KR20100077298A - Automatic test device of touch panel - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a touch panel automatic inspection device, and more particularly, in a device for inspecting a touch panel, a receiving hole for accommodating the touch panel is formed, and is electrically connected to the received touch panel and sends a signal to the touch panel. An inspection circuit board of a plate shape for transmitting and receiving; An air chuck coupled to the inspection circuit board to be detachable, and having a plurality of air balls formed on a surface thereof to suck air through the air balls to suck and fix the touch panel accommodated in the accommodation hole; An inspection rod that contacts the surface of the touch panel to perform inspection; Vertical movement means for vertically moving the test rod to contact the touch panel surface at an inspection point; Horizontal movement means for horizontally moving the inspection rod to an inspection point; And a controller for determining whether the touch panel is defective or not from the signal processed by the test circuit board and controlling the vertical moving means and the horizontal moving means, thereby automatically searching for the test point and performing the test. Precise inspection can be completed in a short time, which facilitates mass production of touch panels, greatly reduces the defect rate, and enables easy inspection of touch panels of various sizes without replacing the jig. The savings can be obtained.

Description

Automatic test device of touch panel

The present invention relates to an automatic touch panel inspection apparatus, and more particularly, to an automatic touch panel inspection apparatus that can determine whether or not the normal operation of the touch panel automatically determine whether there is a defect.

In addition to the general monitor screen, the touch panel has the same function as menu selection. The invisible infrared light flows up, down, left, and right to create numerous square grids on the screen. When touched, the position can be determined and is generally called a touch screen.

In other words, the touch panel is a new input method that can replace an input method such as a mouse or a keyboard. The touch panel can directly input information on the screen by using a hand or a pen. Because it can be operated and operated easily, it is evaluated as the most ideal input method under the GUI (Graphic User Interface) environment. It is widely used and its use is increasing rapidly.

According to the display device, a touch panel using a liquid crystal display (LCD), a touch panel using a plasma display device (PDP), and a touch panel using an organic electroluminescent display (Organic Electro Luminescence Display) are commercially available. According to a method of sensing a user's touch, it may be classified into a resistive type, a capacitive type, and an electromagnetic induction method.

Each method has different characteristics such as signal amplification problem, resolution difference, and difficulty in design and processing technology. Therefore, select a method that can take advantage of the advantages. The selection criteria should consider not only optical, electrical, mechanical, environmental and input characteristics, but also durability and economics.

In the resistive film method, an upper transparent substrate having an upper electrode formed on a surface facing each other and a lower transparent substrate having a lower electrode formed thereon are bonded to each other by a spacer. Therefore, when a point of contact with the surface of the upper substrate by an input means such as a pen or a finger, the upper electrode formed on the upper substrate and the lower electrode formed on the lower substrate are energized with each other, and the output voltage is After reading the changed and changed voltage value, the control device finds the position coordinate according to the potential difference.

The capacitive method forms a transparent electrode on one substrate and applies a voltage to each corner or corner of the film so that a uniform electric field is generated on the transparent electrode. This is how you find the coordinates.

However, both the resistive film type and the capacitive type require a signal line for applying a voltage or outputting a voltage signal that varies according to the touch position of the touch panel. The signal line is connected to the electrode by an adhesive tape, and the signal line In general, a flexible printed circuit board (FPC) or a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) is used to be connected to an external power source or a transceiver.

In order to meet the demands of the widely used touch panel market as described above, it is essential to have a mass production system of touch panels, and inspection to determine the defect of the touch panel produced in the mass production system is essential.

By the way, in the prior art, in the mass production of the touch panel, the inspection was a manual method of inspecting one by one manually, but various types of mechanical inspection apparatuses have been known in recent years.

However, the touch panel to be inspected was fixed to the jig and as many test rods as the number of points to be inspected were installed on the upper side of the touch panel.

Therefore, it takes a considerable time to inspect a single touch panel and also requires a plurality of inspection rods, which makes the structure of the inspection apparatus complicated. In particular, the size of the touch panel that can be fixed and fixed to the jig is limited. There was a lot of trouble to replace the jig when trying to inspect the size of the touch panel.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a touch panel automatic inspection device for automatically performing the inspection by moving the inspection rod in contact with the touch panel to a designated inspection point.

In addition, another object is to provide a touch panel automatic inspection device capable of inspecting touch panels of various sizes.

In the present invention for achieving the above object, in the apparatus for inspecting the touch panel, the receiving hole is formed to accommodate the touch panel, is electrically connected to the received touch panel and transmits and receives a signal to the touch panel to process Flat plate inspection circuit board; An air chuck coupled to the inspection circuit board to be detachable, and having a plurality of air balls formed on a surface thereof to suck air through the air balls to suck and fix the touch panel accommodated in the accommodation hole; An inspection rod that contacts the surface of the touch panel to perform inspection; Vertical movement means for vertically moving the test rod to contact the touch panel surface at an inspection point; Horizontal movement means for horizontally moving the inspection rod to an inspection point; And a controller for determining whether the touch panel is defective from the signal processed by the test circuit board and controlling the vertical movement means and the horizontal movement means.

In addition, one side of the test circuit board is provided with a connector for connecting the flexible board connected to one side of the touch panel is preferably coupled to the flexible board to the signal transmission and reception is made.

In addition, the vertical movement means is preferably composed of a pneumatic cylinder for moving the test rod up and down, and a pneumatic generator for supplying or suctioning air to the pneumatic cylinder.

In addition, the horizontal moving means is preferably composed of X-axis moving means for linearly moving the test rod to the left and right, and Y-axis moving means for linearly moving the test rod and the X-axis moving means up and down.

In addition, the X-axis moving means is an X-axis rail disposed to the left and right, the X-axis movable body which is movable left and right along the X-axis rail and the inspection rod is coupled to one side, and disposed along the X-axis rail and the X It consists of an X-axis screw penetrating the shaft moving body and the X-axis moving body and the X-axis driving servo motor for rotating the X-axis screw, the X-axis moving body is moved left and right by the rotation of the X-axis screw It is desirable to.

The Y-axis moving means may include a Y-axis rail disposed vertically on both sides of the X-axis rail, a Y-axis moving body supporting the X-axis rail on both sides, and moving up and down along the Y-axis rail, and the Y-axis It is preferably composed of a Y-axis screw disposed respectively along the rail and penetrating the Y-axis moving body and screwed to the Y-axis moving body, and a Y-axis driving servomotor which rotates any one of the Y-axis screw.

In addition, the X-axis moving means is an X-axis rail arranged to the left and right, the X-axis movable body which is movable to the left and right along the X-axis rail coupled to the inspection rod on one side, the X-axis installed on both sides of the X-axis rail A pulley, an X-axis timing belt wound around the X-axis pulley and coupled to the X-axis moving body, and an X-axis driving servo motor for rotating one of the X-axis pulleys, thereby rotating the X-axis pulley. Preferably, the X-axis moving body moves left and right by the movement of the X-axis timing belt.

The Y-axis moving means may include a Y-axis rail disposed vertically on both sides of the X-axis rail, a Y-axis moving body supporting the X-axis rail on both sides, and moving up and down along the Y-axis rail, and the Y-axis Y-axis pulley installed on either side of the rail, a Y-axis timing belt wound around the Y-axis pulley and coupled to the Y-axis moving body, and a Y-axis drive servomotor for rotating one of the Y-axis pulleys. It is preferable that it consists of.

The effect of the present invention by the above-described configuration is to automatically find the inspection point to perform the inspection, so that accurate inspection can be completed in a short time to facilitate mass production of the touch panel and significantly reduce the defective rate.

In addition, the touch panel of various sizes can be easily inspected without replacing the jig, thereby reducing the cost, time, and manpower required for inspection.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

1 is a block diagram showing an automatic touch panel inspection device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a side view of one embodiment of the present invention shown in Figure 1, Figure 3 is an inspection of the present invention shown in Figure 1 A perspective view showing a circuit board.

The present invention consists of the test circuit board 100, the air chuck 200, the test rod 300, the vertical moving means 400, the horizontal moving means 500, the control unit, for the first test circuit board 100 I will explain.

The test circuit board 100 accommodates the touch panel 10 and connects with the touch panel 10 to supply power for driving the touch panel 10, and provides a reference signal for an inspection point of the touch panel 10. Transmitting or receiving and processing the touch signal of the inspection point, as shown in Figures 1 and 3 has a rectangular flat plate shape is provided with a receiving hole 110 in which the touch panel 10 can be accommodated. An electric circuit is mounted on one side to process the signals as described above, and is connected to a controller to be described later.

Here, the accommodation hole 110 is preferably formed to be large to include all of the touch panel 10 of various sizes.

In addition, a connector 120 is provided at one side of the touch panel 10, and the flexible substrate 20 formed in the touch panel 10 can be plugged into the connector 120 to be connected to each other.

The connector 120 is a configuration that can be electrically connected by inserting a circuit such as a PCB, FPC, etc. is known as a male and female coupling, so a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In addition, the inspection circuit board 100 is detachably fixed to the upper surface of the air chuck 200 which will be described later, and may be fixed to the same as the bolt 130.

Next, the air chuck 200 will be described.

The air chuck 200 is configured to suck and fix the touch panel 10 disposed under the inspection circuit board 100 and placed in the accommodation hole 110 with air. The air chuck 200 forms a flat plate shape and a plurality of air on the surface. The ball 210 is formed. When the air is sucked through the air ball 210, the test circuit board 100 placed on the air ball 210 is adhered to the air chuck 200 by pressure so that it does not stick and move. Of course, a suction device (not shown) for sucking air through the air hole 210 may be provided separately.

For reference, the bolt 130 for fixing the test circuit board 100 may be inserted into the air hole 210 to fasten the test circuit board 100 onto the air chuck 200. .

Next, the test rod 300 will be described. The test rod 300 is configured to touch the surface of the touch panel 10 to perform a touch function, and has a long bar or rod shape. The inspection rod 300 is preferably made of a plastic material with a rounded end to enable effective touch without damaging the touch panel 10, as shown in Figure 2 vertical movement means 400 to be described later It is coupled to and can move up and down.

Next, the vertical movement means 400 will be described.

The vertical movement means 400 is coupled to the inspection rod 300 to drive the inspection rod 300 up and down at the inspection point of the touch panel 10 to touch, largely pneumatic cylinder 410 And a pneumatic generator 420.

The pneumatic cylinder 410 is a known configuration for transmitting a force by reciprocating the piston by air pressure, the test rod 300 is coupled to one end of the pneumatic cylinder 410 reciprocating movement of the pneumatic cylinder 410 By the inspection rod 300 is to be Shanghai.

The pneumatic cylinder 410 is provided with a pneumatic generator 420 for supplying air pressure to drive the pneumatic cylinder 410, the pneumatic generator 420 is preferably controlled internally to supply a proper amount of air. Do.

Next, the horizontal movement means 500 will be described.

The horizontal moving means 500 is a means for moving the test rod 300 to a position to be inspected, and the Y-axis moving means for linearly moving up and down with the X-axis moving means 510 for linearly moving left and right. 520.

First, the X-axis moving means 510 is composed of an X-axis rail 512, an X-axis moving body 514, an X-axis screw 516, and an X-axis driving servo motor 518.

The X-axis rail 512 is a linear rail (left and right) as shown in Figures 1 and 2 has a long rectangular parallelepiped shape, the X-axis moving body 514 on the X-axis rail 512 ) Are combined to move as guided.

The X-axis moving body 514 has a shape such as a square block and is linearly movable from side to side on the X-axis rail 512 as shown, the test rod 300 is vertically coupled to one side of the test rod ( Move 300) left and right.

In addition, the X-axis screw 516 penetrates through the X-axis moving body 514 in a rod-shaped configuration with a thread formed on the surface, and screwed to the X-axis moving body 514, the X-axis rail 512 It is disposed left and right along the X-axis rail 512 at the top of the. When installed in this way, as the X-axis screw 516 rotates, the thread progresses, so that the X-axis moving body 514 can move on the X-axis screw 516 in left and right directions.

In addition, the X-axis driving servo motor 518 is a motor capable of rotation control, and rotation is controlled by a controller to be described later, thereby controlling the moving distance of the X-axis moving body 514.

At this time, a driving pulley 518a is coupled to the X-axis driving servo motor 518, and a driven pulley 518b is coupled to the X-axis screw 516, and the driving pulley 518a and the driven pulley 518b are coupled to each other. The belt 518c is caught and transmits a driving force.

Next, the Y-axis moving means 520 includes a Y-axis rail 522, a Y-axis moving body 524, a Y-axis screw 526, and a Y-axis driving servo motor 528.

As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, two Y-axis rails 522 are linear rails disposed up and down on both sides of the X-axis rail 512, and have a long rectangular parallelepiped shape. The Y-axis moving body 524 is coupled to each other while being guided.

The Y-axis moving body 524 has a shape like a square block and can be linearly moved up and down on the Y-axis rail 522 as shown in the drawing, and both ends of the X-axis rail 512 are coupled to the X, respectively. Support the shaft rail 512.

In addition, the Y-axis screw 526 has a rod-shaped thread formed on the surface of the Y-axis moving body 524, but screwed with the Y-axis moving body 524, the Y-axis of the rail 522 The upper and lower sides are disposed along the Y-axis rail 522. As the Y-axis screw 526 is rotated so that the thread progresses, the Y-axis moving body 524 can move on the Y-axis screw 526 in the vertical direction.

The Y-axis drive servomotor 528 is a motor capable of rotation control and is controlled by a controller to be described later, whereby the movement distance of the Y-axis moving body 524 is controlled.

At this time, a driving pulley 528a is coupled to the Y-axis driving servo motor 528, and a driven pulley 528b is coupled to the Y-axis screw 526, and the driving pulley 528a and the driven pulley 518b are coupled to the Y-axis screw 526. The belt 528c is caught and transmits a driving force.

In addition, the X-axis drive servomotor 518 and the Y-axis drive servomotor 528 are connected to a control unit to be described later, respectively, the rotation speed is controlled to move the position corresponding to the inspection point.

Next, a controller (not shown) will be described. The controller controls the test circuit board 100, the vertical movement means 400, and the horizontal movement means 500, although not shown, and generally includes a program. Computer.

Connected to the test circuit board 100, power is applied to the touch panel 10 and a reference signal is transmitted to the inspector to process the received signal when the touch is made, thereby informing the inspector whether the touch panel 10 is defective.

In addition, the control unit is set to the position coordinates for the inspection point, if the inspection point is specified to give the command to the X-axis drive servo motor 518 and Y-axis drive servo motor 528 to rotate the test rod 300 ) To accurately move to the inspection point of the touch panel 10, and also to drive the vertical movement means 400 to control the inspection rod 300 to touch the touch panel. Since such a detailed control method is well known, a description thereof will be omitted.

In the following, the inspection process by the operation of the present invention will be briefly described.

The inspector fixes the inspection circuit board 100 to the air chuck 200 using bolts 130 and places the touch panel 10 to be received in the accommodation hole 110. The board 20 is connected to the connector 120. When the air chuck 200 is operated and adsorbed with air, the touch panel 10 is brought into close contact with the surface of the air chuck 200 by vacuum pressure, and is ready for inspection.

When the inspector gives an inspection command to the control unit, the control unit transmits the position coordinates indicating the inspection point to the X-axis drive servomotor 518 and the Y-axis drive servomotor 528 to transmit the X-axis moving object 514 and the Y-axis. The inspection rod 300 is positioned above the inspection point of the touch panel 10 by the movement of the movable body 524. Then, the vertical movement means 400 is driven to lower the inspection rod 300 so as to touch the inspection point of the touch panel 10.

Then, the touch panel 10 detects a touch signal and transmits the touched signal to the test circuit board 100 through the flexible board 20, and the test circuit board 100 processes it and sends it to the controller to determine whether there is a defect. do.

Determination of whether there is a defect may vary, and since such a method is known, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In this order, the plurality of points of the touch panel 10 may be inspected while being touched, and the inspection points stored in the controller may be inspected one by one or randomly.

Hereinafter, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

4 is a block diagram showing an automatic touch panel inspection apparatus according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, another embodiment shown in FIG. 4 will be described mainly because the X-axis moving means and the Y-axis moving means are configured differently. .

The X-axis moving means 510 is composed of an X-axis rail 512, X-axis moving body 514, X-axis pulley 515, X-axis timing belt 517, X-axis driving servo motor 518, The X-axis rail 512, the X-axis moving body 514 and the X-axis driving servo motor 518 are as described above.

The X-axis pulley 515 is disposed above both ends of the X-axis rail 512 and the X-axis driving servo motor 518 is coupled to one of the two axes. The X-axis timing belt 517 is wound around two X-axis pulleys 515 and coupled to the X-axis moving body 514 to drive the X-axis timing by driving the X-axis driving servomotor 518. As the belt 517 moves and the X-axis moving body 514 moves, the horizontal position of the test rod 300 is determined.

In addition, the Y-axis moving means 520 is composed of the Y-axis rail 522, Y-axis moving body 524, Y-axis pulley 525, Y-axis timing belt 527, Y-axis driving servo motor 528. The Y-axis rail 522, the Y-axis moving body 524, and the Y-axis driving servo motor 528 are the same as described above.

The Y-axis pulley 525 is disposed above both ends of the Y-axis rail 522, and the Y-axis driving servomotor 528 is coupled to and driven by either one of them. The Y-axis timing belt 527 is wound around two Y-axis pulleys 525 and coupled to the Y-axis moving body 524 to drive the Y-axis timing by driving the Y-axis driving servomotor 528. The belt 527 moves, and thus, the Y-axis moving body 524 moves, and the X-axis rail 512 coupled to the Y-axis moving body 524 moves up and down to move the vertical position of the test rod 300. Is determined.

As described above with reference to the drawings the present invention is only one embodiment, those skilled in the art will be able to various modifications, applications within the spirit of the present invention and the true technical protection scope of the present invention should be determined by the claims will be.

1 is a block diagram showing an automatic touch panel inspection device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a side view of one embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG.

3 is a perspective view showing an inspection circuit board of the present invention shown in FIG.

Figure 4 is a block diagram showing an automatic touch panel inspection device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

<< Explanation of main parts of drawing >>

10: touch panel 20: flexible substrate

100: inspection circuit board 110: receiving hole

120: connector 130: bolt

200: air chuck 210: air ball

300: inspection rod

400: vertical movement means 410: pneumatic cylinder

420: pneumatic generator

500: horizontal moving means 510: X axis moving means

512: X-axis rail 514: X-axis moving body

515: X-axis pulley 516: X-axis screw

517: X axis timing belt 518: X axis drive servomotor

518a: driven pulley 518b: driven pulley

518c: Belt 520: Y axis moving means

522: Y-axis rail 524: Y-axis moving body

525: Y-axis pulley 526: Y-axis screw

527: Y axis timing belt 528: Y axis drive servomotor

528a: driven pulley 528b: driven pulley

528c: Belt

Claims (8)

In the device for inspecting the touch panel 10, An accommodating hole 110 for accommodating the touch panel 10 is formed, and is electrically connected to the accommodated touch panel 10 and a flat inspection circuit board 100 which transmits and receives a signal to the touch panel 10 and processes the signal. ); The test circuit board 100 is detachably coupled, and a plurality of air holes 210 are formed on a surface thereof to suck air through the air balls 210 to accommodate the touch panel 10 accommodated in the accommodation hole 110. Air chuck 200 for adsorbing and fixing); An inspection rod 300 that contacts the surface of the touch panel 10 to perform inspection; Vertical moving means 400 for vertically moving the test rod 300 to contact the surface of the touch panel 10 at an inspection point; Horizontal moving means (500) for horizontally moving the test bar (300) to a test point; A control unit for determining whether the touch panel 10 is defective from the signal processed by the test circuit board 100 and controlling the vertical moving unit 400 and the horizontal moving unit 500. Panel automatic inspection device. The method of claim 1, On one side of the inspection circuit board 100, The touch panel is provided with a connector 120 for connecting the flexible board 20 connected to one side of the touch panel 10 to couple the flexible board 20 to the connector 120 to transmit and receive signals. Automatic inspection device. The method of claim 1, The vertical movement means 400, The pneumatic cylinder (410) for moving the test rod 300 up and down, and a pneumatic generator (420) for supplying or sucking air to the pneumatic cylinder (410). The method of claim 1, The horizontal moving means 500, X-axis moving means 510 for linearly moving the test rod 300 to the left and right, and Y-axis moving means 520 for linearly moving the test rod 300 and the X-axis moving means 510 up and down. Touch panel automatic inspection device, characterized in that. The method of claim 4, wherein The X-axis moving means 510, X-axis rails 512 arranged to the left and right, the X-axis movable body 514 that is movable along the X-axis rails 512 and the inspection rod 300 is coupled to one side, and the X-axis rails ( An X-axis screw 516 disposed along the 512 and penetrating the X-axis moving body 514 and screwed to the X-axis moving body 514, and an X-axis driving servo motor rotating the X-axis screw 516. And 518, wherein the X-axis moving body 514 moves left and right by the rotation of the X-axis screw 516. The method of claim 5, The Y-axis moving means 520, Y-axis rails 522 disposed up and down on both sides of the X-axis rail 512, and Y-axis moving bodies supporting the X-axis rail 512 on both sides and moving up and down along the Y-axis rail 522 ( 524, a Y-axis screw 526 disposed along the Y-axis rail 522 and penetrating the Y-axis moving body 524 to the Y-axis moving body 524, and the Y-axis screw ( 526, Y-axis drive servo motor for rotating any one of the automatic touch panel, characterized in that consisting of. The method of claim 4, wherein The X-axis moving means 510, X-axis rails 512 arranged to the left and right, the X-axis movable body 514 that is movable along the X-axis rails 512 and the inspection rod 300 is coupled to one side, and the X-axis rails ( X-axis pulleys 515 installed on both sides, an X-axis timing belt 517 wound around the X-axis pulley 515 and coupled to the X-axis moving body 514, and the X-axis pulley 515 X-axis driving servo motor 518 which rotates any one of the X-axis moving body 514 is left and right by the movement of the X-axis timing belt 517 by the rotation of the X-axis pulley 515. Touch panel automatic inspection device, characterized in that moving to. The method of claim 7, wherein The Y-axis moving means 520, Y-axis rails 522 disposed up and down on both sides of the X-axis rail 512, and Y-axis moving bodies supporting the X-axis rail 512 on both sides and moving up and down along the Y-axis rail 522 ( 524, Y-axis pulley 525 provided on either side of the Y-axis rail 522, and Y-axis timing wound around the Y-axis pulley 525 and coupled to the Y-axis moving body 524. And a Y-axis drive servomotor (528) for rotating one of the belts (527) and the Y-axis pulley (525).

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