Capacitive in-cell touch screen, driving method for the same, and display apparatus

• US 9,170,692 B2
• Filed: 11/01/2013
• Issued: 10/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Beijing BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd. (BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Beijing BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd. (BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Yang, Shengji, Dong, Xue, Wang, Haisheng
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chanh
• Assistant Examiner(s): DUONG, DANIEL H
• Application Number:
  US14/069,998
• Publication Number:
  US 20140125626A1
• Time in Patent Office: 725 Days
• Field of Search: 349/12
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13338 Input devices, e.g. touch panels
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/134318 having a patterned common electrode
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/134336 Matrix
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0443 using a single layer of sensing electrodes

Abstract

The embodiments of the disclosure provides a capacitive in-cell touch panel, a driving method thereof and a display apparatus, wherein touch sensing electrodes are set on a color filter substrate, a common electrode layer connected as a whole plane on a TFT array substrate is divided into strips to be used as touch driving electrodes; touch driving signal lines are set in a display area of the touch panel by adopting a dual gate structure, which is helpful for a narrow frame design of the touch panel; each of the touch driving electrodes is electrically connected to at least one touch driving signal line and is supplied with a driving signal by a plurality of touch driving signal lines simultaneously, such that transmission efficiency of the driving signal can be improved to the maximum extent and delay of the driving signal can be reduced.

Claims

1. A capacitive in-cell touch panel comprising:

a color filter substrate, a thin film transistor TFT array substrate having a common electrode layer, and a liquid crystal layer between the color filter substrate and the TFT array substrate, wherein a plurality of pixel units arranged in a matrix are set in the capacitive in-cell touch panel;

two gate signal lines are arranged between two adjacent rows of pixel units on the TFT array substrate, and two adjacent columns of pixel units constitute a group and commonly use a same data signal line located between the two adjacent columns of pixel units, wherein,

the color filter substrate has a plurality of touch sensing electrodes;

the common electrode layer of the TFT array substrate has a plurality of touch driving electrodes, each of which is electrically connected to at least one touch driving signal line located between two adjacent groups of columns of pixel units;

during a display period of a frame of picture, each of the touch driving signal lines electrically connected to the touch driving electrode is used to transmit a common electrode signal and a touch scanning signal to the touch driving electrode in a time division manner;

wherein each of the touch driving electrodes has concave structures in areas overlapping with the touch sensing electrode;

the common electrode layer of the TFT array substrate further has a plurality of common electrodes, and each of the common electrodes is located within the concave structures between the adjacent touch driving electrodes and is isolated from the touch driving electrodes.

2. The capacitive in-cell touch panel of claim 1, wherein each of the touch sensing electrodes is extended along a direction of columns of the pixel units and each of the touch driving electrodes is extended along a direction of rows of the pixel units.

3. The capacitive in-cell touch panel of claim 1, wherein the touch driving signal lines are set on a same layer as the data signal lines in the TFT array substrate;

and each of the touch driving signal lines is electrically connected to a corresponding touch driving electrode through at least one via-hole.

4. The capacitive in-cell touch panel of claim 3, wherein each of the touch driving electrode is electrically connected to a plurality of touch driving signal lines, and the plurality of touch driving signal lines electrically connected to a same touch driving electrode are connected through wires.

5. The capacitive in-cell touch panel of claim 4, further comprising a plurality of metal lines arranged in a same layer as each of the touch driving signal lines and isolated from each other, wherein each of the metal lines and each of the touch driving signal lines form a co-linear relationship, and each of the metal lines is connected in parallel to a corresponding touch driving electrode;

a length of each of the metal lines is not more than a width of the corresponding parallel touch driving electrode.

6. The capacitive in-cell touch panel of claim 1, further comprising at least one common electrode line electrically connected to the common electrodes, wherein the at least one common electrode line is set in the gap between adjacent groups of columns of pixel units where no touch driving signal line is set.

7. The capacitive in-cell touch panel of claim 1, wherein each of the touch sensing electrodes has concave portions in areas overlapping with the touch driving electrode, and has convex structures in areas overlapping with the common electrodes.

8. The capacitive in-cell touch panel of claim 7, wherein each of the touch driving electrodes or each of the common electrodes corresponds to a plurality of rows of pixel units, and each of the touch sensing electrodes corresponds to a plurality of columns of pixel units.

9. The capacitive in-cell touch panel of claim 8, wherein each of the touch driving electrodes or each of the common electrodes has a slit-shaped transparent electrode structure at the position corresponding to the aperture region of the pixel units, and the touch driving electrodes and the common electrodes are located above pixel electrodes in the TFT array substrate.

10. The capacitive in-cell touch panel of claim 8, wherein each of the touch sensing electrodes are located between a supporting base of the color filter substrate and a black matrix region.

11. The capacitive in-cell touch panel of claim 10, wherein each of the touch sensing electrodes has a grid-shaped electrode structure which is completely covered by the black matrix region.

12. The capacitive in-cell touch panel of claim 11, wherein each of meshes in the concave portions of the touch sensing electrodes is larger than each of meshes in the convex structures thereof.

13. A display apparatus comprising the capacitive in-cell touch panel of claim 1.

14. A driving method of the capacitive in-cell touch panel of claim 1 comprising:

dividing a time period for the capacitive in-cell touch panel displaying a frame of picture into a display period and a touch period;

during the display period, supplying a common electrode signal to the touch driving electrodes, meanwhile supplying gate scanning signals to each of the gate signal lines in the capacitive in-cell touch panel sequentially and supplying gray scale signals to the data signal lines so as to control deflection of liquid crystal molecules;

during the touch period, supplying the touch driving electrodes with the touch scanning signals which are then coupled by the touch sensing electrodes to generate and output voltage signals, meanwhile no signal being supplied to each of the gate signal lines and each of the data signal lines of the capacitive in-cell touch panel.