Touch Screen Panel Glass Substrate Reinforcement and Edge Healing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional touch screen panels face challenges in achieving sufficient breaking strength and mass productivity due to unreinforced cutting sections that can develop minute cracks, affecting their reliability and manufacturing efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a reinforcing process on the original glass substrate before cutting, followed by a healing process on the unreinforced cutting sections using a viscous etching paste, to enhance the breaking strength and productivity of the touch screen panels, which includes soaking the glass substrate in a KNO3 solution and heating it to replace sodium with potassium, and forming sensing patterns, insulating layers, and a ground electrode layer on the reinforced glass substrate.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the glass substrate is cut into unit cells after reinforcement, then mass productivity is improved, but the cutting sections remain unreinforced and develop minute cracks reducing reliability
Solution Approach 1:
The glass substrate is performed reinforcement treatment before cutting into unit cells. This preliminary reinforcement ensures that the entire substrate, including future cutting sections, gains strength enhancement. The reinforcing process is applied to the complete substrate prior to any cutting operations, preventing crack formation in otherwise vulnerable cut edges.
Solution Approach 2:
After cutting, the unreinforced cutting sections are subjected to a localized healing process that applies reinforcement specifically to the exposed edges. This local quality approach ensures that only the vulnerable cutting sections receive additional reinforcement treatment, addressing their specific need for crack prevention without requiring re-reinforcement of the entire substrate.
2Strength
If reinforcement treatment is applied to the glass substrate, then breaking strength is improved, but the manufacturing process complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The reinforcement process utilizes parameter changes by controlling the chemical composition and thermal conditions of the reinforcing solution. By adjusting parameters such as solution composition (KNO3 concentration), temperature (400-450°C), and treatment duration (15-18 hours), the glass substrate achieves enhanced strength through controlled chemical modification and heat treatment.
Solution Approach 2:
A reinforcing solution containing KNO3 acts as an intermediary medium between the glass substrate and the reinforcement mechanism. This intermediary solution facilitates the reinforcement process by providing the necessary chemical and thermal conditions for strength enhancement, mediating between the raw glass material and the desired reinforced state.
3Strength
If the glass substrate is reinforced before cutting, then breaking strength is improved, but production time for reinforcement process increases
Solution Approach 1:
The reinforcement treatment is performed as a preliminary action on the complete glass substrate before cutting into unit cells. This approach consolidates the reinforcement step into the initial production phase, ensuring that all subsequent cutting operations work with already-reinforced material. The extended duration (15-18 hours) is concentrated in this initial phase rather than being distributed throughout the production process.
Solution Approach 2:
The reinforcement process is merged with the initial substrate preparation phase of the manufacturing workflow. By combining the reinforcement treatment with the early-stage processing operations, the patent integrates two previously separate time-consuming steps into a coordinated sequence, optimizing the overall production timeline.
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 ensures improved breaking strength and mass productivity of touch screen panels by removing minute cracks and integrating the glass substrate as a window, simplifying the manufacturing process and reducing material costs while maintaining high sensitivity and durability.
Implementation Method 1
The reinforcing process may include replacing a sodium component in the glass substrate with a potassium component
Implementation Method 2
heating the etching paste
Data Source
AI summary
A method of fabricating a touch screen panel, a touch screen panel, and a display device, the method including performing a reinforcing process on whole surfaces of a glass substrate in preparation for forming a plurality of touch screen panels; cutting the reinforced glass substrate into unit cells; performing a healing process on an unreinforced cutting section of the glass substrate exposed after the cutting; and forming the touch screen panels in the unit cells.