TOUCH PANEL HAVING VIRTUAL FUNCTION BUTTON, METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME, AND METHOD OF IDENTIFYING TOUCH CONFLICT ON THE SAME

• US 20140145978A1
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Published: 05/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elan Microelectronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: Elan Microelectronics Corporation
• Inventors: HSU, Chi-Fang
• Granted Patent: US 9,158,400 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04103 Manufacturing, i.e. details related to manufacturing processes specially suited for touch sensitive devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0393 Accessories for touch pads or touch screens, e.g. mechanical guides added to touch screens for drawing straight lines, hard keys overlaying touch screens or touch pads
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49105 Switch making

Abstract

A touch device capable of identifying touch conflict has at least one function button mounted on a touch panel of the touch device and at least one auxiliary button mounted around the at least one function button. The at least one function button and the at least one auxiliary button are touch-activated. When users simultaneously or sequentially touch the at least one function button and the at least one auxiliary button, the touch device determines that a touch conflict occurs and determines whether to execute a function originally defined by the at least one function button or to execute another function according to the touch conflict.

Claims

1. A method of identifying touch conflict on a touch panel, comprising steps of:

detecting if a function button mounted on the touch panel is touched to generate a first sensing signal variation;

detecting if at least one auxiliary button mounted on the touch panel is touched to generate at least one second sensing signal variation; and

if the first sensing signal variation and the second signal variation are detected, determining that a touch conflict occurs.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the touch panel has multiple auxiliary buttons;

and

after detecting the first sensing signal variation, further determine if a number of the at least one auxiliary button generating the at least one second sensing signal variation exceeds a preset value, and if positive, determine that a touch conflict occurs.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein in the step of determining that the touch conflict occurs, if the first sensing signal variation and the at least one second signal variation are simultaneously detected, the touch conflict is determined to occur.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein after the step of detecting the first sensing signal variation, if the at least one second signal variation is detected within a preset time, the touch conflict is determined to occur.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein after the step of detecting the at least one second sensing signal variation, if the first sensing signal variation is detected within a preset time, the touch conflict is determined to occur.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a first function is activated by touching the function button, and in the step of determining that a touch conflict occurs, the first function is executed when determining that the touch conflict occurs.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a first function is activated by touching the function button, and in the step of determining that a touch conflict occurs, the first function is stopped executing when determining that the touch conflict occurs.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein in the step of determining that a touch conflict occurs, if the touch conflict is determined to occur, a second function is further executed.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the second function is to unlock the touch device.

10. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the second function is to launch a task list under a Windows operating system.

11. A touch device having virtual function button, comprising:

a touch panel having;

a virtual button area;

at least one function button mounted within the virtual button area and being touch-activated; and

at least one auxiliary button mounted around the at least one function button and being touch-activated; and

a controller connected to the at least one function button and the at least one auxiliary button, and determining if a touch conflict occurs according to whether the at least one function button and the at least one auxiliary button are touched.

12. The touch device as claimed in claim 11, wherein the virtual button area of the touch panel has a length and a width, and the at least one function button and the at least one auxiliary button are aligned next to each other in a direction along the length.

13. The touch device as claimed in claim 11, wherein the virtual button area of the touch panel has a length and a width, the touch panel has multiple auxiliary buttons mounted within the virtual button area, and the at least one function button and the auxiliary buttons are aligned next to each other in a direction along the width.

14. The touch device as claimed in claim 11, wherein the virtual button area of the touch panel has a length and a width, the touch panel has multiple function buttons and multiple auxiliary buttons mounted within the virtual button area, and the function buttons and the auxiliary buttons are aligned next to each other in a direction along the width, and each auxiliary button is located between adjacent two of the function buttons.

15. The touch device as claimed in any one of claims 11, wherein the virtual button area of the touch panel has a length and a width, and the at least one function button and the at least one auxiliary button are aligned next to each other along a direction of the width.

16. The touch device as claimed in claim 15, wherein the touch panel has a view area and an active zone formed around the view area, and the virtual button area is located within the view area.

17. The touch device as claimed in claim 15, wherein the touch panel has a view area and an active zone formed around the view area, and the virtual button area is located within the active zone.

18. The touch device as claimed in claim 17, wherein each one of the at least one auxiliary button is located between the view area and a corresponding function button.

19. The touch device as claimed in claim 17, wherein a grounding protection line is mounted between each one of the at least one function button and a corresponding auxiliary button.

20. A method of manufacturing a touch panel having virtual function button, comprising steps of:

providing a substrate;

defining a touch sensing area and a virtual button area on the substrate;

forming a sensing layer within the touch sensing area; and

forming multiple button electrodes within the virtual button area, wherein the button electrodes include at least one function button electrode and at least one auxiliary button electrode.

21. The method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the step of forming the sensing layer within the touch sensing area has steps of:

forming an X-axis sensing electrode layer on the substrate, wherein the X-axis sensing electrode layer has multiple X-axis electrode arrays, and each X-axis sensing electrode array is formed by multiple X-axis electrodes with a connection part connected between each adjacent two of X-axis electrodes;

forming a Y-axis sensing electrode layer on the substrate, wherein the Y-axis sensing electrode layer has multiple Y-axis electrodes, and the Y-axis electrodes and the X-axis electrodes of the X-axis electrode layer are alternately arranged on the substrate;

forming multiple insulation layers, each of which is formed between adjacent two of the X-axis electrodes of the X-axis sensing electrode layer and across a corresponding connection part; and

forming multiple conductive bridging parts, each of which is formed on a corresponding insulation layer with two ends of the bridging part respectively connected with adjacent two of the Y-axis electrodes so as to constitute multiple Y-axis electrode arrays.

22. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein in the step of forming the X-axis sensing electrode layer, the button electrodes are formed within the virtual button area.

23. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein in the step of forming the Y-axis sensing electrode layer, the button electrodes are formed within the virtual button area.

24. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein in the step of forming the conductive bridging parts of the Y-axis sensing electrode layer, the button electrodes are formed within the virtual button area.

25. The method as claimed in claim 21, further comprising a step of fabricating multiple signal lines on the substrate with silver paste, wherein in the step of fabricating multiple signal lines, the button electrodes are formed within the virtual button area.

26. The method as claimed in claim 21, further comprising a step of forming a protection layer on the substrate to cover the X-axis sensing electrode layer and the Y-axis sensing electrode layer.

27. The method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the step of forming multiple button electrodes within the virtual button area further has steps of:

forming a transparent electrode sensing layer on a carrier; and

using an adhesive layer to affix the carrier and the transparent electrode sensing layer on top of the carrier on the virtual button area of the substrate.

28. The method as claimed in claim 27, wherein the carrier is a PET transparent film, and is affixed on the virtual button area of the substrate with optical clear adhesive (OCA).

29. The method as claimed in claim 27, wherein the carrier is a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) having a copper clad laminate thereon to constitute the electrode sensing layer.

30. The method as claimed in claim 27, wherein the step of forming the sensing layer within the touch sensing area further has steps of:

forming a transparent electrode sensing layer on a carrier; and

using a transparent adhesive layer to affix the carrier and the transparent electrode sensing layer on top of the carrier on the touch sensing area of the substrate.

31. The method as claimed in claim 30, wherein the carrier is a PET transparent film.

32. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the X-axis electrode arrays of the X-axis sensing electrode layer, the Y-axis electrodes of the Y-axis sensing electrode layer, the bridging parts, the function button electrodes, and the auxiliary button electrodes are made of a transparent conductive material.

33. The method as claimed in claim 32, wherein the transparent conductive material is indium tin oxide (ITO).