Touch sensitive displays

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9939978-B2
Application number	US-201615195852-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 28, 2016
Priority date	Jul 19, 2011
Publication date	Apr 10, 2018
Grant date	Apr 10, 2018

Abstract

Displays such as organic light-emitting diode displays may be provided with touch sensing capabilities. A touch sensor may be formed from electrodes located on a thin-film encapsulation layer or one or more sides of a polarizer. A single-sided or double-sided touch sensor panel may be attached to the upper or lower surface of a polarizer. Control circuitry may be used to provide control signals to light-emitting diodes in the display using a grid of control lines. The control lines and transparent electrode structures such as indium tin oxide structures formed on a thin-film encapsulation layer or polarizer may be used as electrodes for a touch sensor. Displays may have active regions and inactive peripheral portions. The displays may have edge portions that are bent along a bend axis that is within the active region to form a borderless display. Virtual buttons may be formed on the bent edge portions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A display, comprising:
an array of organic light-emitting diodes;
a polarizer having opposing upper and lower surfaces, wherein the lower surface is closer to the array of organic light-emitting diodes than the upper surface;
capacitive touch sensor electrodes attached to the upper surface of the polarizer, wherein the upper surface is interposed between the lower surface and the capacitive touch sensor electrodes; and
one or more additional capacitive touch sensor electrodes attached to the lower surface of the polarizer, wherein the polarizer is interposed between the capacitive touch sensor electrodes and the additional capacitive touch sensor electrodes.

2. The display defined in claim 1 further comprising:
a thin-film encapsulation layer that encapsulates the organic light-emitting diodes; and
a layer of adhesive interposed between the one or more additional capacitive touch sensor electrodes and the thin-film encapsulation layer.

3. The display defined in claim 1 further comprising:
control lines that are coupled to the organic light-emitting diodes; and
display and touch sensor control circuitry that is configured to generate control signals that are conveyed over the control lines to the organic light-emitting diodes and that is configured to gather touch sensor capacitance signals from the capacitive touch sensor electrodes on the upper surface of the polarizer and from at least some of the control lines.

4. The display defined in claim 3 wherein the capacitive touch sensor electrodes comprise transparent conductive material and wherein the control lines comprise metal.

5. The display defined in claim 1 further comprising a cover glass layer and a layer of adhesive interposed between the capacitive touch sensor electrodes on the upper surface of the polarizer and the cover glass layer.

6. A display, comprising:
an array of organic light-emitting diodes;
a polarizer having opposing upper and lower surfaces, wherein the lower surface is closer to the array than the upper surface;
a touch sensor panel having capacitive touch sensor electrodes formed on a planar dielectric substrate;
a layer of adhesive with which the touch sensor panel is attached to the polarizer, wherein the upper surface of the polarizer is interposed between the lower surface of the polarizer and the capacitive touch sensor electrodes; and
one or more additional capacitive touch sensor electrodes attached to the lower surface of the polarizer, wherein the polarizer is interposed between the capacitive touch sensor electrodes and the additional capacitive touch sensor electrodes.

7. The display defined in claim 6 wherein the layer of adhesive is interposed between the upper surface of the polarizer and the touch senor panel.

8. The display defined in claim 7 wherein the capacitive touch sensor electrodes are formed on a single surface of the planar dielectric substrate in the touch sensor panel.

9. The display defined in claim 6 wherein the capacitive touch sensor electrodes are formed on a single surface of the planar dielectric substrate in the touch sensor panel.

10. A display, comprising:
an array of light-emitting diodes;
an encapsulation layer that encapsulates the light-emitting diodes;
a transparent cover layer;
a polarizer having opposing upper and lower surfaces;
first and second capacitive touch sensor electrodes attached to the upper and lower surfaces of the polarizer, respectively, wherein the polarizer is interposed between the first and second capacitive touch sensor electrodes;
a first layer of adhesive that attaches the polarizer and the first and second capacitive touch sensor electrodes to the transparent cover layer; and
a second layer of adhesive that attaches the polarizer layer and the first and second capacitive touch sensor electrodes to the encapsulation layer.

11. The display defined in claim 10 further comprising:
control lines that provide control signals to the light-emitting diodes and that gather capacitive touch sensor measurements from the first and second capacitive touch sensor electrodes.

12. The display defined in claim 11 further comprising:
black masking material interposed between the transparent cover layer and the first and second capacitive touch sensor electrodes on the polarizer layer, wherein the black masking material comprises openings that are aligned with the light-emitting diodes.

Assignees

• Apple Inc
• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Chen Wei
• Hotelling Steven P
• Zhong John Z
• Chang Shih-Chang
• Poon Stephen S

Classifications

• H10K59/8792

  comprising light absorbing layers, e.g. black layers · CPC title

• H10K59/873

  Encapsulations · CPC title

• G06F3/044 Primary

  by capacitive means · CPC title

• H01L27/3293

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L51/5281

  Electricity · mapped topic