Capacitive touch sensitive housing and method for making the same

• US 9,678,532 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2014
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Taiwan Green Point Enterprises Company Limited (Jabil Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Taiwan Green Point Enterprises Company Limited (Jabil Inc.)
• Inventors: Yi, Sheng-Hung, Liao, Pen-Yi
• Primary Examiner(s): Norris, Jeremy C
• Application Number:
  US14/584,355
• Publication Number:
  US 20150241910A1
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 18/1689 After-treatment
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 18/31 Coating with metals
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 26/00 Coating not provided for in groups C23C2/00 - C23C24/00
• CPC Class Codes: C25D 5/02 Electroplating of selected surface areas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/16 Constructional details or arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1637 Details related to the display arrangement, including those related to the mounting of the display in the housing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1656 Details related to functional adaptations of the enclosure, e.g. to provide protection against EMI, shock, water, or to host detachable peripherals like a mouse or removable expansions units like PCMCIA cards, or to provide access to internal components for maintenance or to removable storage supports like CDs or DVDs, or to mechanically mount accessories mounting of accessories to a computer display G06F1/1607; display hoods G06F1/1603; cooling arrangements for portable computers G06F1/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• 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 2203/0339 Touch strips, e.g. orthogonal touch strips to control cursor movement or scrolling; single touch strip to adjust parameter or to implement a row of soft keys
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04103 Manufacturing, i.e. details related to manufacturing processes specially suited for touch sensitive devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• 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: H03K 17/9622 using a plurality of detectors, e.g. keyboard
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/960755 Constructional details of capacitive touch and proximity switches
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49155 Manufacturing circuit on or in base

Abstract

A method for making a capacitive touch sensitive housing, comprises: forming a non-patterned active metal layer on a housing wall; patterning the non-patterned active metal layer on the housing wall by laser ablation such that the non-patterned active metal layer is formed into a patterned active metal layer including a plurality of plating portions separated from each other, and a plurality of non-plating portions separated from the plating portions; and forming a metal layer on the patterned active metal layer such that the metal layer has first portions formed on the plating portions of the patterned active metal layer, and second portions formed on the non-plating portions of the patterned active metal layer.

Claims

1. A capacitive touch sensitive housing, comprising:

a housing wall having an insulative surface;

at least one array of capacitive touch sensor pads formed on said insulative surface of said housing wall for providing touch input functions to an electronic device;

wherein each of said capacitive touch sensor pads has a layered structure including an active metal layer and a metal layer that is formed on said active metal layer, said active metal layer being made from an active material containing an active metal that is capable of catalytically initiating the forming of said metal layer.

2. The capacitive touch sensitive housing of claim 1, wherein said active metal is selected from the group consisting of palladium, rhodium, platinum, iridium, osmium, gold, nickel, iron, and combinations thereof.

3. The capacitive touch sensitive housing of claim 1, wherein said housing wall includes a base wall portion and a peripheral wall portion, said base wall portion having a peripheral edge, said peripheral wall portion extending from said peripheral edge in such a manner that said peripheral wall portion and said base wall portion cooperatively form a structure having a generally U-shaped cross-section, said capacitive touch sensor pads being formed on said peripheral wall portion.

4. The capacitive touch sensitive housing of claim 3, wherein said peripheral wall portion is curved in shape, and each of said capacitive touch sensor pads has a curved shape similar to that of said peripheral wall portion.

5. The capacitive touch sensitive housing of claim 3, wherein said bonding pads are formed on said base wall portion.

6. The capacitive touch sensitive housing of claim 1, wherein said metal layer is made from a metal selected from the group consisting of copper, gold, silver, and nickel.

7. The capacitive touch sensitive housing of claim 1, wherein said layered structure further has a plated metal layer formed on said metal layer, said plated metal layer being made from a metal selected from the group consisting of Ni, copper, gold and silver.

8. The capacitive touch sensitive housing of claim 1, wherein said housing wall is made from an insulative material selected from polycarbonate, glass, ceramic, wood and fabrics.

9. The capacitive touch sensitive housing of claim 1, wherein the forming of the metal layer is performed by printing.