Transparent conductive coating for capacitive touch panel or the like

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9557871-B2
Application number	US-201514681266-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 8, 2015
Priority date	Apr 8, 2015
Publication date	Jan 31, 2017
Grant date	Jan 31, 2017

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 substrate;
a multi-layer transparent conductive coating supported by the 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 for the touch panel;
a processor which measures capacitance between electrodes in detecting touch position on the touch panel,
wherein the electrodes formed from the multi-layer transparent conductive coating are formed substantially in a common plane substantially parallel to the substrate, 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 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 a glass substrate coated with an antireflective (AR) coating makes up said substrate.

4. 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 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 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 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.

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

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

8. 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;
a 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.

9. The capacitive touch panel of claim 8 , wherein the first dielectric layer comprising titanium oxide has a thickness of from about 130-185 angstroms.

10. The capacitive touch panel of claim 8 , wherein the first dielectric layer comprising titanium oxide has a thickness of from about 150-185 angstroms.

11. The capacitive touch panel of claim 8 , wherein the dielectric layer comprising silicon nitride has a thickness of from about 300-400 angstroms.

12. The capacitive touch panel of claim 8 , wherein the dielectric layer comprising silicon nitride has a thickness of from about 300-320 angstroms.

13. The capacitive touch panel of claim 1 , wherein the multi-layer transparent conductive coating comprises, moving away from the substrate:
a dielectric layer comprising silicon nitride;
a dielectric layer comprising silicon oxide;
a dielectric layer comprising titanium oxide;
another dielectric layer comprising zinc oxide;
a 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.

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

15. The capacitive touch panel of claim 14 , wherein the contact layer comprises an oxide of Ni and/or Cr.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. An assembly comprising the capacitive touch panel of claim 1 coupled to a liquid crystal panel, the liquid crystal panel including a liquid crystal layer between at least a pair of substrates, and wherein the multi-layer transparent conductive coating is provided between said substrate supporting the multi-layer transparent conductive coating and the liquid crystal panel, and wherein the multi-layer transparent conductive coating is adjacent an air gap that is provided between the liquid crystal panel and the multi-layer transparent conductive coating.

20. A method of manufacturing a touch panel comprising a glass substrate and a signal processor, the method comprising:
sputter-depositing a multi-layer silver-inclusive transparent conductive coating on the substrate and patterning the multi-layer silver-inclusive transparent conductive coating to form a plurality of conductive electrodes and a plurality of conductive traces,
wherein the plurality of electrodes and the plurality of traces are in a plane substantially parallel to the substrate, wherein each of the electrodes is electrically connected to the signal processor by at least one of the traces, and
wherein there is no more than a 2.0 difference in a range from 550-600 nm between (a) a glass side visible reflectance percentage and/or film side visible reflectance percentage of the multi-layer transparent conductive coating on the substrate in 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.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein a glass substrate coated with an antireflective (AR) coating makes up the substrate.

22. The method of claim 20 , wherein there is no more than a 1.0 difference in a range from 550-600 nm between (a) a glass side and/or film side visible reflectance percentage of the multi-layer transparent conductive coating on the substrate in areas where the coating is present, and (b) a visible reflectance percentage of the substrate in at least some areas where the multi-layer tra

Assignees

• Guardian Industries

Inventors

• Den Boer Willem
• Weng Jian-Gang

Classifications

• C03C17/3655

  the multilayer coating containing at least one conducting layer · CPC title

• C03C2217/281

  Nitrides · CPC title

• C23C14/34

  Sputtering · CPC title

• G06F3/044 Primary

  by capacitive means · CPC title

• C03C17/3618

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