TWI614651B - Touch panel and method of manufacturing same - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a touch panel using a metal grid as a material, including a substrate; a sensing layer, the sensing layer is disposed on the substrate, and a plurality of composite metal thin lines are staggered to form a grid shape, and each composite metal thin line includes a The metal layer and a first nickel-copper-titanium layer are disposed between the substrate and the first nickel-copper-titanium layer. By adopting the touch panel provided by the present invention, the first nickel-copper-titanium layer is disposed on the surface of the metal layer, which can prevent the metal layer from being oxidized in subsequent processes, and provides a possibility for realizing the fine line width of the metal grid. The invention also provides a method for manufacturing a touch panel.

Description

Touch panel and manufacturing method thereof

The present invention relates to a touch panel, and more particularly, to a touch panel made of a metal mesh material and a manufacturing method thereof.

Related touch panel products have been widely used in daily work and life. Generally speaking, the touch panel structure includes a sensing area formed on the surface of the substrate. The sensing area is used to sense a human finger or a pen-like writing tool. To achieve the touch effect.

ITO is an indispensable material in current mobile terminal touch panels, but ITO also has problems such as high cost and difficulty in recycling. In order to get rid of the price competition of traditional ITO touch panels and deal with the bottleneck of the current industry development, manufacturers are looking for new material technologies to replace ITO in order to reduce costs and obtain profits.

Metal mesh touch panel technology, due to its low resistivity, easy material acquisition, and simple manufacturing process, has quickly become popular with mainstream PC manufacturers for large-size panels such as NB and AIO PCs. However, metal meshes also have several disadvantages. For example, the metal materials used in metal meshes are highly reflective. Usually, the surface of the grid line needs to be blackened to reduce reflections. However, the blackening treatment It will increase the manufacturing process, and the prepared metal grid is exposed to the air during the blackening process, which is easy to cause oxidation and increase the resistance value. Generally, the line width of the metal grid needs to be appropriately increased to ensure that the resistance value is consistent with the panel. To begging. The line width of the metal grid is usually more than 5 μm; the visual Murray interference produced by the metal line width of more than 5 μm is too obvious. The interference of reflection and Morey caused poor visual effects, making it difficult to enter the mid-to-high-end product market.

In view of the above problems, an embodiment of the present invention provides a touch panel using a metal grid as a material. The touch panel includes a substrate and an induction layer disposed on the substrate. The induction layer is composed of a plurality of composite metal wires , The composite metal thin wires are staggered with each other to form a grid shape, and each of the composite metal thin wires includes a metal layer and a first nickel-copper-titanium layer, and the metal layer is disposed on the substrate and the first nickel-copper Between titanium layers.

In one embodiment, the first nickel-copper-titanium layer contains 35% -50% nickel, 4% -10% copper, and 44% -55% titanium.

In one embodiment, the thickness of the first nickel copper titanium layer is between 10 and 30 nm.

In one embodiment, the metal layer is copper, aluminum, gold, or silver.

In one embodiment, the thickness of the metal layer is between 100 and 400 nm.

In one embodiment, the width of the thin metal wires is less than 5 microns.

In one embodiment, the width of the thin metal wires is between 1 and 3 microns.

In one embodiment, the reflectance of the first nickel-copper-titanium layer is less than or equal to 60%.

In one embodiment, the touch panel further includes a protective cover disposed on a side of the first nickel copper titanium layer away from the metal layer.

In one embodiment, the composite metal thin wire further includes a second nickel copper titanium layer disposed between the metal layer and the substrate.

In one embodiment, the second nickel-copper-titanium layer contains 35% -50% nickel, 4% -10% copper, and 44% -55% titanium.

In one embodiment, the thickness of the second nickel copper titanium layer is between 10 and 30 nm.

In one embodiment, the reflectance of the second nickel-copper-titanium layer is less than or equal to 65%.

In one embodiment, the touch panel further includes a protective cover disposed on a side of the substrate away from the second nickel-copper-titanium layer.

In one embodiment, the substrate is a protective cover of the touch panel.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a method for manufacturing a touch panel, which includes the following steps: S1, providing a carrier plate and a vacuum device; S2, providing a metal target, and sputtering in the vacuum device. A metal layer is on one side of the carrier plate; S3, a first nickel-copper-titanium alloy target is provided. In the vacuum device, a first nickel-copper-titanium layer is sputtered on the metal layer away from the carrier plate. S4, patterning the metal layer and the first nickel-copper-titanium layer to form a grid-shaped sensing layer having a sensing electrode.

In one embodiment, the metal target is copper, aluminum, gold or silver.

In one embodiment, the nickel-copper-titanium alloy target contains 35% -50% nickel, 4% -10% copper, and 44% -55% titanium.

In an embodiment, before step S2, it further includes a step S10: providing a second nickel-copper-titanium alloy target, and in the vacuum device, sputtering a A second nickel-copper-titanium layer is on one side of the carrier plate.

In an embodiment, in step S2, the metal layer is sputtered on a side of the second nickel copper titanium layer away from the carrier plate.

By adopting the touch panel and the touch panel manufacturing method provided by the embodiments of the present invention, the problem of surface layer oxidation of the metal layer in the metal grid after patterning can be avoided, and further, the line width of the metal grid can be made smaller than 5um, to reduce the influence of the interference problem of Murray. Furthermore, the touch panel provided by the embodiment of the present invention does not need to perform additional blackening treatment on the metal grid, which reduces the manufacturing steps.

In order to make the above-mentioned objects, features, and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, a preferred embodiment is given below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings for detailed description as follows.

100, 200, 300, 400‧‧‧ touch panel

12‧‧‧ substrate

16, 16’‧‧‧ induction layer

20, 20’‧‧‧ composite metal thin wire

22‧‧‧metal layer

24‧‧‧The first nickel copper titanium layer

26‧‧‧Protection cover

28‧‧‧second nickel copper titanium layer

S1‧‧‧ provides a carrier board and a vacuum device

S2‧‧‧ provides a metal target. In the vacuum device, a metal layer is sputtered on one side of the carrier plate.

S3‧‧‧ provides the first nickel-copper-titanium alloy target. In the vacuum device, a first A nickel copper titanium layer is on a side of the metal layer away from the carrier plate

S4‧‧‧ patterning the metal layer and the first nickel-copper-titanium layer to form a grid-like sensing layer with a sensing electrode

1 to 4 are side views of a touch panel according to some embodiments of the present invention; and FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a manufacturing process of a touch panel according to the present invention.

The present invention is described in further detail below with reference to the drawings and specific embodiments.

Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a side view of a touch panel 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The touch panel 100 includes a substrate 12 and a sensing layer 16 disposed on a surface of the substrate 12. The sensing layer 16 is composed of a plurality of thin composite metal wires. 20, the composite metal thin wires 20 are staggered with each other to form a grid shape, and the composite metal thin wires 20 include a metal layer 22 and a first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24, wherein the metal layer 22 is disposed on the substrate 12, and the first nickel-copper-titanium The layer 24 is disposed on a side of the metal layer 22 away from the substrate 12, that is, the metal layer 22 is located between the substrate 12 and the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24.

In this embodiment, the substrate 12 is a transparent material and is mainly used to carry the sensing layer 16. The substrate 12 may be a glass substrate or a thin film substrate.

In this embodiment, the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24 may include various ratios of nickel-copper-titanium alloys. In a preferred embodiment, the ratio of nickel-copper-titanium in the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24 is 35% -50%. Nickel, 4-10% copper, 44% -55% titanium. The first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24 has higher resistivity than the metal layer 22, but has superior oxidation resistance compared to the metal layer 22. The first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24 has a dense structure. When the first nickel When the copper-titanium layer 24 is disposed on the metal layer 22, it is difficult for oxygen to penetrate the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24 and oxidize the metal layer 22. Even in a high-oxygen environment, the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24 itself is oxidized. Its surface layer can quickly form a denser oxide layer to prevent further oxidation inside. That is, the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24 only needs to have an extremely thin thickness (for example, 10 to 30 nm, which is 20 nm in this embodiment) to protect the metal layer 22 from being oxidized. More importantly, the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24 and the metal layer 22 can be etched the same in the subsequent patterning process (such as lithographic etching or laser etching) because the material properties of the two are equivalent (both metal materials). Liquid or laser synchronous etching; In addition, the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24 can also be sputtered on the surface of the substrate 12 in the same vacuum device as the metal layer 22, and only the target material needs to be replaced during the whole process without changing the vacuum environment; The chance of the metal layer 22, especially the patterned metal layer 22 being oxidized when exposed to the air, is largely avoided.

In this embodiment, based on the power of the touch panel 100 to the sensing layer 16 For the requirements of resistivity, the material of the metal layer 22 may be copper, aluminum, gold, or silver. In this embodiment, it is more based on the economics of the material, the resistivity, and the adhesion to the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24. The material The degree of matching is required, and the material of the metal layer 22 is more preferably copper. Although the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24 has a higher resistivity than the metal layer 22, its resistivity is much lower than that of the oxide of the metal layer 22. Therefore, in this embodiment, the The thickness does not need to be specifically increased to ensure that the resistivity meets the requirements of the touch panel, and the thickness only needs to be controlled at 50 ~ 400nm.

The grid-shaped induction layer 16 formed by the composite metal thin wires 20 provided in this embodiment is adopted, because the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24 and the metal layer 22 can be formed in the same vacuum device and patterned in the same etching step. Coupled with the excellent anti-oxidation performance of the first nickel-copper-titanium layer, it is possible to achieve fine wiring of the metal grid and avoid Murray interference. In this embodiment, the line width of the composite metal thin wire 20 may be less than 5 μm, for example, between 1 and 3 μm.

Traditional metal thin wires, such as copper, aluminum, gold, or silver, have high reflectance. These materials have a reflectance of more than 95% in the visible wavelength range. The wider the thin metal wire, the more obvious the reflection. Therefore, it is necessary to additionally set black. Layer to solve the problem of excessive reflection. By adopting the grid-shaped induction layer 16 formed by the composite metal thin wires 20 provided in the present invention staggered, the problem of excessive light reflection can be greatly improved because the line width of the plurality of metal thin wires 20 is small. Furthermore, the reflectance of the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24 in the visible light range can be controlled to 65% or less. In this way, the thin line width plus low reflectance, the mesh formed by the composite metal thin wires 20 provided by the present invention is staggered. The grid-shaped sensing layer 16 can avoid the problem that the line reflection is too strong and affects the appearance without the need for an additional blackening layer. Please refer to Figure 2 further.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a touch panel 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Different from the touch panel 100, the touch panel 200 further includes a protective cover 26, which is an interface for the user of the touch panel 200 to touch and watch, and also protects the touch panel 200. Internal structure. It can be a strengthened glass substrate, sapphire or explosion-proof film. The protective cover plate 26 is disposed on a side of the sensing layer 16 away from the substrate 12. More specifically, the protective cover plate 26 is located on a side of the first nickel copper titanium layer 24 away from the metal layer 22.

The composite metal grid of the sensing layer 16 can be partially disconnected and provided as a plurality of first-direction sensing electrodes as needed, and the touch panel 200 can be further separated between the sensing layer 16 and the protective cover plate 26 or the substrate 12 away from the protective cover. On one side of the plate 26, another sensing layer and another substrate are sequentially stacked to form a sensing structure, wherein the other sensing layer is provided with a plurality of second direction sensing electrodes (the second direction is different from the first direction); The layer 16 may also be configured as a sensing structure including a plurality of first direction sensing electrodes and a second direction sensing electrode. The setting of the sensing structure is not repeated here.

Please refer to FIG. 3, which is a side view of a touch panel 300 according to another embodiment of the present invention. Different from the touch panel 100, the touch panel 300 further includes a second nickel copper titanium layer 28 disposed between the metal layer 22 and the substrate 12. That is, the composite metal thin wire 20 'of the induction layer 16' includes a metal layer 22, a first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24, and a second nickel-copper-titanium layer 28. The metal layer 22 is sandwiched between the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24. And a second nickel copper titanium layer 28. Similar to the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24, in this embodiment, the second nickel-copper-titanium layer 28 may include various ratios of nickel-copper-titanium alloys, and the preferred ratios are 35% to 50% of nickel and 4 to 10%. Copper, 44% ~ 55% titanium. The second nickel-copper-titanium layer 28 may be installed in the same vacuum as the metal layer 22 and the first nickel-copper-titanium layer 24. Sputtering is completed, and patterning is completed simultaneously in the same etching process. The thickness of the second nickel copper titanium layer 28 is 10 to 30 nm, for example, 20 nm. The reflectance of the second nickel-copper-titanium layer 28 in the visible light range is less than or equal to 65%. The difference is that in this embodiment, the second nickel-copper-titanium layer 28 is mainly used to improve the adhesion effect between the metal layer 22 and the substrate 12 by using its good adhesion to the substrate 12, especially when the substrate 12 is When the material is a thin film substrate, this effect of improving adhesion is particularly significant.

Please refer to FIG. 4 again, which is a side view of a touch panel 400 according to another embodiment of the present invention. Different from the touch panel 200, the protective cover 26 of the touch panel 400 is not limited to be disposed on the side of the sensing layer 16 'away from the substrate 12, but can also be disposed on the side of the substrate 12 away from the sensing layer 16'. Specifically, In other words, the protective cover 26 may be disposed on a side of the substrate 12 away from the second nickel copper titanium layer 28.

It can be seen that the present invention can also cover that two opposite surfaces of the substrate 12 are provided with a sensing layer 16 ′ having a first direction sensing electrode and a sensing layer 16 ′ having a second direction sensing electrode, respectively. The side where the protective cover 26 is bonded to form a touch panel; and the sensing layer 16 having the first direction sensing electrode is provided on the side of the substrate 12 close to the protective cover 26, and the substrate 12 is far from the protective cover. A sensing layer 16 ′ having a second direction sensing electrode is disposed on one side of 26 to form a touch panel. Furthermore, the substrate 12 provided with the sensing layer 16 'can be directly used as a protective cover of the touch panel, that is, the sensing layer 16' can be directly provided on the protective cover.

In order to specifically realize the effect of anti-oxidation of metal grids and fine lines, the present invention also provides a method for manufacturing a touch panel. Please refer to FIG. 5. FIG. The following steps:

S1, providing a carrying plate and a vacuum device. The carrier board in step S1 is not limited to the aforementioned substrates 12 of the touch panels 100, 200, 300, and 400, and may also be another carrier, or even an opaque carrier, which is mainly used to carry the composite metal wire of the present invention. 20 or 20 'staggered metal grid; when the carrier board is the substrate 12, it can be used directly to make a touch panel, and when it is another carrier, the composite metal grid can be formed in a subsequent gravure Printing or other transfer methods are moved to the substrate 12. The vacuum device in step S1 is mainly used to provide a type of vacuum environment, so as to avoid metal oxidation during subsequent sputtering of the metal layer.

S2. A metal target is provided. In the vacuum device, a metal layer is sputtered on one side of the carrier plate. The metal target may be a copper target, an aluminum target, a gold target, or a silver target, and is preferably a copper target.

S3. Provide a first nickel-copper-titanium alloy target. In the vacuum device, a first nickel-copper-titanium layer is sputtered on a side of the metal layer away from the carrier plate. The first nickel-copper-titanium alloy target contains 35% -50% nickel, 4-10% copper, and 44% -55% titanium. S4. Patterning the aforementioned metal layer and the first nickel-copper-titanium layer to form a grid-like sensing layer having a sensing electrode. The patterning here is preferably lithographic etching or laser etching, which can ensure that the composite metal thin wire including the metal layer and the first nickel-copper-titanium layer achieves a line width of less than 5 μm.

Before the above step S2, it may further include another step S10, in which a second nickel-copper-titanium alloy target is provided. In the aforementioned vacuum device, a second nickel-copper is sputter-plated on a side where a metal layer is to be subsequently formed on the carrier plate. Titanium layer. That is, corresponding to step S2, the metal layer is sputtered on the side of the second nickel-copper-titanium layer away from the carrier plate. Corresponding to step S4, the patterned metal layer and the first nickel copper titanium layer are also simultaneously The second nickel-copper-titanium layer is patterned to form a grid-like sensing layer having sensing electrodes. The second nickel-copper-titanium alloy target may be the same as or different from the first nickel-copper-titanium alloy target. In a preferred embodiment, the second nickel-copper-titanium contains 35% to 50% nickel, 4 to 10 % Copper, 44% ~ 55% titanium.

Although the present invention has been disclosed above with several preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Any person with ordinary knowledge in the technical field can make any changes without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. And retouching, so the scope of protection of the present invention shall be determined by the scope of the attached patent application.

12‧‧‧ substrate

16‧‧‧ induction layer

20‧‧‧ composite metal thin wire

22‧‧‧metal layer

24‧‧‧The first nickel copper titanium layer

100‧‧‧ touch panel

Claims (19)

A touch panel includes: a substrate; and a sensing layer disposed on the substrate. The sensing layer is composed of a plurality of thin composite metal wires, and the composite metal thin wires are staggered to form a grid, and each of the composites The thin metal wire includes a metal layer and a first nickel-copper-titanium layer. The metal layer is disposed between the substrate and the first nickel-copper-titanium layer. The reflectance of the first nickel-copper-titanium layer is less than or equal to 65%. The touch panel according to item 1 of the scope of patent application, wherein the first nickel-copper-titanium layer contains 35% -50% nickel, 4% -10% copper, and 44% -55% titanium. The touch panel according to item 1 of the scope of patent application, wherein the thickness of the first nickel-copper-titanium layer is between 10 and 30 nm. The touch panel according to item 1 of the scope of patent application, wherein the metal layer is copper, aluminum, gold, or silver. The touch panel according to item 1 of the scope of patent application, wherein the thickness of the metal layer is between 100 and 400 nm. The touch panel according to item 1 of the scope of patent application, wherein the width of the composite metal thin wire is less than 5 microns. The touch panel according to item 1 of the scope of patent application, wherein the width of the composite metal thin wire is between 1 and 3 microns. The touch panel according to item 1 of the patent application scope further includes a protective cover plate disposed on a side of the first nickel copper titanium layer away from the metal layer. The touch panel according to item 1 of the scope of patent application, wherein the composite gold The thin metal wire further includes a second nickel-copper-titanium layer disposed between the metal layer and the substrate. The touch panel according to item 9 of the scope of patent application, wherein the second nickel-copper-titanium layer contains 35% -50% nickel, 4% -10% copper, and 44% -55% titanium. The touch panel according to item 9 of the scope of patent application, wherein the thickness of the second nickel-copper-titanium layer is between 10 and 30 nm. The touch panel according to item 9 of the scope of patent application, wherein the reflectance of the second nickel-copper-titanium layer is less than or equal to 60%. The touch panel according to item 9 of the scope of patent application, further comprising a protective cover plate disposed on a side of the substrate away from the second nickel-copper-titanium layer. The touch panel according to item 9 of the scope of patent application, wherein the substrate is a protective cover of the touch panel. A method for manufacturing a touch panel includes the following steps: providing a carrier plate and a vacuum device; providing a metal target; in the vacuum device, sputtering a metal layer on one side of the carrier plate; providing a first nickel For a copper-titanium alloy target, in the vacuum device, a first nickel-copper-titanium layer is sputtered on a side of the metal layer away from the carrier plate, wherein the reflectance of the first nickel-copper-titanium layer is less than or equal to 65%; And patterning the metal layer and the first nickel-copper-titanium layer to form a grid-like sensing layer having a sensing electrode. The method for manufacturing a touch panel according to item 15 of the scope of patent application, wherein the metal target is copper, aluminum, gold, or silver. The method for manufacturing a touch panel according to item 15 of the scope of patent application, wherein the nickel-copper-titanium alloy target contains 35% to 50% nickel, 4% to 10% copper, and 44% to 55% titanium. . According to the method for manufacturing a touch panel described in item 15 of the scope of patent application, before providing the metal target, it further includes a step of providing a second nickel-copper-titanium alloy target, and in the vacuum device, sputtering a first A nickel-nickel-copper-titanium layer is on one side of the carrier plate. According to the method for manufacturing a touch panel according to item 18 of the scope of patent application, in the step of sputtering the metal layer on one side of the carrier plate, the metal layer is sputtered on the second nickel copper titanium layer away from The carrier board on one side.