Transparent thin film having conductive and nonconductive portions, method of patterning the portions, thin-film transistor array substrate including the thin film and method of manufacturing the same

Abstract

A homogenous thin film layer is patterned into a transparent conductive portion and a non-conductive portion without use of etching through the thin film. Instead, conductive fine-wires which are convertible in one embodiment into non-conductive fine-wires are selectively converted into the non-conductive form. In an alternate embodiment, the homogenous thin film layer which includes conductive fine-wires is provided in a curable liquid form and selected portions of the liquid formed are cured into being affixed to substrate. Remaining portions can be washed away. In the case of display devices using transparent electrodes, a thin thin-film transistor array substrate is provided where the initially homogenous thin film which is and then converted into patterned conductive and non-conductive sections forms the pixel-electrodes and/or common electrode of the display device.