Method for making touch panel

1. A method for making a touch panel, the method comprising:

providing a substrate having a surface, the surface defining a plurality of target areas, each target area comprising a touch-view area and a trace area;

applying an adhesive layer on the surface of the substrate;

placing a carbon nanotube film on a surface of the adhesive layer;

solidifying the adhesive layer;

forming an electrode and a conductive trace on a surface of the carbon nanotube film on each target area so that part of the carbon nanotube film is exposed from a space between adjacent conductive lines of the conductive trace to form an exposed carbon nanotube film on each trace area; and

removing the exposed carbon nanotube film on each trace area to obtain a plurality of transparent conductive layers spaced from each other.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adhesive layer is formed by spin-coating, spraying, or brushing.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adhesive layer comprises thermoplastic and is solidified by cooling.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adhesive layer comprises thermosetting material and is solidified by heating.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adhesive layer comprises UV glue and is solidified by ultraviolet light irradiating.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the carbon nanotube film is formed by filtering and depositing a carbon nanotube suspension.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the carbon nanotube film is formed by steps of:

drawing a free-standing carbon nanotube film from a carbon nanotube array; and

laying the carbon nanotube film on the adhesive layer directly.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein a plurality of carbon nanotube films are coplanarly laid on the adhesive layer side by side, and each two contacting sides of each two adjacent carbon nanotube films are overlapped with a cutting line between two adjacent target areas.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein after applying the carbon nanotube film on the adhesive layer, and the carbon nanotube film comprises carbon nanotubes infiltrated into and extending out of the adhesive layer.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising pressing the carbon nanotube film after applying the carbon nanotube film on the adhesive layer.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrode and the conductive trace are made by screen printing, chemical vapor deposition, or magnetron sputtering.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrode and the conductive trace are made of metal, conductive silver paste, or ITO.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrode is formed on the touch-view area and the conductive trace is formed only on the trace area.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrode and the conductive trace permeate into the carbon nanotube film to form a composite.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrode and the conductive trace are formed concurrently by printing conductive silver paste.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the conductive silver paste and the carbon nanotube film form a composite by mutual infiltration.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the exposed carbon nanotube film on each trace area is removed by laser-beam etching, ion-beam etching, or electron-beam etching.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the conductive trace is used as a mask for etching the exposed carbon nanotube film on each trace area.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of cutting the substrate after forming the electrode and the conductive trace on each target area.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the step of cutting the substrate is performed by a laser beam or a mechanical device.