an active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) technology, an advanced fringe field switching (AFFS) technology, a vertical alignment (VA) technology and blue phase mode technology.

19. A touch panel device as claimed in claim 16, wherein the device is non-flat.

8. A manufacturing method as claimed in 1, the laser ablation process comprises using either a direct-write method or a mask-projection method.

18. A touch panel device, comprising a window plate having a laser-ablated patterned transparent conductive layer on its back surface, the patterned transparent conductive layer providing a touch sensitive interface area.

20. A apparatus provided with a touch panel device according to claim 18, said apparatus being one of a smart-phone, a tabloid personal computer, a digital still-picture camera, a car navigation system, a DVD/blu ray-player, a gaming device, a tabloid computer monitor, a printer, a scanner and copier.