TWI696105B - Touch pad with led - Google Patents

Abstract

A touch pad includes at least one light emitting diode and a printed circuit board. The light emitting diode has two connection ends. The printed circuit board has a surface formed thereon a touch sensing pattern for performing a touch operation. At least one light emitting diode placement area is defined on the touch sensing pattern. The light emitting diode is disposed in the light emitting diode placement area, so that the two connection ends of the light emitting diode are connected to the printed circuit board while being electrically separated from the touch sensing pattern.

Description

Touchpad with light-emitting diode

The present invention relates to the technical field of touch panels, and particularly to a touch panel with light-emitting diodes that can provide comprehensive touch functions.

Most notebook computers are generally equipped with a touch pad to allow users to touch the notebook computer. With the advancement of touch technology, a touch pad that simply provides touch functions has been unable to satisfy users. Demand, the touchpad can now be switched to a touch numeric key to give the touchpad digital input function, for example, the user only needs to press a specific position of the touchpad, such as the top right of the touchpad represents a switch button , The touchpad will switch to touch numeric keys, and the light-emitting diode (LED) of the touchpad will light up to display the touched numeric keys.

As shown in FIG. 1, it is a configuration diagram of a conventional touch panel 10 that can be switched to touch operation or digital input, which distinguishes the operation surface of the touch panel 10 from a touch area 11 and a light emitting diode setting area 13, wherein the operation surface of the touch panel 10 is the upper edge portion as the light-emitting diode region 13 for setting the light-emitting diode, and the rest is used as the touch region 11 where the touch-sensitive pattern is laid, so that when touch When the control panel 10 is switched to touch numeric keys, the light-emitting diode can be lit to allow a light guide plate on the touch panel 10 to light up and display the touched numeric keys, which is convenient for the user to input the numeric keys by touch .

However, with the configuration of FIG. 1 described above, the light-emitting diode region 13 of the operation surface of the touch panel 10 cannot provide the touch function, and a so-called dead zone is formed, generally 140 mm X 80 mm. In terms of the touchpad 10, the touch dead zone is about 140mm X 5mm, occupying 6.25% of the touch surface, and the user does not know the existence of this touch dead zone when performing touch operation, so it often leads to The touch operation is not smooth or even mistakenly believes that the touch panel 10 is invalid. Since having a touch dead zone also reduces the touchable area of the touchpad, it cannot provide a touchpad with full touch.

Therefore, there are still many defects in the design of the conventional touch panel with the light-emitting diodes, and there is a need for improvement.

The purpose of the present invention is mainly to provide a touch panel with light-emitting diodes, which can avoid the formation of a touch dead zone, so as to solve the defects of the aforementioned conventional technologies.

To achieve the foregoing objective, the present invention provides a touch panel, which includes: at least one light-emitting diode with two connecting ends; and a printed circuit board with a surface on which a touch sensing pattern is formed to sense Touch operation; wherein, at least one light-emitting diode placement area is defined on the touch sensing pattern, and the light-emitting diode system is disposed in the light-emitting diode placement area, so that the light-emitting diode The two connection ends are connected to the printed circuit board and are electrically isolated from the touch sensing pattern.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the light-emitting diode system is disposed in the placement area defined by the touch sensing pattern, so that it is not necessary to form a touch dead zone, and a light-emitting diode with full touch function can be realized touchpad. In other words, the touch panel provided by the embodiments of the present invention can realize not only the light-emitting touch keys, but also the full touch function of the touch panel.

The above summary and the following detailed description are of exemplary nature, and are intended to further illustrate the scope of patent application of the present invention, and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be explained in the subsequent description and drawings.

In order to make the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention clearer, the present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention.

2(A) is a schematic plan view of the touchpad 20 of the present invention, and FIG. 2(B) is a schematic side view of the touchpad 20 of the present invention viewed from the direction of the arrow in FIG. 2(A), as shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, the touch panel 20 includes at least one light-emitting diode 21 and a printed circuit board 23, and each light-emitting diode 21 has at least two connection ends 211. In the drawing, a plurality of equidistant distributions are shown. The light-emitting diode 21 provides sufficient brightness, but the present invention only needs at least one light-emitting diode 21 to achieve the brightness that can be displayed, and each light-emitting diode 21 in the figure has two connecting ends 211, but the invention is not limited to this, and can also be applied to light-emitting diodes with more connection ends.

A touch sensing pattern 25 is formed on one surface 231 of the aforementioned printed circuit board 23 to sense the touch operation, and a control circuit 29 is provided on the other surface 233 of the printed circuit board 23. The touch sensing pattern 25 includes a plurality of driving line patterns 251 and a plurality of sensing line patterns 253 that are alternately arranged to correspondingly define a plurality of touch sensing areas 27 arranged in rows and rows. Therefore, each touch sensing area 27 corresponds to a part of the touch-sensing pattern 25, that is, the touch-sensing pattern portion framed by a dotted square as shown in the figure. Each sensing line pattern 253 is electrically a whole sensing line as shown in the figure, and each driving line pattern 251 is connected via a wire (not shown) inside the printed circuit board 23 or on another surface 233 A driving line electrically connected together. During touch operation, the control circuit 29 applies a driving signal to the majority of driving line patterns 251, and determines whether a touch occurs by reading the sensing signal on the majority of sensing line patterns 253. One or more touch sensing areas 27, the aforementioned touch operation is known to those familiar with touch technology, so it will not be repeated here, and the touch sensing pattern 25 (driving line pattern 251 and sensing) shown in FIG. 2(A) The shape of the line pattern 253) is only an example. Those familiar with touch technology may know that various touch sensing patterns can be applied. The present invention is not limited to this specific touch sensing pattern 25.

Referring again to FIG. 2(A), at least one light-emitting diode placement area 22 is defined on the touch sensing pattern 25 for placing a light-emitting diode 21 therein, as shown in FIG. 2(A) ), there are multiple light-emitting diodes 21, so multiple light-emitting diode placement regions 22 are also required. The light-emitting diode placement regions 22 are configured such that the light-emitting diodes 21 placed therein The two connecting ends 211 are connected to the printed circuit board 23 and are electrically isolated from the touch sensing pattern 25. In addition, as shown in FIG. 2(B), the two connecting ends 211 of the light emitting diode 21 can be printed The through hole 24 on the circuit board 23 is electrically connected to the control circuit 29 provided on the other surface 233 of the printed circuit board 23.

3 is a partially enlarged view of the touch panel 20 of the present invention to schematically show an embodiment of the light-emitting diode placement area 22, wherein the light-emitting diode placement area 22 is to remove the touch sensing pattern The two parts of 25 are formed to have two hollowed-out areas 31, and the position and range of each hollowed-out area 31 correspond to a connecting end 211 of the light emitting diode 21, and the two connecting ends 211 of the light emitting diode 21 are respectively Connected to the printed circuit board 23 through the two second hollowed-out areas 31. And as shown in the figure, in this embodiment, the two second hollowed-out regions 31 are located in two adjacent touch-sensing regions 271 and 272, respectively. Therefore, the light-emitting diode 22 crosses the two adjacent ones The touch sensing areas 271 and 272 are provided. In addition, in other embodiments, the two second hollowed-out areas 31 may also be located in the same touch sensing area 27, so the light emitting diode 21 is also located in the same touch Control the induction area 27. In another embodiment, the light-emitting diode 21 may also be composed of a plurality of light-emitting diodes that can emit light of different colors. In this case, the light-emitting diode may also include a plurality of connection terminals.

As mentioned above, most touch sensing regions 27 are arranged in rows and columns. In one embodiment, a plurality of light emitting diode placement regions 22 are defined in the first row (row) of touch sensing regions 27. A plurality of light-emitting diodes 21 are placed in the touch sensing area 27 of the first row. Therefore, only the touch sensing area 27 of the first row corresponds to the touch of the light-emitting diode 21 A hollowed-out area 31 is formed in a part of the sensing pattern 25, however, in order to achieve the consistency of the pattern so as not to affect the amount of touch sensing, the touch sensing corresponding to each touch sensing area 27 in the first row may also be The portions of the pattern 25 are all formed with the same hollowed-out area 31. In addition, the plurality of light-emitting diodes 21 of the present invention are not limited to be placed in the first row. It is conceivable that most of the light-emitting diodes The body 21 can also be placed in the first column or other suitable position.

4 is a partial enlarged view of the touch panel 20 of the present invention to schematically show another embodiment of the light emitting diode placement area 22, wherein the light emitting diode placement area 22 is to remove the touch A part of the sensing pattern 25 is formed as a hollowed-out area 41, and the position and range of the hollowed-out area 41 correspond to the light-emitting diode 21, and the two connecting ends 211 of the light-emitting diode 21 are connected through the hollowed-out area 41 To the printed circuit board 23. In other words, in the light emitting diode placement area 22, the touch sensing pattern 25 may not be formed. And as shown in the figure, in this embodiment, the hollowed-out area 41 spans two adjacent touch sensing areas 271 and 272, therefore, the light-emitting diode 22 spans the two adjacent touch sensing areas 271 and 272 are provided. In addition, in other embodiments, the hollowed-out area 41 may also be located in the same touch sensing area 27, so the light emitting diode 21 is also located in the same touch sensing area 27.

Similarly, in one embodiment, only the first row (row) of the touch sensing regions 27 of the plurality of touch sensing regions 27 arranged in rows and columns corresponds to the portion of the touch sensing pattern 25 provided with the light emitting diode 21 A hollowed-out area 41 is formed, however, in order to ensure the consistency of the pattern so as not to affect the amount of touch sensing, the portion of the touch sensing pattern 25 corresponding to each touch sensing area 27 in the first row may be The same hollowed-out area 41 is formed.

In some embodiments, when only the part of the touch sensing pattern 25 corresponding to the first row of touch sensing regions 27 is formed with the hollowed-out region 31 or 41, the amount of touch-sensing may be reduced due to the formation of the hollowed-out region Therefore, it needs to be compensated. As shown in FIG. 5, it is to enhance the driving signal of the input driving line pattern 251 (for example, to make the gain of the driving signal applied to the first row of input driving line pattern 251 greater than 1), or to enhance The sensing signal output from the sensing line pattern 253 (for example, when reading the sensing signal from the first row of input driving line pattern 251, adjust the output gain (Gain) of the sensing line pattern 253 to enhance the output sensing signal), or Software is used to compensate for the reduction in the amount of touch sensing caused by the formation of the hollowed-out area 31 or 41 on the touch sensing pattern 25 corresponding to the touch sensing area 27.

Please refer to FIG. 6 to further describe the use of current-limiting resistors to control the brightness of the light-emitting diodes 21 to make the overall brightness uniform. Many of the light-emitting diodes 21 different from the previous embodiment are arranged equidistantly distributed in the first row In the touch sensing area 27 of (row), the plurality of light emitting diodes 21 of FIG. 6 are arranged to be unequally distributed in the touch sensing area 27 of the first row (row). The distance D between one light-emitting diode 21 and the boundary is greater than the distance d between any two light-emitting diodes 21 or the distance d between the last light-emitting diode 21 and the other boundary, which may cause this first light-emitting diode 21 The polar body 21 cannot provide sufficient brightness. Therefore, this phenomenon can be improved by the current-limiting resistor connected to the light-emitting diode 21, that is, a different resistance value of the current-limiting resistor (R1~R8) is selected to compensate for The uneven brightness caused by the equidistant light-emitting diodes 21 is selected in the example of FIG. 6 as the resistance value R1 <R2 = R3 = R4 = R5 = R6 = R7 = R8, because the first light-emitting diode is connected The resistance value R1 of the current limiting resistor of the polar body 21 is small, so the current flowing through is large, so that the brightness of the first light emitting diode 21 is high and can compensate for the non-equidistantly distributed light emitting diode 21 The brightness is uneven.

As can be seen from the above description, with the touch panel of the present invention, the touch sensing area is distributed on the entire surface of the touch panel, and by digging out part of the touch sensing pattern for setting the light emitting diode, it can be In the case of forming a touch dead zone, the bright light of the light-emitting diode is provided to display the number keys of the touch, as shown in FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of the touch panel 20 of the present invention can be switched to touch operation or digital input, which Since no touch dead zone is additionally formed, the touch panel 20 of the embodiment of the present invention can additionally increase the touch surface by 6.25%, and further make the touch panel 20 have a full-surface touch function, and the touch operation can be more Fluent.

The above embodiments are only examples for the convenience of description, and the scope of rights claimed by the present invention should be subject to the scope of the patent application, and not limited to the above embodiments.

10,20: touchpad

11: Touch area

13: LED area

21: LED

23: Printed circuit board

211: connector

231,233: surface

25: Touch sensor pattern

29: Control circuit

251: Drive line pattern

253: Induction line pattern

27: Touch sensing area

22: LED placement area

24: through hole

31,41: hollowed out area

D, d: distance

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a conventional touch panel that can be switched to touch operation or digital input. FIG. 2(A) is a schematic plan view of the touch panel of the present invention. FIG. 2(B) is a schematic side view of the touch panel of the present invention viewed from the direction of the arrow in FIG. 2(A). FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged view of the touch panel of the present invention to schematically show an embodiment of a light emitting diode placement area. FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged view of the touch panel of the present invention to schematically show another embodiment of the light emitting diode placement area. FIG. 5 schematically shows compensation for the reduction in the amount of touch sensing caused by the formation of a hollowed-out area on the touch sensing pattern corresponding to the touch sensing area. FIG. 6 schematically shows that the current-limiting resistor is used to control the brightness of the light-emitting diode to make the overall brightness uniform. FIG. 7 shows a configuration diagram of the touch panel of the present invention that can be switched to touch operation or digital input.

20: Touchpad

21: LED

23: Printed circuit board

25: Touch sensor pattern

251: Drive line pattern

253: Induction line pattern

27: Touch sensing area

22: LED placement area

Claims (16)

A touch panel with light-emitting diodes includes: at least one light-emitting diode with at least two connecting ends; and a printed circuit board with a surface on which a touch-sensitive pattern is formed to realize touch sensing Operation; wherein, at least one light-emitting diode placement area is defined on the touch sensing pattern, the light-emitting diode system is disposed in the light-emitting diode placement area, so that the two connections of the light-emitting diode The terminal is connected to the printed circuit board and is electrically isolated from the touch sensing pattern, and wherein the touch sensing pattern includes a plurality of driving line patterns and a plurality of sensing line patterns that are staggered to correspondingly define a plurality of touch sensing areas, Each touch sensing area corresponds to a part of the touch sensing pattern. The touch panel as described in item 1 of the patent application scope, wherein the light emitting diode placement area is formed to remove a part of the touch sensing pattern to form a first hollowed out area, the first cutout The range and position of the empty area correspond to the light emitting diode, and the two connection ends of the light emitting diode are connected to the printed circuit board through the first hollowed-out area. The touch panel as described in item 2 of the patent application scope, wherein the first hollowed-out area is located in a touch-sensitive area, and the light-emitting diode is also located in the touch-sensitive area. The touch panel as described in item 2 of the patent application scope, wherein the first hollowed-out area spans two adjacent touch sensing areas, and the light-emitting diode also spans the two adjacent touch areas Control induction area. The touch panel as described in item 2 of the scope of the patent application, wherein the part of the touch sensing pattern corresponding to each touch sensing area is formed with the same hollowed-out area. The touch panel as described in item 2 of the patent application scope, wherein the driving line pattern and the sensing line pattern corresponding to the touch sensing area provided with the light emitting diode are used to enhance the driving of the input driving line pattern The signal is either to enhance the sensing signal output from the sensing line pattern, or to compensate for the decrease in the amount of touch sensing by software. The touch panel as described in item 1 of the patent application scope, wherein the light-emitting diode placement area is formed by removing two parts of the touch sensing pattern to form two second hollowed-out areas, each The range and position of the second hollowed-out area correspond to one connecting end of the light-emitting diode, and the two connecting ends of the light-emitting diode are respectively connected to the printed circuit board through the two second hollowed-out areas. The touch panel as described in item 7 of the patent application scope, wherein the two second hollowed-out areas are located in a touch sensing area, and the light emitting diode is also located in the touch sensing area. The touch panel as described in item 7 of the patent application scope, wherein the two second hollowed-out areas are respectively located in two adjacent touch sensing areas, and the light-emitting diode crosses the two adjacent Touch sensing area. The touch panel as described in item 7 of the patent application scope, wherein the part of the touch sensing pattern corresponding to each touch sensing area is formed with the same hollowed-out area. The touch panel device as described in item 7 of the patent application scope, wherein the driving line pattern and the sensing line pattern corresponding to the touch sensing area provided with the light emitting diode are used to enhance the input of the driving line pattern The driving signal is either to enhance the sensing signal output from the sensing line pattern, or to compensate for the decrease in the amount of touch sensing by software. The touch panel as described in item 1 of the patent application scope, wherein the plurality of touch sensing areas are arranged in rows and columns, and the at least one light emitting diode placement area is defined in the first row of touch sensing areas A plurality of light-emitting diode placement areas, the at least one light-emitting diode system is a plurality of light-emitting diodes disposed in the touch sensing area of the first row. The touch panel as described in item 12 of the patent application scope, wherein the plurality of light emitting diode systems are arranged to be equidistantly distributed in the touch sensing area of the first row. The touch panel as described in item 12 of the patent application range, wherein the plurality of light-emitting diode systems are arranged to be unequally distributed in the touch sensing area of the first row. The touch panel as described in item 14 of the patent application scope, wherein each light-emitting diode is connected with a current-limiting resistor to select different resistance values of the current-limiting resistor to compensate for the non-equidistant distribution of light-emitting diodes The brightness is uneven. The touch panel as described in item 14 of the patent application range, wherein the two connection ends of the light emitting diode are further electrically connected to the control provided on the other side of the printed circuit board through the through hole on the printed circuit board Circuit.

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