JPH08314612A - Touch panel, control method and device thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To correctly detect a contact position by forming many pairs of thin film transistors each consisting of an emitter, a base, and a collector and individual electrodes for contacting which each consist of a transparent film connecting with the emitter, base thin film wires which are connected to the bases by rows, and plural thin film wires which are connected, column by column, and detect the voltages of the collectors, on a substrate. CONSTITUTION: An upper electrode plate (a) consists of a power supply electrode 2 and a transparent electrode film 1 fitted with plural thin spacers 3. A lower substrate (b) has plural thin film transistors 6 formed on a glass substrate 5; and the bases are connected to terminals B1, B2... Bm the bases, row by row, by base wiring films 8, the collectors are connected, column by column, to terminals C1 and C2 by collector wiring films 9, and the emitters are connected to the individual electrodes 7 for contacting. At this time, display between the base wiring films 8 and collector wiring films 9, and at film parts except the individual electrodes 7 for contacting and terminals B1 and B2, etc., is naturally insulated. Then those two are fixed opposite each other with a fixture.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a touch panel arranged on the front surface of a screen to be displayed and capable of specifying a uniaxial position on the touched screen, a control method and an apparatus therefor capable of detecting the touched position without error. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A touch panel according to the present invention is connected to a personal computer or the like, and the position within the screen can be directly determined by pressing a part of the screen with a finger or the like without using a cursor by a keyboard or a mouse. It is becoming popular because it can be easily identified.

There are several types of this touch panel, and one of the resistive film types will be described with reference to FIG. The upper film 31 is composed of a transparent resistance film 32 and a power electrode 33,
The lower film 35 is composed of a transparent resistance film 36 and a signal electrode 37, and the two are opposed to each other such that the sides 34 and 38 are aligned with each other and a thin spacer (not shown) is arranged at a constant interval.
One end of the resistance having a resistance value Ro is connected to the signal electrode 37 together with the voltage terminal 39, the other end is connected to one end of the power supply having a voltage value E together with the ground, and the power supply electrode 33 is connected to the other end of the power supply. Connected to the end.

In this state, when the point A of the resistance film 32 is pushed, it is short-circuited with the point A of the resistance film 36, and the current flows in the direction of the arrow to increase the voltage of the voltage terminal 39 from 0V. Power electrode of resistive film 32
Assuming that the resistance value from the point 33 to the point A is Rx and the resistance value from the point A of the resistive film 36 to the signal electrode 37 is Ry, a voltage Vj = E × Ro / (Rx + Ry + Ro) is generated at the voltage terminal 39, and this voltage The range of the point A was determined by Vj.

In another example of FIG. 10, an upper film 41 in which m resistance films 42 are arranged horizontally and a lower film 45 in which electrode films 46 are arranged in rows are made to face each other with a narrow gap. Connect the negative electrode of the battery to the ground and connect the positive electrode to the switches L1, L2, L3 and Lm.
Through, and is connected to one end of the resistance film 42, and the other end of the resistance film 42 is electrically connected to the ground. The electrode film 46 is electrically connected to the voltage terminal C via the switches C1, C2, C3 and Cn, respectively. Then, as shown in FIG. 11, the contact position of the upper film 41 is detected. That is, while the switch L1 of FIG. 10 is closed, the switches C1 to Cn are sequentially closed and opened to detect the voltage due to the contact. Similarly, the switches L2 to Lm are sequentially closed to detect the voltage of the electrode film 46.

[0006]

In the example described in the prior art, even if there are a plurality of depression points A1, A2, A3, A4 in FIG. Since it was detected as one, it was not possible to distinguish between single-point press and multiple-press. Further, in the example of FIGS. 10 and 11,
As shown in FIG. 12, when there are a plurality of pressing points P and Q on the upper and lower sides, the resistance value on the left side of the pressing points P and Q decreases, so that the voltage at the voltage terminal C is lower than the pressing point only at Q. Become,
If the left side is pressed, or if the voltage range is limited, it is detected that the button is not pressed.

An object of the present invention is to provide a touch panel, a control method, and a device therefor, in which the range of a row of pressed points in one coordinate direction can be recognized without error.

[0008]

The present invention provides a touch panel in which a transparent and flexible upper electrode plate having a transparent electrode film formed on the lower surface and a transparent lower substrate are opposed to each other with a narrow gap, and the lower substrate is , A set of a thin film transistor composed of an emitter, a base and a collector and a separate electrode for contacting a transparent film connected to the emitter, a transparent base thin film wiring connected to the base of each row, and a column A plurality of thin film wirings connected to and capable of detecting the collector voltage are formed on the substrate, and the base thin film wiring can be connected to all the bases.

Further, according to the present invention, a transparent and flexible upper electrode plate having a transparent electrode film formed on the lower surface thereof and a large number of transparent electrode thin films are vertically or horizontally formed on a transparent substrate with a space therebetween. It is a structure in which the lower substrate and the lower substrate are made to face each other with a narrow gap. Further, the present invention is directed to a thin film transistor composed of an emitter, a base and a collector and a large number of individual electrodes for contacting a transparent film connected to the emitter, and a transparent base thin film wiring connected to the base for each row. A lower substrate on which a plurality of thin film wirings connected to each column and capable of detecting a collector voltage are formed on a transparent substrate; and a transparent and flexible upper electrode plate on which a transparent electrode film is formed on the lower surface. Is a control method for specifying the contact portion of the touch panel in which the and are opposed to each other with a narrow gap, and applying an emitter voltage to the transparent electrode film of the upper electrode plate,
The base voltage is applied to each row of base thin film wiring for a fixed period of time, and while the base voltage is being applied to one row of base thin film wiring, the resistor is connected to the ground and the other end is connected to each collector thin film wiring. The present invention is a control method in which the voltages are sequentially connected to measure the voltage, and the voltage measurement of all the collector columns in all rows is repeated until the thin film transistor including an emitter, a base and a collector is connected, and the thin film transistor is connected to the emitter. A large number of individual electrodes for contacting the transparent film as a set, a transparent base thin film wiring connected to all the bases, and a plurality of thin film wirings connected for each column and capable of detecting collector voltage are transparent. A control method for specifying a contact part of a touch panel, which makes a lower substrate formed on a substrate and a transparent and flexible upper electrode plate having a transparent electrode film formed on a lower surface face each other with a narrow gap, Electrode plate The voltage for the emitter is applied to the transparent electrode film, the base voltage is applied to the base thin film wiring for each row sequentially for a fixed period of time, the resistor is connected to the ground, and the other end is connected to each thin film wiring of the collector in order. This is a control method in which measurement is ended and this is repeated.

Further, according to the present invention, a transparent and flexible upper electrode plate having a transparent electrode film formed on a lower surface thereof and a lower substrate having a large number of transparent electrode thin films formed on a transparent substrate at intervals. , Which is a control method for identifying the contact portion of the touch panel that is opposed to each other in a narrow gap, and applies a power supply voltage to the transparent electrode film of the upper electrode plate to connect to the ground, connects a resistor to the ground and connects the other end to the transparent electrode. This is a control method in which the voltage measurement is completed by sequentially connecting to the ultrafine membrane and repeating this.

According to the present invention, the touch panel according to claim 1 or 2, the base voltage control unit of the thin film transistor, the voltage detection unit capable of sequentially detecting the voltage of the thin film wiring of the collector column, and the touch panel contact. Device for transmitting information of the above to the outside, and a touch panel controller that sends a control signal to the base voltage control unit, detects the contact state of the touch panel from the voltage detection unit, and sends the information to the data transmission unit. .

Furthermore, the present invention provides a touch panel according to claim 3, a power supply applied to the upper electrode plate, a voltage detection unit capable of sequentially detecting the voltage of the transparent electrode thin film, and touch panel contact information. The device is configured by a data transmission unit that transmits to the outside and a touch panel controller that sends a control signal to a power source, detects the contact state of the touch panel from the voltage detection unit, and sends information to the data transmission unit.

[0013]

According to the present invention, a large number of thin film transistors each having a size of about 0.1 mm □ are formed on a glass substrate, the bases are made to have the same potential row by row or all of them, and the emitter is used as a contact individual electrode having a wide area. Conduction is conducted for each column, and a gap is maintained so as to be opposed to a transparent electrode film on a polyester substrate to which a power supply voltage is applied. When a voltage is applied to all the bases sequentially or at a time and then the transparent electrode film is pushed, the transistor becomes conductive and the voltage at the voltage terminal is boosted, so that which transistor row is pushed can be easily detected.

Further, according to the present invention, a large number of thin films of transparent electrodes are formed on the substrate, a narrow gap is secured by the spacers, and a power supply voltage is applied to the transparent flexible upper electrode. When touched, the upper electrode is brought into conduction with the transparent electrode thin film, and a voltage is transmitted to the transparent electrode thin film, so that the contact position is determined. According to the present invention, the voltage can be sequentially detected for each collector column while the base voltage and the power supply voltage are being applied.

Further, according to the present invention, the touch panel according to claim 1 or 2 is provided with a base voltage control section, a voltage terminal detection section, a touch panel controller, and a data transmission section. The touch panel may be provided with a power supply, a voltage detection unit, a data transmission unit, and a touch panel controller to form a device.

[0016]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. (a) is an upper electrode plate composed of a power supply electrode 2 and a transparent electrode film 1 having a plurality of thin spacers 3, and (b) is a plurality of thin film transistors 6 formed on a glass substrate 5, and a base is row by row. Terminals B1 and B2 to Bm are separately connected by a base wiring film 8, and collectors are connected to columns C1 and C by collector wiring film 9 for each column.
2, the emitter is the lower substrate which is connected to the contacting individual electrode 7. At this time, of course, the surface between the base wiring film 8 and the collector wiring film 9 and the surface of the film portion excluding the contact individual electrode 7 and the terminals B1 and B2 are insulated. And these two are made to oppose and are fixed by the fixing tool not shown.

FIG. 2 is a principle diagram in which the contact point 11 is the individual electrode 7 for contacting the transparent electrode film 1 and the emitter in FIG. 1, and the emitter of the thin film transistor 6 is connected to the contact point 11 and the collector is a resistor 12 and a voltage. It is connected to the terminal 39, and a base voltage (not shown) is applied to the base. The positive electrode of the power source 13 is connected to the other end of the contact point 11 (the transparent electrode film 1 via the power electrode 2 in FIG. 1), and the negative electrode is connected to the ground and the other end of the resistor 12. In the state shown in the figure, since the emitter has no voltage, a slight voltage equal to 0 V is generated at the voltage terminal 39 by the current from the base, and when the contact point 11 is in the contact state, the voltage terminal 39 is turned on by the conduction of the thin film transistor. The voltage is almost equal to that of the power supply 13. That is, in FIG. 1, for example, when the transparent electrode film 1 contacts one of the transparent electrode films 7 in the second column from the left, the voltage at the terminal C2 changes from no voltage to the voltage of the power supply. It should be noted that the operation is the same even if the configuration including FIG. FIG.
1 (a) is the same as FIG. 1 (a), and the difference of FIG. 1 (b) from FIG. 1 (b) is that the base wiring film 8 is all electrically conducted at the terminal B, so the explanation of the overlapping part will be omitted. Omit it. At this time, the terminal voltage of the collector is the same as pressing one even if you press up or down.
If you press the left and right, the terminal voltage of the collector of the pressed column will also be boosted.

FIG. 4A is an upper electrode plate which is different from FIG. 1A only in the position of the spacer 3, and FIG. 4B is a glass substrate 5
A plurality of transparent electrode thin films 7a are provided with a gap between them, and (a) and (b) are overlapped as in FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the principle of this touch panel, in which the power source 13 is provided on the transparent electrode film 1.
And the negative electrode is connected to a plurality of resistors 12 and a ground G that are electrically connected to the voltage terminal 39. When the transparent electrode film 1 is pushed and brought into contact with the transparent electrode thin film 7a, the contact point 11 is closed and the voltage terminal 39 is changed from 0V to the voltage of the power supply 13.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of the state detection of the touch panel of FIG. 1, in which the thin film transistor 6 is connected to the terminals B1, B2 and Bm of FIG. 1 at every fixed period after the voltage is applied to the power electrode. Apply a constant voltage that can be conducted. And
As shown in FIG. 10, the terminal C1 and the terminal C2 are sequentially detected for the voltage state of each terminal, and when the detection of the last terminal Cn is completed, the voltage of the terminal that has been energized until now is set to 0 V, and the next terminal is set. Apply electricity. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the state detection of the touch panel of FIG. 3, similarly, after applying a voltage to the power supply electrode, a constant voltage capable of making the thin film transistor 6 conductive is applied to the terminal B. Then, as shown in FIG. 10, the voltage states of the terminals C1 and C2 are sequentially detected, and when the detection of the last terminal Cn is completed, the voltage of the base terminal is set to 0V. Here, it goes without saying that the voltage V may be continuously applied to the terminal B in FIG. 7. In the explanatory diagram of the state detection of the touch panel corresponding to FIG. 4, the voltage V is applied to the power supply electrode instead of the terminal B in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of this device, in which a control signal is issued from the touch panel controller 24 to the base voltage controller 22 to control the base voltage of the touch panel 21 shown in FIG. Further, the touch panel controller 24 issues a voltage detection signal of the collector group of the touch panel 21 to the voltage detection unit 23, and the information on the detected state is sent to the data transmission unit 2.
Send to 5. Since the device according to claim 8 is provided with a power source instead of the base voltage control unit 22 of FIG. 8, the illustration and description thereof are omitted.

[0021]

According to the present invention, even if there are a plurality of touch points on the touch panel at one coordinate, the touch points can be detected by the collector row of the touch points or the voltage of the transparent electrode thin film according to claim 3, so that the touch range can be reduced. Is made clear by the thinness of the thin film transistor and the thinness of the transparent electrode thin film, and even if the same two points of the same coordinate are pressed, it is detected as one point of pressing, so there is no error and the position is positioned with high accuracy. It is possible to provide a touch panel, a control method, and a device for identifying the touch panel. Furthermore, since the touch panel according to the third aspect can be configured without the thin film transistor, an inexpensive touch panel and its device can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, (a) is a plan view of an upper electrode plate, and (b) is a plan view of a lower substrate.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the principle of the present invention.

3A and 3B are configuration diagrams according to another embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 3A is a plan view of an upper electrode plate, and FIG. 3B is a plan view of a lower substrate.

FIG. 4 is another configuration diagram of the present invention, in which (a) is a plan view of an upper electrode plate and (b) is a plan view of a lower substrate.

FIG. 5 is a principle diagram of FIG. 4 of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a detection method of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of the detection method of FIGS. 3 and 4 of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a main block diagram of the device of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a conventional touch panel.

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram of another conventional touch panel.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of another conventional detection method.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining a problem of another conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Transparent Electrode Film 2 Power Supply Electrode 5 Glass Substrate 5a Glass Substrate 6 Thin Film Transistor 7 Contact Individual Electrode 12 Resistor 21 Touch Panel 22 Base Voltage Controller 24 Touch Panel Controller 39 Voltage Terminal

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A touch panel in which a transparent and flexible upper electrode plate having a transparent electrode film formed on a lower surface and a transparent lower substrate are opposed to each other with a narrow gap, and the lower substrate includes an emitter, a base, and a collector. A plurality of thin film transistors and individual electrodes for contacting a transparent film connected to the emitter, transparent base thin film wiring connected to the base of each row, and collector voltage connected to each column. A touch panel, wherein a plurality of thin-film wirings that can be detected are formed on a substrate. 2. The touch panel according to claim 1, wherein the base thin film wiring is connected to all the bases instead of connecting for each row. 3. A transparent and flexible upper electrode plate having a transparent electrode film formed on a lower surface thereof, and a lower substrate having a large number of transparent electrode thin films formed vertically or horizontally on a transparent substrate at intervals. A touch panel characterized in that, and are made to face each other in a narrow gap. 4. A thin film transistor composed of an emitter, a base and a collector and a large number of individual electrodes for contacting a transparent film connected to the emitter, and a transparent base thin film wiring connected to the base for each row. A lower substrate on which a plurality of thin film wirings connected in columns and capable of detecting collector voltage are formed on a transparent substrate; and a transparent and flexible upper electrode plate having a transparent electrode film formed on the lower surface, , Is a control method that specifies the contact part of the touch panel that faces each other with a narrow gap, and applies the voltage for the emitter to the transparent electrode film of the upper electrode plate and sequentially applies the base voltage to the base thin film wiring for each row for a fixed time. In addition, while applying the base voltage to one row of base thin-film wiring, connect the resistor to ground and connect the other end to each thin-film wiring of the collector in order to measure the voltage. End of voltage measurement Control method for a touch panel, characterized in that to repeat until. 5. A thin film transistor composed of an emitter, a base and a collector, a large number of individual electrodes for contacting a transparent film connected to the emitter, and a transparent base thin film wiring connected to all the bases. A lower substrate having a plurality of thin film wirings connected to each column and capable of detecting a collector voltage formed on a transparent substrate; a transparent and flexible upper electrode plate having a transparent electrode film formed on a lower surface; This is a control method to specify the contact part of the touch panel that makes the electrodes face each other in a narrow gap, by applying an emitter voltage to the transparent electrode film of the upper electrode plate, applying a base voltage to the base thin film wiring, and connecting a resistor to ground. A method for controlling a touch panel, characterized in that the other end is sequentially connected to each thin film wiring of the collector to end the voltage measurement, and this is repeated. 6. A transparent and flexible upper electrode plate having a transparent electrode film formed on a lower surface thereof, and a lower substrate having a large number of transparent electrode thin films formed vertically or horizontally on a transparent substrate at intervals. , Is a control method that specifies the contact part of the touch panel that makes them face each other in a narrow gap, by applying a power supply voltage to the transparent electrode film of the upper electrode plate to connect to the ground, connecting a resistor to the ground, and connecting the other end to the transparent electrode thin film. A method for controlling a touch panel, which comprises sequentially connecting to a film, ending voltage measurement, and repeating this. 7. The touch panel according to claim 1 or 2, a base voltage control unit of a thin film transistor, a voltage detection unit capable of sequentially detecting the voltage of thin film wiring in a collector column, and touch panel contact information externally. A touch panel device comprising: a data transmission unit for transmitting information to the data transmission unit; and a touch panel controller that sends a control signal to the base voltage control unit, the voltage detection unit detects the touch state of the touch panel, and sends information to the data transmission unit. . 8. The touch panel according to claim 3, a power supply applied to the upper electrode plate, a voltage detection unit capable of sequentially detecting the voltage of the transparent electrode thin film, and a data transmission for transmitting touch panel contact information to the outside. And a touch panel controller that sends a control signal to a power source, detects the contact state of the touch panel from the voltage detection unit, and sends information to the data transmission unit.