In-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel

• US 9,983,750 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2016
• Issued: 05/29/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raydium Semiconductor Corporation
• Original Assignee: Raydium Semiconductor Corporation
• Inventors: Lee, Kun-Pei, Lin, Yi-Ying, Chiang, Chang-Ching, Hsu, Yu-Chin
• Primary Examiner(s): Lubit, Ryan A
• Application Number:
  US15/164,563
• Publication Number:
  US 20160282995A1
• Time in Patent Office: 734 Days
• 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 3/04184 Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0443 using a single layer of sensing electrodes

Abstract

An in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel is disclosed. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel includes a plurality of pixels. A laminated structure of each pixel includes a substrate, a TFT layer, a liquid crystal layer, a color filter layer and a glass layer. The TFT layer is disposed on the substrate. A first conductive layer and a common electrode are disposed in the TFT layer. The first conductive layer is arranged in mesh type or only arranged along a first direction in an active area of the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel. The liquid crystal layer is disposed above the TFT layer. The color filter layer is disposed above the liquid crystal layer. The glass layer is disposed above the color filter layer.

Claims

1. An in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel, comprising:

a plurality of pixels, a laminated structure of each pixel comprising;

a substrate;

a thin-film transistor layer disposed on the substrate, wherein a first conductive layer and a common electrode are disposed in the TFT layer, and the first conductive layer is arranged in mesh type or only arranged along a first direction in an active area of the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel;

a liquid crystal layer disposed above the thin-film transistor layer;

a color filter layer disposed above the liquid crystal layer; and

a glass layer disposed above the color filter layer;

wherein touch electrodes of the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel comprises a first direction electrode and a second direction electrode, the first direction electrode is formed by the first conductive layer arranged in mesh type and the second direction electrode is formed by the first conductive layer arranged along the first direction in the active area electrically connected with the common electrode through a via;

wherein a multi-function electrode is disposed between the first direction electrode and the second direction electrode;

the multi-function electrode is formed by the first conductive layer arranged along the first direction in the active area electrically connected with the common electrode through a via.

2. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 1, wherein the first direction electrode and the second direction electrode are a driving electrode and a sensing electrode respectively or the first direction electrode and the second direction electrode are the sensing electrode and the driving electrode respectively.

3. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 1, wherein the first conductive layer is formed after the common electrode is formed.

4. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 1, wherein the first conductive layer is formed before the common electrode is formed.

5. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 1, wherein the color filter layer comprises a color filter and a black matrix resist, the black matrix resist has light resistance, and the first conductive layer is disposed under the black matrix resist.

6. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 1, wherein the thin-film transistor layer further comprises an original conductive layer;

the original conductive layer is electrically connected with the common electrode to reduce RC loading of the common electrode.

7. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 1, wherein when the laminated structure has a half source driving (HSD) structure, the laminated structure comprises an additional vacated source line space for electrically connecting an original conductive layer of the thin-film transistor layer with the first conductive layer or the common electrode.

8. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 7, wherein the original conductive layer and a source and a drain of the thin-film transistor layer are formed simultaneously.

9. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 1, wherein the second direction electrodes in the same channel are electrically connected in a border area of the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel through traces.

10. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 9, wherein traces of the second direction electrode are uniformly disposed or different numbers of the traces are disposed in different regions.

11. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 1, wherein a part of the common electrode corresponding to the first direction electrode is electrically connected with another part of the common electrode in a border area of the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel.

12. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 11, wherein a plurality of the first direction electrode is divided into a first group of electrodes and a second group of electrodes;

traces of the first group of electrodes and the second group of electrodes are arranged without any electrical connections between the traces of the first group of electrodes and the second group of electrodes.

13. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 12, wherein two first direction electrodes of the second group of electrodes are electrically connected.

14. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 12, wherein a part of the common electrode corresponding to the first group of electrodes and another part of the common electrode corresponding to the second group of electrodes are part of the same common electrode region or different common electrode regions respectively.

15. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 1, wherein the multi-function electrode is electrically connected with other multi-function electrodes in a border area of the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel through traces.

16. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 15, wherein the active area of the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel is surrounded by traces of the multi-function electrode in the border area of the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel.

17. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 1, wherein when the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel is operated in a touch mode, the common electrode is switched to a floating state or provided a touch related signal having the same frequency, the same amplitude or the same phase with a touch signal.

18. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 1, wherein a touch mode and a display mode of the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel are driven in a time-sharing way;

the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel is operated in the touch mode during a blanking interval of a display period.

19. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 18, wherein the blanking interval comprises at least one of a vertical blanking interval (VBI), a horizontal blanking interval (HBI), and a long horizontal blanking interval (LHBI);

a time length of the LHBI is equal to or larger than a time length of the HBI;

the LHBI is obtained by redistributing a plurality of HBIs or the LHBI comprises the VBI.

20. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 18, wherein the common electrode has a plurality of common electrode regions overlapped with a plurality of touch electrodes of the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel respectively;

when the in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel is operated in the touch mode, the plurality of touch electrodes is provided a plurality of touch signals in order and the common electrode is provided a plurality of touch related signals having the same frequency, the same amplitude or the same phase with the plurality of touch signals in order correspondingly or the common electrode is in a floating state.

21. The in-cell mutual-capacitive touch panel of claim 20, wherein the plurality of touch electrodes is driving electrodes or sensing electrodes.