Capacitive touch panels

An apparatus for the manufacture of a PCT panel, the apparatus comprising:

• a laser, at least one ink jet print head, means for holding a transparent conducting layer deposited on a transparent substrate, means for adjusting the relative positions of the laser and at least one ink jet print head to the transparent conducting layer and a controller configured to control the laser and ink jet print head so as, in a first step to inkjet print one or more coarse metal borders onto the transparent substrate or onto the deposited TCM layer and, in a second step, to ablate electrically conductive tracks in both the metal border and the underlying or overlying TCM layer to form a plurality of discrete electrically conductive busbars and, in the same laser ablation process, to ablate a pattern of electrodes into the remainder of the TCM layer.

A projective capacitive touch (PCT) panel comprising a layer of transparent conducting material (TCM) deposited onto a transparent substrate and divided into a plurality of electrodes, and a conducting border deposited onto the transparent substrate or the TCM layer by an inkjet printing method and having laser ablated electrically conductive tracks in both the conducting border and TCM layer to form discrete electrically conductive busbars and wherein the electrodes in the TCM layer are also defined by ablations in the layer.