Touch sensor panel

• US 9,063,621 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2012
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Melfas Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Melfas Incorporated
• Inventors: Kim, Jae Hong, Oh, Do Hwan
• Primary Examiner(s): MARINELLI, PATRICK
• Application Number:
  US13/540,861
• Publication Number:
  US 20120319974A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,085 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-184, 345/104, 178 1801- 2004
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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;

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 are arranged along a plurality of vertical axes, each vertical electrode including a plurality of sensing sectors, and

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,

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 and a second vertical electrode having a plurality of sensing sectors including a second sensing sector, wherein the first and second vertical electrodes are adjacent to each other and disposed between a first patch of the first horizontal electrode and a second patch of the second horizontal electrode;

wherein when a driving signal is applied to the first and second horizontal electrodes to detect mutual capacitance variations caused by a user'"'"'s touch on the touch detecting area, the first sensing sector forms a first sensing area with the first patch and forms a second sensing area with the second patch, and the second sensing sector forms a third sensing area with the first patch and forms a fourth sensing area with the second patch, and wherein the first, second, third, and fourth sensing areas at least partially overlap each other forming a plurality of overlapping sensing regions;

the first patch neighbors the second patch;

the first and second patches are at least partially facing each other; and

wherein the driving signal is sequentially applied to the first and second horizontal electrodes, and patches of each of the first and second horizontal electrode are electrically connected to each other; and

a touch sensor circuit electrically connected to the touch detection area and detecting the user'"'"'s touch by using an extracted horizontal location component and a vertical location component from each of the plurality of overlapping sensing regions and combining the extracted horizontal and vertical location components.

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:

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

a third patch of the first horizontal electrode neighbors the second patch and at least partially faces the second patch;

the vertical electrodes further include a third vertical electrode that neighbors the second vertical electrode;

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

the first vertical electrode is electrically insulated from 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.

5. 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.

6. The touch sensor panel of claim 5, 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.

7. The touch sensor panel of claim 5, 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.

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

9. The touch sensor panel of claim 8, wherein a patch adjacent to at least one of the protrusions includes at least one recess.

10. The touch sensor panel of claim 8, 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

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

14. The touch sensor panel of claim 1, wherein the touch detection area further includes a plurality of dummy electrodes that are insulated from each other and from at least some of the vertical electrodes and the patches.

15. The touch sensor panel of claim 14, 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.

16. The touch sensor panel of claim 14, 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.

17. The touch sensor panel of claim 14, 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.

18. The touch sensor panel of claim 1, wherein the first and second vertical electrodes are immediately adjacent to each other.

19. The touch sensor panel of claim 1, wherein the second sensing sector forms a third sensing area with the second patch, with the first to third sensing areas at least partially overlapping with each other.

20. The touch sensor panel of claim 19, wherein the first sensing sector forms a fourth sensing area with the second patch, with the first to fourth sensing areas at least partially overlapping with each other.

21. A display device having a touch sensor panel, the touch panel comprising:

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

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 are arranged along a plurality of vertical axes, each vertical electrode including a plurality of sensing sectors,

a plurality of horizontal electrodes that are arranged along a plurality of horizontal axes and include first, second and third horizontal electrodes, each horizontal electrode including a plurality of patches, wherein the vertical electrodes include first and second vertical electrodes that are adjacent to each other, and wherein the first and second vertical electrodes are disposed between a first patch of the first horizontal electrode, a second patch of the second horizontal electrode and a third patch of the third horizontal electrode,

wherein the first patch partially faces the second patch and the third patch, and wherein central axes that pass through center portions of the first to third patches in a horizontal direction are misaligned with each other, and

wherein when a driving signal is applied to the first to third horizontal electrodes to detect mutual capacitance variations caused by a user'"'"'s touch on the touch detecting area, a first sensing sector forms a first sensing area with the first patch, a second sensing area with the second patch and a third sensing area with the third patch, and wherein the first, second, and third sensing areas at least partially overlap each other forming a plurality of overlapping sensing areas; and

wherein the driving signal is sequentially applied to the first to third horizontal electrodes, and patches of each of the first to third horizontal electrode are electrically connected to each other; and

a touch sensor circuit electrically connected to the touch detection area and detecting the user'"'"'s touch by using an extracted horizontal location component and a vertical location component from each of the plurality of overlapping sensing regions and combining the extracted horizontal and vertical location components.

22. The display device of claim 21, further comprising a plurality of internal wires connected to the patches and extending into the wiring area, wherein the first patch partially faces the second patch and the third patch without the internal wires therebetween.