KR101077298B1 - Inspection apparatus for electrode resistance of touch screen and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electrode resistance test apparatus for a touch screen and a method thereof.
According to the present invention as described above, the power supply for supplying power by sequentially connecting to the electrode of the transparent substrate of the touch screen; A resistance measuring unit measuring resistance by connecting to the electrode when power is supplied to the electrode from the power supply unit; And a resistance value storage unit for storing a resistance value of the electrode measured by the resistance measurement unit, and a method thereof.

Description

Apparatus and method for inspecting electrode resistance of touch screens {INSPECTION APPARATUS FOR ELECTRODE RESISTANCE OF TOUCH SCREEN AND METHOD THEREOF}

The present invention relates to an electrode resistance test apparatus for a touch screen and a method thereof.

Current portable terminal devices, such as PDAs, PMPs, MP3 players, mobile phones, etc., are becoming smaller in size to facilitate their portability and mobility. As miniaturization of the portable terminal device proceeds, a touch screen method is adopted to allow a user to input or select information more conveniently in place of the conventional key button input method.

The touch screen method is a method of directly inputting or selecting information by interfacing with a computer through a screen. When a touch of a human hand or an object is touched at a specific position of the screen, the touch screen detects coordinates of the touched position.

The function corresponding to the coordinate value is executed by the software through the coordinate value. Accordingly, the touch screen provides a function as an information display unit and a function as an input unit.

Such touch screens can be classified in various ways, and are classified into a capacitive type, a resistive film type, a surface ultrasonic type, and an infrared type according to the operating principle thereof.

These touch screens are adopted in electronic products in consideration of signal amplification problems, resolution differences, difficulty in design and processing technology, optical properties, electrical properties, mechanical properties, environmental properties, input properties, durability, and economics. Currently, the most widely used methods are the resistive film type and the capacitive type.

Among them, the capacitive type has high transmittance and excellent durability and is the most popular method recently.

The conventional capacitive type is a single layer that uses a single transparent conductive layer ITO panel by detecting a minute current flowing by a change in capacitance generated between a sensor electrode and a finger to determine a position. There is a dual layer method using two methods and an ITO panel.

On the other hand, in the capacitive method, accurate capacitance measurement is required to determine the correct contact position of the finger. And, for this purpose, it is necessary to grasp the exact characteristics of each component.

In particular, the electrodes formed on the upper substrate or the lower substrate have a dense pattern, making it difficult to obtain resistance characteristics of desired uniformity, and there is a high possibility of resistance variation between the electrodes.

Therefore, not only care needs to be taken to obtain uniform resistance between the electrodes in the manufacturing stage of the product, but also the surface resistance of the electrode can be easily measured even after the product is completed, thereby performing the resistance compensation accordingly. If so, you will be able to determine the exact capacitance measurement and thus the exact contact location.

The present invention has been made in accordance with the necessity as described above, and to provide an electrode resistance test apparatus and method of the touch screen that can easily measure the resistance of the electrode of the touch screen.

The present invention for achieving the above object, the power supply for supplying power by sequentially connecting to the electrode of the transparent substrate of the touch screen; A resistance measuring unit measuring resistance by connecting to the electrode when power is supplied to the electrode from the power supply unit; And a resistance value storing unit storing the resistance value of the electrode measured by the resistance measuring unit.

In addition, the present invention is located between the electrode and the power supply of the touch screen switch to provide an electrical connection of the electrode and the power supply by a switching operation; And a switch controller for controlling the switch to sequentially apply power supplied from the power supply unit to the electrodes by the switching operation.

In addition, the switch of the present invention is characterized in that any one of a CMOS switch, a vacuum switch, a solid state switch and a mercury switch.

In addition, the touch screen of the present invention includes a dummy pad formed in a peripheral area of one side of the electrode; And a dummy wire connecting the electrode and the dummy pad, wherein the resistance measuring unit measures the resistance of the electrode by connecting to the dummy pad.

In addition, the dummy pad of the present invention is characterized in that it is formed of any one of copper, aluminum, silver, gold, CNT and conductive adhesive tape.

In addition, the present invention (A) connecting any one of the plurality of electrodes of the touch screen to the power supply; (B) when any one of the plurality of electrodes is connected to the power supply unit, the resistance measuring unit measures the resistance of the corresponding electrode; And (C) storing the resistance value of the electrode measured by the resistance value storage unit.

In addition, in the step (A) of the present invention, the switch controller controls the switch according to a switch control sequence to connect any one of the plurality of electrodes to the power supply while sequentially proceeding from one side of the transparent substrate of the touch screen to the opposite side. Characterized in that.

Further, after the step (C) of the present invention, (D) determining whether it corresponds to the last electrode in the switch control sequence; And (E) if the result of the determination is not the last electrode, repeating from the step (A), and if it corresponds to the last electrode, characterized in that it comprises the step of ending the resistance measurement.

Prior to this, the terms or words used in this specification and claims are not to be interpreted in a conventional and dictionary sense, and the inventors may appropriately define the concept of terms in order to best describe their own invention. It should be interpreted as meaning and concept corresponding to the technical idea of the present invention based on the principle that the present invention.

According to the present invention as described above, the resistance of the electrode of the touch screen can be easily measured.

In addition, according to the present invention, since the dummy pad for resistance measurement is formed at the same time as the electrode pad in the manufacturing process, the resistance of the electrode can be easily measured without an additional process.

In addition, according to the present invention, it is possible to perform resistance correction in a subsequent step according to the measured resistance to obtain a uniform electrode resistance characteristics.

1 is a configuration diagram of an electrode resistance test apparatus for a touch screen according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the upper substrate constituting FIG. 1. FIG.
3 is a plan view of a lower substrate constituting FIG. 1.
4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of inspecting electrode resistance of a touch screen according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

The objects, specific advantages and novel features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description and the preferred embodiments associated with the accompanying drawings. In the present specification, in adding reference numerals to the components of each drawing, it should be noted that the same components as possible, even if displayed on different drawings have the same number as possible. In addition, in describing the present invention, if it is determined that the detailed description of the related known technology may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a configuration diagram of an electrode resistance test apparatus for a touch screen according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of an upper substrate constituting FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of a lower substrate constituting FIG. 1. to be.

Referring to FIG. 1, an electrode resistance test apparatus for a touch screen 10 according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include a power supply unit 100, a switch 200, a switch control unit 300, a resistance measurement unit 400, The resistance value storage unit 500 is included.

Here, the touch screen 10 to be the resistance test target of the electrode resistance test apparatus according to the present invention is configured in a form in which the upper substrate 20 and the lower substrate 40 face each other with the adhesive layer 30 therebetween.

The upper substrate 20 is divided into a sensing region SR and a peripheral region DR. The upper substrate 20 includes an upper transparent substrate 21, an upper electrode 22, an upper electrode wiring 23, an upper electrode pad 24, an upper dummy wiring 25, and an upper dummy pad 26. .

The upper transparent substrate 21 is transparent and is an insulator, which is a film substrate or a glass substrate. The upper electrodes 22 are disposed on the upper transparent substrate 21. A plurality of the upper electrodes 22 are spaced apart from each other, and extend in the Y direction. The upper electrodes 22 are transparent and are conductors.

Examples of the material used as the upper electrodes 22 include indium tin oxide (ITO) or indium zinc oxide (IZO).

The upper electrode 22 includes a plurality of upper sensing electrodes 22-1 and upper connectors 22-2. The upper sensing electrodes 22-1 are arranged in a line in the Y direction. The upper sensing electrodes 22-1 have a planar shape of a rhombus shape.

Here, the upper sensing electrodes 22-1 may have a flat shape having a rhombus shape, but are not limited thereto. The upper sensing electrodes 22-1 may be formed in various shapes such as polygons such as triangles and squares or circles or ellipses.

The upper connection parts 22-2 are disposed between the upper sensing electrodes 22-1. The upper connection parts 22-2 connect the upper sensing electrodes 22-1. The upper connection parts 22-2 and the upper sensing electrodes 22-1 are integrally formed.

A transparent conductive layer may be deposited on the upper transparent substrate 21, and the transparent conductive layer may be patterned to form the upper electrodes 22. That is, the upper electrodes 22 contact the upper transparent substrate 21.

Next, the upper electrode wires 23 are connected to one side of the upper electrodes 22, respectively, and are formed in the peripheral area. The upper electrode wires 23 connect the upper electrodes 22 and the upper electrode pads 24, respectively.

One terminal of the upper electrode pads 24 is connected to the upper electrodes 22 through the upper electrode wires 23, and the other terminal is connected to the switch 200. It is formed in the peripheral region.

The upper electrode wires 23 and the upper electrode pads 24 are integrally formed and are formed of a material having low resistance. The upper electrode wires 23 and the upper electrode pads 24 have a much lower resistance than the upper electrodes 22.

Examples of the material used for the upper electrode wirings 23 and the upper electrode pads 24 include copper, aluminum, silver, gold, CNT, and a conductive adhesive tape.

The upper dummy wires 25 are connected to the other side to which the upper electrode wires 23 of the upper electrodes 22 are connected, respectively, and are formed in the peripheral area. The upper dummy wires 25 connect the upper electrodes 22 and the upper dummy pads 26, respectively.

One terminal of the upper dummy pads 26 is connected to the upper electrodes 22 through the upper dummy wires 25, and the other terminal of the upper dummy pads 26 is connected to the resistance measuring unit 400. It is formed in the peripheral region.

The upper dummy wires 25 and the upper dummy pads 26 are integrally formed and are formed of a material having low resistance. The upper dummy wires 25 and the upper dummy pads 26 have much lower resistances than the upper electrodes 22.

Examples of the material used for the upper dummy wirings 25 and the upper dummy pads 26 include copper, aluminum, silver, gold, CNT, and a conductive adhesive tape.

The lower substrate 40 is disposed to face the upper substrate 20, and the lower substrate 40 is spaced apart from the upper substrate 20. Similarly, the lower substrate 40 is also divided into the sensing region SR and the peripheral region DR.

The lower substrate 40 may include a lower transparent substrate 41, a plurality of lower electrodes 42, lower electrode wires 43, lower electrode pads 44, lower dummy wires 45, and a lower dummy pad. S 46. Since materials, shapes, and properties of the components of the lower substrate are similar to those of the corresponding upper substrate 20, detailed descriptions thereof will be omitted.

The power supply unit 100 constituting the electrode resistance test apparatus of the touch screen configured as described above is for applying power to the upper electrode or the lower electrode when performing the electrode resistance test on the touch screen. The electrode pads 24 and 44 formed at regular intervals on the substrate or the lower substrate are connected through the switch 200, and the other terminal is connected to the resistance measuring unit 400.

In the present invention, the power supplied by the power supply unit 100 to the electrode pads 24 and 44 connected through the switch 200 is preferably DC power.

Next, the switch 200 is positioned between the electrode pads 24 and 44 and the power supply unit 100 formed at regular intervals on the upper substrate or the lower substrate of the touch screen to switch the electrode pads 24, 44 and provide an electrical connection of the power supply 100.

The switch 200 includes a variety of switches capable of opening and closing conducting wires such as a CMOS switch using a transistor, a vacuum switch, a solid state switch, a mercury switch, and introducing the same into a touch screen device.

In addition, the switch controller 300 controls the switch 200 to perform a switching operation to provide an electrical connection between the power supply unit 100 and the electrode pads 24 and 44 to be supplied from the power supply unit 100. Power is applied to the electrode pads 24, 44.

The switch control unit 300 controls the switch 200 to connect the plurality of electrode pads 24 and 44 to the power supply unit 100 in various combinations according to a switch control sequence.

The switch control sequence may be set in a predetermined manner in the switch control unit 300, or may be set in a random manner by software installed in the inspection apparatus. The switch control sequence may be changed by the user of the inspection apparatus.

Next, the resistance measuring unit 400 has one terminal connected to the dummy pads 26 and 46 of the upper substrate or the lower substrate of the touch screen, and the other terminal is connected to the power supply 100 so that the power supply unit ( The resistance of the upper electrode 22 and the lower electrode 42 is measured using an electric loop formed when voltage is applied to the electrode pads 24 and 44 at 100.

The resistance value storage unit 500 stores the resistance value measured by the resistance measurement unit 400 as a table for each electrode.

Meanwhile, the touch screen electrode resistance test apparatus configured as described above may sequentially perform resistance tests on the upper electrodes of the upper substrate and the lower electrodes of the lower substrate. This will be described below with reference to FIG. 4.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of inspecting electrode resistance of a touch screen according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, in the electrode resistance test method of the touch screen according to the first embodiment of the present invention, first, a switch controller controls a switch according to a switch control sequence (S100) and the plurality of electrodes (electrode pads). One of them is connected to the power supply (S110).

In this case, the switch control sequence may be formed so as to connect any one of the plurality of electrodes (electrode pads) to the power supply while sequentially proceeding from one side of the upper substrate in the X-axis direction.

 Then, the switch control sequence may be formed so as to connect any one of the plurality of electrodes (electrode pads) to the power supply while sequentially proceeding in the Y-axis direction from one side of the lower substrate.

Next, when any one of the plurality of electrodes (electrode pads) of the upper substrate or the lower substrate is connected to the power supply unit by the switch control of the switch controller, the resistance measuring unit measures the resistance of the upper electrode or the lower electrode ( S120).

Then, the resistance measuring unit stores the measured resistance value for the upper electrode or the lower electrode in the resistance value storage unit (S130). In this case, the resistance value storage unit may store the table in a table form so that a user or the like may easily refer to the resistance value.

Thereafter, the resistance measurement of the electrode of the upper substrate or the lower substrate is continuously performed according to the switch control sequence, and it is determined whether the last electrode pad of the switch control sequence has been reached in order to terminate the resistance measurement (S140).

If it is determined that the last electrode pad of the switch control sequence has not been reached, the process of connecting the next electrode of the electrodes to the power supply unit is repeated according to the switch control sequence, and when the last electrode pad is reached, the resistance measurement is terminated.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. It will be understood that the invention may be varied and varied without departing from the scope of the invention.

10: touch screen 20: upper substrate
21: upper transparent substrate 22: upper electrode
23: upper electrode wiring 24: upper electrode pad
25: upper dummy wiring 26: upper dummy pad
30: adhesive layer 40: lower substrate
41 lower transparent substrate 42 lower electrode
43: lower electrode wiring 44: lower electrode pad
45: lower dummy wiring 46: lower dummy pad
100: power supply 200: switch
300: switch control unit 400: resistance measurement unit
500: resistance value storage unit

Claims (8)

A power supply unit supplying power to the electrode of the transparent substrate of the touch screen;
A resistance measuring unit measuring resistance by connecting to the electrode when power is supplied to the electrode from the power supply unit; And
Electrode resistance test device of the touch screen including a resistance value storage for storing the resistance value of the electrode measured by the resistance measuring unit. The method according to claim 1,
A switch positioned between the electrode of the touch screen and the power supply to provide electrical connection between the electrodes and the power supply by a switching operation; And
And a switch controller to control the switch so that power supplied from a power supply unit is sequentially applied to the electrodes by a switching operation. The method according to claim 2,
The switch may be any one of a CMOS switch, a vacuum switch, a solid state switch and a mercury switch. The method according to claim 1,
The touch screen may include a dummy pad formed at a peripheral area of one side of the electrode; And
Further comprising a dummy wiring connecting the electrode and the dummy pad,
The resistance measuring unit is connected to the dummy pad to measure the resistance of the electrode of the touch screen, characterized in that the electrode. The method of claim 4,
The dummy pad may be formed of any one of copper, aluminum, silver, gold, CNT, and a conductive adhesive tape. (A) connecting any one of the plurality of electrodes of the touch screen to the power supply;
(B) when any one of the plurality of electrodes is connected to the power supply unit, the resistance measuring unit measures the resistance of the corresponding electrode; And
(C) the resistance value storage method of the electrode resistance test method of the touch screen comprising the step of storing the resistance value for the measured electrode. The method of claim 6,
Step (A) is
The switch controller controls the switch according to a switch control sequence to sequentially connect from one side of the transparent substrate of the touch screen to the opposite side and connect any one of the plurality of electrodes to the power supply unit. Way. The method of claim 6,
After the step (C),
(D) determining whether it corresponds to the last electrode in the switch control sequence; And
(E) if the result of the determination, the electrode resistance test method of the touch screen comprising the step of performing repeatedly from the step (A) if it does not correspond to the end of the resistance measurement.

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