Flexible Touch Panel with Serpentine Wiring for Bendable Displays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flexible touch panels face challenges in maintaining flexibility and effective touch recognition due to the use of hard, brittle transparent conductive oxide materials, which are difficult to apply to flexible displays that require both image output and user input functionality.
Innovation Solution
A flexible touch panel design featuring serpentine structured wiring and connection patterns made of transparent conductive oxide, integrated with a mutual capacitance method and a protective layer, allowing for improved flexibility and touch recognition capabilities, along with a manufacturing method that includes forming sensor parts and connection electrodes on a substrate using photolithography and etching processes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If transparent conductive oxide is used as electrode material, then electrical conductivity and transparency are achieved, but flexibility and mechanical reliability deteriorate due to hard and brittle properties
Solution Approach 1:
The electrode material is divided into multiple discrete electrode patterns instead of continuous transparent conductive oxide layers. These segmented patterns are spaced apart and connected through conductive structures, allowing the flexible substrate to bend without cracking the brittle electrode material while maintaining electrical conductivity through the connection structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces rigid transparent conductive oxide electrodes with flexible conductive structures that can accommodate bending and deformation. The conductive patterns are designed to flex with the substrate, maintaining electrical connectivity while allowing the flexible display to achieve desired curvature and flexibility.
2Measurement precision
If continuous transparent conductive oxide layer is used, then electrical conductivity is maintained, but touch recognition accuracy deteriorates due to interference with touch sensor operation
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous transparent conductive oxide layer is segmented into discrete electrode patterns with spacing between them. This segmentation reduces interference with touch sensor operation while maintaining electrical conductivity through the conductive connection structures that link the patterns, thereby improving touch recognition accuracy without sacrificing electrical functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using a continuous transparent conductive oxide layer that fully covers the display area, the patent uses partial coverage with spaced-apart electrode patterns. This partial action approach reduces interference with touch sensing while maintaining sufficient electrical conductivity for display operation.
3Manufacturing precision
If fine patterns are implemented for high resolution, then display quality improves, but manufacturing complexity increases due to precise alignment requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The electrode structure is segmented into modular patterns that can be manufactured using standard photolithography processes. The segmented design with clear spacing between patterns simplifies alignment requirements compared to continuous fine patterns, reducing manufacturing complexity while maintaining high resolution through precise pattern formation.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a flexible touch panel. The flexible touch panel includes a first sensor part extending in a first direction on a substrate, a second sensor part extending in a second direction crossing the first direction on the substrate, and a protective layer surrounding the first and second sensor parts, wherein the first sensor part includes first sensor patterns spaced apart from each other in the first direction, a first connection electrode disposed between the first sensor patterns adjacent to each other, and first connection patterns connecting the first connection electrode and the first sensor patterns to each other, wherein each of the first sensor patterns includes first electrode patterns spaced apart from each other in a form of a mesh and first wiring patterns connecting the adjacent first electrode patterns to each other, wherein each of the first wiring patterns and the first connection patterns has a serpentine structure, wherein the first electrode patterns and the first wiring patterns include the same material as each other.