DUAL-MODE CAPACITIVE TOUCH DISPLAY PANEL

• US 20170315657A1
• Filed: 10/06/2016
• Published: 11/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AU Optronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: AU Optronics Corporation
• Inventors: LAI, Shih-Lun, HSIEH, Yi-San, HUANG, I-Hsiung
• Granted Patent: US 10,416,804 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04105 Pressure sensors for measuring the pressure or force exerted on the touch surface without providing the touch position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04107 Shielding in digitiser, i.e. guard or shielding arrangements, mostly for capacitive touchscreens, e.g. driven shields, driven grounds
• 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 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04164 Connections between sensors and controllers, e.g. routing lines between electrodes and connection pads
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041662 using alternate mutual and self-capacitive scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0443 using a single layer of sensing electrodes
• 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 3/0447 Position sensing using the local deformation of sensor cells

Abstract

A dual-mode capacitive touch display panel includes first and second substrates, a display layer disposed between the first and second substrates, at least two first touch electrodes, at least two second touch electrodes, plural pressure sensing electrodes, and a shielding conductive layer. The first and second touch electrodes are disposed on the first substrate and overlap sub-pixels thereon. The first and second touch electrodes are respectively separated. The pressure sensing electrodes are disposed on the second substrate, and overlap the corresponding first or second touch electrodes in a vertical projection direction. The shielding conductive layer is disposed on the second substrate and includes plural openings, the pressure sensing electrodes overlap the corresponding openings, and the pressure sensing electrodes have a lower surface resistance than the shielding conductive layer does.

Claims

1. A dual-mode capacitive touch display panel, comprising:

a first substrate, comprising a plurality of sub-pixels, wherein one of said sub-pixels has a switching element, a signal line, and a pixel electrode, and said switching element is electrically connected to said signal line and said pixel electrode;

a second substrate, disposed separately from said first substrate;

a display medium layer, sandwiched between said first substrate and said second substrate;

a plurality of first touch electrodes, disposed on said first substrate, wherein each of said plurality of first touch electrodes is separated from each other, wherein said first touch electrodes overlap with said sub-pixels located on said first substrate respectively;

a plurality of second touch electrodes, disposed on said first substrate, wherein each of said plurality of second touch electrodes is separated from each other and separated from said first touch electrodes, and said second touch electrodes overlap with said sub-pixels located on said first substrate respectively;

a plurality of pressure sensing electrodes, disposed on said second substrate, wherein each of said plurality of pressure sensing electrodes overlaps with a corresponding first touch electrode or a corresponding second touch electrode in a vertical projection direction; and

a shielding conductive layer, disposed on said second substrate, wherein said shielding conductive layer comprises a plurality of openings, each of said plurality of pressure sensing electrodes overlaps with a corresponding opening of said shielding conductive layer, and each of said plurality of pressure sensing electrodes has a lower surface resistance than said shielding conductive layer.

2. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 1, wherein each of the first touch electrodes and the second touch electrodes comprises a plurality of sub-electrodes connected to one another, and each of the sub-electrodes is a common electrode to other sub-pixels.

3. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 1, wherein the shielding conductive layer is disposed on an outer surface of the second substrate, and the pressure sensing electrode is disposed on the outer surface of the second substrate, and located on top of the shielding conductive layer.

4. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 3, further comprising:

a control circuit, located on the second substrate and electrically connected to each of the pressure sensing electrodes; and

an insulating layer, sandwiched between the control circuit and the shielding conductive layer, wherein the insulating layer covers the openings of the shielding conductive layer, the shielding conductive layer and the pressure sensing electrodes, the insulating layer has a plurality of openings, and each of the pressure sensing electrodes is connected to the control circuit located on the second substrate via a corresponding opening of the insulating layer.

5. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 3, further comprising:

a control circuit, located on the second substrate and electrically connected to each of the pressure sensing electrodes; and

an insulating layer, sandwiched between the control circuit and the shielding conductive layer, wherein the insulating layer covers the openings of the shielding conductive layer and the shielding conductive layer and the pressure sensing electrodes are located on the insulating layer.

6. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 3, further comprising:

a control circuit, located on the second substrate and electrically connected to each of the pressure sensing electrodes;

a first insulating layer, sandwiched between the control circuit and the shielding conductive layer, wherein the first insulating layer covers the openings of the shielding conductive layer and a portion of the shielding conductive layer; and

a second insulating layer, disposed on the outer surface of the second substrate, wherein the second insulating layer covers the control circuit and the first insulating layer, the second insulating layer has a plurality of openings, and the pressure sensing electrodes are located on the openings of the second insulating layer, wherein each of the pressure sensing electrodes is connected to the control circuit located on the second substrate via a corresponding opening of the second insulating layer.

7. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 1, wherein the shielding conductive layer is disposed on an inner surface of the second substrate, and the pressure sensing electrode is disposed on an outer surface of the second substrate, located on top of the shielding conductive layer, wherein the inner surface of the second substrate faces the first substrate.

8. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 7, further comprising:

a control circuit, disposed on the outer surface of the second substrate and electrically connected to each of the pressure sensing electrodes.

9. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 1, wherein each of the pressure sensing electrodes overlaps with a corresponding first touch electrode or second touch electrode in the vertical projection direction, and each of the pressure sensing electrodes is located in a region of the corresponding first touch electrode or second touch electrode in a vertical projection direction.

10. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 1, wherein a gap exists between one of said first touch electrodes and one of said second touch electrodes, wherein each of said first touch electrodes and the gap overlap with one of said pressure sensing electrodes in said vertical projection direction, or each of said second touch electrodes and the gap overlap with another one of the pressure sensing electrodes in said vertical projection direction.

11. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 1, wherein a first gap exists between one of said first touch electrodes and one of said second touch electrodes, and a second gap exists among said plurality of first touch electrodes and among said plurality of second touch electrodes, wherein both said first touch electrodes, said second touch electrodes, said first gap, and said second gap overlap with one of said pressure sensing electrodes in said vertical projection direction.

12. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 1, wherein each of the pressure sensing electrodes is located in the corresponding opening of the shielding conductive layer.

13. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 1, wherein when a vertical projection area of one of the openings of the shielding conductive layer is divided by a vertical projection area of the corresponding first touch electrode or second touch electrode, the result is greater than 0 and less than or equal to 5%.

14. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of lines, disposed on the first substrate, wherein each of the lines is electrically connected to the corresponding first touch electrode or the corresponding second touch electrode.

15. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one first bridge electrode and at least one second bridge electrode, wherein the first bridge electrode is electrically connected between one of the first touch electrodes and one of the second touch electrodes;

the second bridge electrode is electrically connected between another of the first touch electrodes and another of the second touch electrodes, and the first bridge electrode is interlaced with the second bridge electrode.

16. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 1, wherein a spacing between each of the pressure sensing electrodes and a corresponding first touch electrode or a corresponding second touch electrode is deformable when a force is applied to each of the pressure sensing electrodes.

17. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one controller, operatively coupled to the first touch electrodes and the second touch electrodes, wherein the controller is configured to measure a position of an object relative to the first touch electrodes and the second touch electrodes, and measure a force applied to the second substrate.

18. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 17, wherein:

in a position detection mode, both the pressure sensing electrodes and the shielding conductive layer are at a floating potential, and a touch position is calculated through capacitance change amounts of the first touch electrode and of the second touch electrode, or a capacitance change amount between each of the first touch electrodes and each of the second touch electrodes; and

in a force detection mode, both the pressure sensing electrodes and the shielding conductive layer are at a fixed potential, and a force applied to each of the pressure sensing electrodes is calculated through a capacitance change amount between each of the pressure sensing electrodes and a corresponding first touch electrode or second touch electrode.

19. The dual-mode capacitive touch display panel according to claim 1, wherein:

in a display mode, both the pressure sensing electrodes, the shielding conductive layer, and the first touch electrodes or the second touch electrodes are at a fixed potential to display an image.