Touch panel substrate and display panel

• US 9,405,330 B2
• Filed: 07/04/2012
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Yamagishi, Shinji, Sugita, Yasuhiro, Yashiro, Yuhji, Kida, Kazutoshi, Ogawa, Hiroyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Sang V
• Application Number:
  US14/235,172
• Publication Number:
  US 20140160377A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,490 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: G06F 1/1643 the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1692 the I/O peripheral being a secondary touch screen used as control interface, e.g. virtual buttons or sliders
• 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 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 panel substrate (5) provided with position detecting electrodes (first electrodes (12) and second electrodes (13)) includes a black matrix (17) which is made of an electrically conductive material and is electrically connected to a counter electrode (19). This provides (i) a touch panel substrate which is high in position detection performance and capable of carrying out a stable position detecting operation and which is used in an in-cell touch panel, and (ii) a display panel including such a touch panel substrate.

Claims

1. A touch panel substrate for use as one of a pair of substrates which constitute a display panel, the touch panel substrate comprising:

position detecting electrodes that detect, based on a change in capacitance, a position of coordinates of a detection object, the position detecting electrodes include a plurality of first electrodes arranged along a first direction and a plurality of second electrodes arranged along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction and electrically insulated from the plurality of first electrodes, the plurality of first and second electrodes being on a same layer, and transparent electrodes; and

a counter electrode placed to face pixel electrodes provided on the other substrate of the pair of substrates which constitute the display panel;

a light blocking layer having a matrix pattern corresponding to pixels, the light blocking layer being made of an electrically conductive material and being electrically connected to the counter electrode;

transparent connecting wires provided on the same layer as the position detecting electrodes, the connecting wires connect one of the first and second electrodes; and

metal wires on a layer different from that of the position detecting electrodes, are in a form of a grid and the metal wires make bridge connections between the other of the first and second electrodes via a contact hole formed in an insulating layer between the metal wires and position detecting electrodes;

wherein

the metal wires have disconnections between an area overlapped with the first electrodes and another area overlapped with the second electrodes, so that no electricity travels from the first electrodes to the second electrodes or vice versa.

2. The touch panel substrate as set forth in claim 1, wherein the light blocking layer is provided on a lamination level different from a lamination level on which the counter electrode is provided, and the light blocking layer is electrically connected to the counter electrode via contact holes.

3. The touch panel substrate as set forth in claim 1, wherein the electrical connection between the light blocking layer and the counter electrode is made at an outer peripheral edge of the display panel.

4. The touch panel substrate as set forth in claim 1, wherein the counter electrode is provided on the light blocking layer.

5. A touch panel substrate as set forth in claim 2 further comprising a metal layer between the counter electrode and the light blocking layer, the metal layer being connected to the counter electrode.

6. The touch panel substrate as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

each of the position detecting electrodes includes a plurality of first electrodes and a plurality of second electrodes; and

either the first electrodes or the second electrodes serve as driving electrodes, and the other electrodes serve as detecting electrodes.

7. The touch panel substrate as set forth in claim 1, wherein the metal wires have outer peripheral parts which serve as connecting parts with the other one of the pair of substrates and which are electrically disconnected from the first electrodes and the second electrodes, and the counter electrode is electrically connected to the outer peripheral parts of the metal wires.

8. A display panel comprising:

an electro-optic element; and

a pair of substrates between which the electro-optic element is sandwiched, one of the pair of substrates being a touch panel substrate as set forth in claim 1.

9. A touch panel substrate for use as one of a pair of substrates which constitute a display panel, the touch panel substrate comprising:

position detecting electrodes that detect, based on a change in capacitance, a position of coordinates of a detection object, the position detecting electrodes includes a plurality of first electrodes being arranged along a first direction and a plurality of second electrodes being arranged along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction and electrically insulated from the plurality of first electrodes, the first and second electrodes are located on a same layer and transparent electrodes; and

transparent connecting wires provided on the same layer as the position detecting electrodes, the connecting wires connect one of the first and second electrodes; and

metal wires on a layer different from that of the position detecting electrodes, are in a form of a grid and the metal wires make bridge connections between the other of the first and second electrodes via a contact hole formed in an insulating layer between the metal wires and position detecting electrodes;

wherein

the metal wires have disconnections between an area overlapped with the first electrodes and another area overlapped with the second electrodes, so that no electricity travels from the first electrodes to the second electrodes or vice versa.

10. The touch panel substrate as set forth in claim 9, wherein:

each of the position detecting electrodes includes a plurality of first electrodes and a plurality of second electrodes; and

either the first electrodes or the second electrodes serve as driving electrodes, and the other electrodes serve as detecting electrodes.

11. The touch panel substrate as set forth in claim 9, wherein a plurality of contact holes are provided, respectively, for each of the plurality of first electrodes or for each of the plurality of second electrodes.

12. A display panel comprising:

an electro-optic element; and

a pair of substrates between which the electro-optic element is sandwiched, one of the pair of substrates being a touch panel substrate as set forth in claim 9.