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US 4,304,976 AGranted
Capacitive touch switch panel
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsTom L. Gottbreht, Glen C. Shepherd
Life of this patent
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AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsTom L. Gottbreht, Glen C. Shepherd
Estimating the term…
An improved technique for the manufacture of capacitive touch switch panel assemblies, utilized to control appliances and the like, provides simplified construction and manufacture. The technique involves the formation of conductive touch pads on one major surface of a dielectric panel and the formation of pairs of spaced-apart conductive pads and conductive lead members to the conductive pads on a separate flexible synthetic resin sheet. The synthetic resin is bonded to the opposite major surface of the dielectric panel with each pair of conductive pads on the synthetic resin sheet in registry with a corresponding touch pad on the one major surface of the dielectric panel. The synthetic resin sheet includes a portion having a conductive lead pattern formed thereon which is not bonded to the dielectric panel; this portion serves as a flexible connector for connection of the touch panel to a circuit board or the like. In one embodiment, the conductive lead pattern includes an interconnection pattern for circuit elements such as integrated circuits or display elements mounted on the synthetic resin sheet or the dielectric panel. The conductive lead pattern on the synthetic resin sheet may be a single-layer or a multi-layer pattern and the conductors may be formed from a single material or different materials having predetermined resistive characteristics whereby external resistors to the capacitive touch switches and/or circuit elements may be eliminated from the circuit.
A capacitive touch switch panel comprising:
A capacitive touch switch panel assembly comprising:
The assembly according to claim 17 wherein said circuit board includes a socket member mounted thereon and said at least another portion of said flexible sheet is plugged into said socket member to provide electrical connection therebetween.
An appliance controller with capacitive touch switch panel comprising:
The appliance controller according to claim 26 including at least one indicator light mounted on a said circuit board, said indicator light being visible through said dielectric panel.
An appliance controller with capacitive touch switch panel comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.