Electricity: circuit makers and breakers – Electric switch details – Contact
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-27
2004-08-17
Donovan, Lincoln D. (Department: 2832)
Electricity: circuit makers and breakers
Electric switch details
Contact
C200S269000, C200S512000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06777631
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, generally, to a peripheral device for electronic equipment and, more particularly, to a panel-type or panel-shaped peripheral device constructed as, e.g., an input or display unit. The present invention also relates to a method of producing such a panel-type peripheral device, as well as to certain equipment usable for performing the producing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in the technical field of digital data processors with displays, such as personal computers, word processors, electronic notebooks, personal digital assistants (PDAS), etc., a panel-type or panel-shaped input unit, referred to as a touch panel, adapted to be arranged over a screen of a display unit, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display panel (PDP), a cathode ray tube (CRT), has been widely used. In the panel-type input unit or touch panel, an operator presses with his finger or a pen on a desired point on a panel surface, and thereby enters or directs two-dimensional coordinate data on the display screen.
The conventional touch panel includes a pair of plate-shaped detecting elements or conductive panel members, each of which is provided with a transparent insulating substrate and a transparent conductive film formed on the surface of the insulating substrate. The detecting elements are fixed together, in a state where the conductive films thereof oppositely face to each other through a certain gap, by a strip-shaped adhesive layer provided to extend along the outer peripheries of the opposed insulating substrates. The gap between the detecting elements is obtained due to the adhesive layer and a large number of dot spacers dispersedly arranged on the surface of the conductive film of one detecting element. The dot spacers serve to prevent each detecting element from being deformed at least due to its own weight so as to maintain the gap between the detecting elements, while permitting the conductive films to come into contact with each other when either one of the detecting elements is deformed by an external pressing force. Typically, the insulating substrate of the upper detecting element adapted to be pressed by the operator is made of a resinous film to meet the requirement of flexibility, and the insulating substrate of the lower detecting element adapted to be disposed adjacent to a display screen is made of a glass pane, a plastic plate, a resinous film, etc.
Another touch panel including the above-described basic structure has been also known, wherein a transparent insulating liquid material having a refractive index equivalent to that of each detecting element is filled and sealed in the gap between the pair of detecting elements so as to improve the optical transmittance of the touch panel and thus improve the visibility of a display screen. Such a liquid-sealing touch panel has a structure similar to a liquid crystal cell of a conventional LCD. Therefore, it is possible to pour the liquid material into the gap between the detecting elements in a way similar to a liquid-crystal pouring operation in a conventional process for manufacturing the LCD.
The liquid-crystal pouring operation in the conventional LCD manufacturing process includes following steps. First, a panel assembly is provided, in which a pair of electrode plates or conductive panel members, each including an insulating substrate and a conductive film formed on one surface of the insulating substrate, are fixed to each other in a state where the respective conductive films of the electrode plates oppositely face to each other through a certain gap. The panel assembly is an unfilled liquid crystal cell, in a condition before the liquid crystal is poured, and is referred to, e.g., as an empty cell. The pair of electrode plates are fixed together by a strip-shaped adhesive layer provided between the mutually opposing surfaces of the insulating substrates of the electrode plates to extend along the outer peripheries of the insulating substrates. A passage is formed adjacent to the adhesive layer as, e.g., a cut-out portion of an adhesive, for communicating the gap between the electrode plates to an environment outside of the empty cell. The adhesive layer serves to hermetically seal the gap between the electrode plates against the outside environment at a region other than the passage.
Next, a receptacle accommodating a liquid crystal material is provided, and the receptacle and the panel assembly as described are placed in a common outside environment, such as a sealed chamber. Then, the sealed chamber is evacuated to depressurize the outside environment while the passage formed in the panel assembly is exposed to the outside environment, so as to evacuate the gap between the electrode plates of the panel assembly and to vacuum-degas the liquid crystal material. Subsequently, the passage of the panel assembly and the area adjacent thereto are immersed into the liquid crystal material in the receptacle under the outside environment as depressurized. At this time, the liquid crystal material slightly permeates into the gap between the electrode plates through the passage in the panel assembly due to a capillary action. Thereafter, an inert gas is introduced into the sealed chamber to increase a pressure therein, and thereby entirely filling the gap with the liquid crystal material.
When a procedure similar to the above-described liquid-crystal pouring operation in the conventional LCD manufacturing process is applied to the liquid pouring operation in the liquid-sealing touch panel as described, which is constructed by assembling the upper detecting element including a resinous-film insulating substrate and the lower detecting element including a glass-pane insulating element, the upper detecting element tends to be bent toward the lower detecting element due to a pressure rise during the time when the insulating liquid material is filled into the gap in the panel assembly by increasing the pressure of the outside environment. If such a deformation is caused in one of the detecting elements of the panel assembly in a liquid filling step, the gap between the detecting elements is narrowed, which may result in a difficulty in the rapid filling of the insulating liquid material entirely into the gap, and may cause a touch panel, as a finished product after the filling step is completed, to have a slightly concave center area of the upper detecting element relative to the outer peripheral area thereof. Such a concave upper detecting element may result in a distortion in a transmitted image through the touch panel especially in an area adjacent to the outer periphery thereof, as well as may result in an indeterminately separated state of the detecting elements after they separate from each other for conduction at a pressed point.
It may be predicted that the above-described problems remarkably arise in the case where both detecting elements of the touch panel include resinous-film insulating substrates. Also, it may be predicted that the concave center area of a flexible conductive panel member is generated, during a liquid material pouring operation, not only in the liquid-sealing touch panel, but also in various liquid-sealing panel-type peripheral devices, such as a liquid crystal display using a resinous-film substrate, wherein at least one of the conductive panel members of a panel assembly has a flexibility for permitting a relatively easy deformation due to a pressure fluctuation in the outside environment.
In the above-described liquid pouring operation, the panel assembly and the liquid material are placed in a depressurized environment in the step of pouring the liquid material into the gap between the conductive panel members of the panel assembly, so that it is a precondition that a liquid material having a sufficiently low vapor pressure, such as a silicone oil, is used. Accordingly, the range of selection of the liquid material is narrow, and thereby the structural optimization of the panel-type periphera
Fushimi Sayoko
Muraoka Tooru
Donovan Lincoln D.
Fujitsu Takamisawa Component Limited
Lee K.
Staas & Halsey , LLP
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