A Highly Sensitive Capacitive Touch Sensor Integrated on a Thin-Film-Encapsulated Active-Matrix OLED for Ultrathin Displays

This paper presents ultrathin and highly sensitive input/output devices consisting of a capacitive touch sensor (Cap-TSP) integrated on thin-film-encapsulated active-matrix organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The optimal structure of the electrically noise-free capacitive touch sensor, which is assembled on a thin-film-encapsulated active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) display, is obtained by investigating the internal electrical field distribution and capacitance change based on the Q3D Extractor model. Electrostatic simulations have verified malfunction-free electrical signals for 4-in diagonal-sized capacitive touch sensors on AMOLEDs possessing a 100-mu m-thick optically clear adhesive (OCA, epsilon(r) = 1.4) layer. The prototype OLED platform using the capacitive touch sensors exhibits an overall thickness of 1.2 mm, which is the lowest thickness for commercially available OLED platforms.