Merged floating pixels in a touch screen

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10353516-B2
Application number	US-201514871281-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2015
Priority date	Apr 24, 2015
Publication date	Jul 16, 2019
Grant date	Jul 16, 2019

Abstract

Touch sensor panel configurations for reducing wobble error for a stylus translating on a surface over and between electrodes of the touch sensor panel are disclosed. In some examples, electrodes with more linear signal profiles are correlated with lower wobble error. In some examples, diffusing elements formed of floating segments of conductive materials can diffuse signal from a stylus to a plurality of electrodes, thus, making the signal profiles associated with the electrodes more linear. In addition, diffusing elements can be configured to improve the optical uniformity of the touch sensor panel. In some examples, the diffusing elements can be formed on the same layer as floating dummy pixels and resemble a plurality of merged floating dummy pixels.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A touch sensor panel comprising:
a first layer of a first conductive material including a plurality of electrically isolated electrodes, including a first electrode and a second electrode;
a second layer of a second conductive material including:
a third electrode directly connected to a sensing circuitry, the third electrode comprising a plurality of electrically connected branches;
a first floating conductor disposed between a first branch and a second branch of the plurality of electrically connected branches of the third electrode, wherein the first floating conductor includes:
a first portion of the first floating conductor formed over a portion of the first electrode, and
a second portion of the first floating conductor formed over a portion of the second electrode; and

a second floating conductor disposed between the first branch and the second branch of the plurality of electrically connected branches of the third electrode, wherein the second floating conductor is formed entirely over the portion of the first electrode.

2. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein a third portion of the first floating conductor is formed over a gap between the first electrode and the second electrode.

3. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein: the first electrode is configured to be capacitively coupled to the first floating conductor; and the second electrode is configured to be capacitively coupled to the first floating conductor.

4. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein: the first conductive material comprises a transparent or semi-transparent conductive material; the second conductive material comprises a transparent or semi-transparent conductive material; and an index of refraction of the second conductive material is the same as an index of refraction of the first conductive material.

5. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein the second layer of second conductive material is disposed on a glass substrate of the touch sensor panel.

6. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein the second conductive material and the first conductive material are a same material.

7. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein the first floating conductor comprises a mesh pattern of the second conductive material.

8. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein the first floating conductor has a first shape and the second floating conductor has a second shape, different from the first shape.

9. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein: the second layer of the second conductive material further includes a plurality of floating conductors, the plurality of floating conductors including the first floating conductor; and
the plurality of floating conductors further includes a set of floating dummy pixels disposed on the second layer of the second conductive material in one or more repeating patterns, wherein the set of floating dummy pixels includes the second floating conductor.

10. The touch sensor panel of claim 9 , wherein:
the second layer of second conductive material further includes a second plurality of electrically isolated electrodes; and
each of the plurality of floating conductors has substantially a same width.

11. The touch sensor panel of claim 10 , wherein each of the plurality of floating conductors has substantially a same width as a width of each of the plurality of branches of the third electrode.

12. The touch sensor panel of claim 9 , wherein the first floating conductor has a length substantially equal to a combined length of a number of pixels of the set of floating dummy pixels and a plurality of spaces between the number of pixels of the set of floating dummy pixels.

13. The touch sensor panel of claim 12 , wherein the number of pixels of the set of floating dummy pixels having the combined length is greater than three.

14. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , wherein: the first electrode and the second electrode have a pitch; the first floating conductor has a length; and a ratio between the pitch and the length of the first floating conductor is greater than 3.

15. The touch sensor panel of claim 14 , wherein the ratio between the pitch and the length of the first floating conductor is less than 5.

16. The touch sensor panel of claim 1 , further comprising:
a fourth electrode of the plurality of electrically isolated electrodes, wherein the first floating conductor further includes a third portion formed over a portion of the fourth electrode.

17. The touch sensor panel of claim 16 wherein: the second electrode is proximate to the first electrode in a first direction; and the third electrode is proximate to the first electrode in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction.

18. A method for detecting an object proximate to a touch sensor panel, comprising:
stimulating a drive signal on a first drive electrode on a first layer of the touch sensor panel;
detecting a signal indicative of a proximity of the object on a third sense electrode on a second layer of the touch sensor panel, wherein:
the third sense electrode comprises a plurality of electrically connected branches and is directly connected to a sensing circuitry;
a first segment of a floating conductive material is disposed between a first branch and a second branch of the plurality of electrically connected branches of the third sense electrode and a first portion of the first segment of the floating conductive material overlaps the first drive electrode on the first layer and a second portion of the first segment of floating conductive material overlaps a second drive electrode on the first layer;
and a second segment of the floating conductive material is disposed between the first branch and the second branch of the plurality of electrically connected branches of the third sense electrode and is formed entirely over the first drive electrode.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the first segment of floating conductive material is disposed between the object and the first and second electrodes.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the object is capacitively coupled to the first and second electrodes through the first segment of conductive material by and the first segment of floating conductive material is disposed over at least a portion of both the first and second electrodes.

21. The method of claim 18 , wherein: the first and second electrodes are disposed between a fourth electrode and the first segment of floating conductive material.

22. The method of claim 21 , further comprising disposing the first segment of floating conductive material adjacent to the fourth electrode.

23. The method of claim 21 , wherein the second electrode is adjacent to the first electrode in a first direction and the fourth electrode is adjacent to the first electrode in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction.

24. The method of claim 18 , wherein the first segment of floating conductive material is capacitively coupled to the fourth electrode; and the method further comprises detecting a portion of a sensed signal on the fourth electrode based on the drive signal.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Chan Isaac
• Bugnait Prathit
• Lin Albert
• Tung Chun-Hao
• Kang Sunggu
• Zhong John Z

Classifications

• G09G2300/0809

  Several active elements per pixel in active matrix panels · CPC title

• G06F3/0418 Primary

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

• G09G3/3659

  the addressing of the pixel involving the control of two or more scan electrodes or two or more data electrodes, e.g. pixel voltage dependant on signal of two data electrodes · CPC title

• G06F3/044 Primary

  by capacitive means · CPC title

• G06F3/03545

  Pens or stylus · CPC title