Transparent conductive coating for capacitive touch panel or the like

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10082920-B2
Application number	US-201715409658-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 19, 2017
Priority date	Apr 8, 2015
Publication date	Sep 25, 2018
Grant date	Sep 25, 2018

Abstract

This invention relates to a transparent conductive coating that is substantially transparent to visible light and is designed to have a visible reflectance which more closely matches that the visible reflectance of the underlying substrate. In certain example embodiments, the transparent conductive multilayer coating includes a silver layer(s) and may be used as an electrode(s) in a capacitive touch panel so as to provide for an electrode(s) transparent to visible light but without much visibility due to the substantial matching visible reflection design.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A capacitive touch panel, comprising:
a multi-layer transparent conductive coating supported by a substrate,
wherein the multi-layer transparent conductive coating comprises at least one conductive layer comprising silver located between at least a first dielectric layer and a second dielectric layer,
wherein the multi-layer transparent conductive coating, comprising at least the conductive layer comprising silver located between at least the first dielectric layer and the second dielectric layer, is patterned into a plurality of electrodes and/or conductive traces for the touch panel;
a processor configured to measure capacitance in detecting touch position regarding the touch panel; and
wherein there is no more than a 2.0 difference at 600 nm between (a) a glass side visible reflectance percentage of the multi-layer transparent conductive coating on the substrate in at least some areas where the coating is present, and (b) a visible reflectance percentage of the substrate in at least some areas where the multi-layer transparent conductive coating is not present.

2. The capacitive touch panel of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a glass substrate.

3. The capacitive touch panel of claim 1 , wherein there is no more than a 1.5 difference at 600 nm between (a) a glass side visible reflectance percentage of the multi-layer transparent conductive coating on the substrate in at least some areas where the coating is present, and (b) a visible reflectance percentage of the substrate in at least some areas where the multi-layer transparent conductive coating is not present.

4. The capacitive touch panel of claim 1 , wherein there is no more than a 1.0 difference at 600 nm between (a) a glass side visible reflectance percentage of the multi-layer transparent conductive coating on the substrate in at least some areas where the coating is present, and (b) a visible reflectance percentage of the substrate in at least some areas where the multi-layer transparent conductive coating is not present.

5. The capacitive touch panel of claim 1 , wherein the first dielectric layer comprises titanium oxide.

6. The capacitive touch panel of claim 1 , wherein the second dielectric layer comprises tin oxide.

7. The capacitive touch panel of claim 1 , wherein the multi-layer transparent conductive coating comprises, moving away from the substrate:
a dielectric layer comprising titanium oxide;
another dielectric layer comprising zinc oxide;
the conductive layer comprising silver directly contacting the dielectric layer comprising zinc oxide;
a contact layer over and contacting the conductive layer comprising silver;
another dielectric layer comprising titanium oxide;
another dielectric layer comprising tin oxide; and
another dielectric layer comprising silicon nitride.

8. The capacitive touch panel of claim 1 , wherein the multi-layer transparent conductive coating has a sheet resistance of less than or equal to about 15 ohms/square.

9. The capacitive touch panel of claim 1 , wherein the multi-layer transparent conductive coating has a sheet resistance of less than or equal to about 10 ohms/square.

10. The capacitive touch panel of claim 1 , wherein the multi-layer transparent conductive coating has a sheet resistance of less than or equal to about 5 ohms/square.

Assignees

• Guardian Glass Llc

Inventors

• Den Boer Willem
• Weng Jian-Gang

Classifications

• C03C17/3642

  the multilayer coating containing a metal layer · CPC title

• C03C2217/256

  Ag · CPC title

• C03C17/3618

  Coatings of type glass/inorganic compound/other inorganic layers, at least one layer being metallic · CPC title

• C03C17/3626

  one layer at least containing a nitride, oxynitride, boronitride or carbonitride · CPC title

• C03C2217/212

  TiO2 · CPC title