Nano-scale Conducting Elements for Touch Sensors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing touch sensor technologies face challenges with transparency and electrical conductivity, particularly with high costs and unsatisfactory performance of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), and require alternative materials like silver nanowires that still face issues with light reflection affecting image quality.
Innovation Solution
A touch sensor unit with nano-scale conducting elements, including a metal body with a roughened surface, a light-absorbing member, or a twisted structure, integrated into an electrically insulating layer on a substrate, which reduces light reflection and enhances image quality by using silver or copper nanowires and anti-reflective layers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If ITO is used for touch electrodes, then electrical conductivity is achieved, but transparency and cost-effectiveness are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive ITO with silver nanowires, which are more cost-effective and provide superior transparency and conductivity. The silver nanowires serve as a disposable alternative that achieves better performance without requiring complex manufacturing processes
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite structure by combining silver nanowires with an electrically insulating layer. This composite material maintains electrical conductivity through the nanowire network while the insulating layer provides transparency and prevents short circuits, resolving the contradiction between conductivity and transparency
2Reliability
If silver nanowires are used for touch electrodes, then transparency and electrical conductivity are improved, but light reflection increases affecting image quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies an electrically insulating layer over the silver nanowires, converting the harmful light reflection from the metallic surface into a beneficial low-reflective interface. The insulating layer's refractive index creates an optical gradient that reduces reflection while maintaining the nanowires' electrical conductivity and transparency advantages
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the optical parameters at the metal-air interface by introducing an insulating layer with intermediate refractive index. This parameter change reduces the abrupt refractive index mismatch, thereby reducing light reflection and improving image quality while preserving the electrical properties
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively improves the transparency and electrical conductivity of touch electrodes, reducing light reflection and enhancing the image quality of display devices, while potentially lowering costs by using alternative materials like silver or copper nanowires and anti-reflective layers.
Implementation Method 1
Each of the conducting elements includes a metal body that has a roughened surface
Implementation Method 2
Each of the conducting elements includes a metal body and a light-absorbing member that has a refractivity lower than that of the substrate and that is disposed on the metal body
Implementation Method 3
Each of the conducting elements includes a metal body that has a twisted structure
Data Source
AI summary
A touch sensor unit includes a substrate and a plurality of touch electrodes disposed on the substrate for generating sensing signals. Each of the touch electrodes includes an electrically insulating layer that is light-transmissible, and a plurality of nano-scale conducting elements distributed in the electrically insulating layer and electrically connected to one another. Each of the conducting elements includes a metal body that has a roughened surface, that has a twisted structure, or that is formed with a light light-absorbing member thereon.