Multi-bar capacitive sense electrode

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10310667-B2
Application number	US-201514860364-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 21, 2015
Priority date	Sep 21, 2015
Publication date	Jun 4, 2019
Grant date	Jun 4, 2019

Abstract

Electrode configurations for reducing wobble error for a stylus translating on a surface of a touch sensor panel is disclosed. Electrodes associated with a more linear signal profile can correlate to lower wobble error. In some examples, electrodes can be configured such that the signal profile associated with each electrode is spread to be wider, and thus, more linear. In some configurations, electrodes can include two or more bars extending along the length of the electrode with each bar electrically connected to one another at one or both ends. Bars can be of non-uniform width or spacing. Some configurations can include a “split bar,” which can divide a bar lengthwise in order to improve optical uniformity. In some examples, electrodes can include projections which can interleave with corresponding projections in adjacent electrodes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A touch sensor panel comprising:
a first electrode including a first plurality of electrically connected bars extending in a first direction parallel to a length of the first electrode, wherein
a first set of bars of the first plurality of bars are immediately adjacent to one another and are each separated from one another by a first distance, and
a second set of bars of the first plurality of bars are immediately adjacent to one another and are each separated from one another by a second distance, greater than the first; and

a second electrode including a second plurality of electrically connected bars extending in the first direction parallel to the length of the first electrode, wherein:
a third set of bars of the second plurality of bars are immediately adjacent to one another and are each separated from one another by the first distance;
a fourth set of bars of the second plurality of bars are immediately adjacent to one another and are each separated from one another by the second distance, greater than the first distance; and
the second electrode is separated from the first electrode by the first distance, wherein all bars of the first electrode extending in the direction parallel to the length of the first electrode have a width equal to a common width.

2. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein
the second electrode has a second plurality of electrically connected bars, and
a first edge bar in the first plurality of electrical connected bars in the first electrode is separated from a second edge bar in the second plurality of electrically connected bars by the first distance.

3. The touch sensor panel of claim 2 , wherein the first edge bar has a first width greater than the first distance.

4. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein the second electrode is a same shape as the first electrode.

5. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein
the first plurality of electrically connected bars are connected at a first and second end of the electrode and separated along the length of the electrode between the first and second end of the touch sensor.

6. The touch sensor panel of claim 5 , wherein at least one of the first and second ends of the electrode are located in a bezel area of the touch sensor panel.

7. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein the first electrode is symmetric about a separation line between two of the first set of bars.

8. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein the first electrode and second electrode are symmetric to one another about a separation line between the first and second electrode.

9. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein a first bar is in both the first set of bars and the second set of bars.

10. The touch sensor panel of claim 9 , wherein a number of bars in the first set is two and a number of bars in the second set is two.

11. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein the first set of bars is positioned further from the second electrode than the second set of bars.

12. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein each of the bars in the second plurality of bars have a width equal to the common width.

13. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of dummy elements between two or more bars in the second set of bars in the first plurality of bars.

14. The touch sensor panel of claim 13 , wherein no dummy elements are positioned between any two bars of the first set of bars in the first plurality of bars.

15. The touch sensor panel of claim 13 , wherein the dummy elements each have a width equal to a width of each of the second set of bars in the first plurality of bars.

16. The touch sensor panel of claim 13 , wherein the dummy elements are separated from each other by the first distance.

17. The touch sensor panel of claim 13 , wherein:
the first plurality of bars comprises a number of bars;
the plurality of dummy elements comprises a number of dummy elements;
a distance between any adjacent dummy element or bar is the same as the first distance;
the first and second electrodes each have a same pitch; and
the dummy elements and the first plurality of bars all have a same width; and
the width is governed by the pitch, number of bars, number of dummy elements, and first distance.

18. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein the first plurality of bars are connected at a first distal end by a metal bar extending in a second direction perpendicular to the length of the first electrode.

19. The touch sensor panel of claim 18 , wherein the first plurality of bars and the metal bar are formed from a single conductor.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Gourevitch Alexandre
• Lin Albert
• Chan Isaac
• Grunthaner Martin Paul
• Bugnait Prathit
• Navidpour Seyed Mohammad
• Ranganathan Sumant

Classifications

• G06F3/044

  by capacitive means · CPC title

• G06F3/0418 Primary

  for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment · CPC title

• G06F2203/04106

  Multi-sensing digitiser, i.e. digitiser using at least two different sensing technologies simultaneously or alternatively, e.g. for detecting pen and finger, for saving power or for improving position detection · CPC title

• G06F3/03545

  Pens or stylus · CPC title

• G06F3/0412

  Digitisers structurally integrated in a display · CPC title