Mutual-capacitance sensing with conductive overlay

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11249604-B2
Application number	US-201916577051-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 20, 2019
Priority date	Sep 20, 2019
Publication date	Feb 15, 2022
Grant date	Feb 15, 2022

Abstract

A device includes an electrical circuit and a mutual-capacitance sensing circuit coupled to the electrical circuit. The mutual-capacitance sensing circuit includes mutual-capacitance sensing electrodes including a transmitter electrode and receiver electrode. The device also includes a conductive overlay over the mutual-capacitance sensing electrodes. The mutual-capacitance sensing circuit is configured to detect deflection of a portion of the conductive overlay relative to the mutual-capacitance sensing electrodes. The receiver electrode has a shape with an inner edge, and the transmitter electrode has a shape with an outer edge that is at least partially surrounded by the inner edge of the receiver electrode.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device, comprising:
a transmitter electrode having a transmitter electrode outer edge, wherein the transmitter electrode comprises a solid circle shape electrode; and
a receiver electrode having a receiver electrode inner edge and a receiver electrode outer edge, wherein the receiver electrode inner edge surrounds the transmitter electrode outer edge;
a conductive overlay over the transmitter electrode and the receiver electrode; and
a conductive layer between the transmitter electrode and the conductive overlay.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the receiver electrode comprises a ring shape electrode, and wherein the transmitter electrode is within the ring shape electrode.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein an average gap between the transmitter electrode and the receiver electrode is within one order of magnitude of an average gap between the transmitter electrode and the conductive overlay.

4. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a controller configured to instruct the transmitter electrode to transmit a sense signal to the receiver electrode, wherein the receiver electrode is configured to receive a distortion of the sense signal and transmit the distortion of the sense signal to the controller.

5. The device of claim 4 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine a deflection amount based on the distortion of the sense signal.

6. The device of claim 5 , further comprising an electrical circuit coupled to the transmitter electrode and to the receiver electrode, wherein the controller is configured to assert a deflection detected signal to the electrical circuit in response to determining the deflection amount is greater than a threshold.

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein the conductive overlay is grounded.

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the conductive layer is mechanically coupled to the conductive overlay, the conductive layer electrically isolated from the conductive overlay, the transmitter electrode, and the receiver electrode, and the conductive layer electrically coupled to a ground terminal.

9. The device of claim 8 , further comprising an insulative layer between the conductive overlay and the conductive layer.

10. A system, comprising:
a conductive overlay;
a transmitter electrode having a transmitter electrode outer edge, wherein the transmitter electrode comprises a solid circle shape electrode;
a receiver electrode having a receiver electrode inner edge and a receiver electrode outer edge, wherein the receiver electrode inner edge surrounds the transmitter electrode outer edge;
a capacitor coupled to the receiver electrode; and
a controller coupled to the receiver electrode and to the transmitter electrode, wherein the controller is configured to detect deflection of the conductive overlay relative to the transmitter electrode and the receive electrode.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the receiver electrode comprises a ring shape electrode.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein an average gap between the transmitter electrode and the receiver electrode is within one order of magnitude of an average gap between the transmitter electrode and the conductive overlay.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the controller is configured to:
transmit a sense signal to the transmitter electrode;
receive a distorted sense signal; and
detect at least one distortion parameter of the conductive overlay responsive to the distorted sense signal and the sense signal.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine a deflection level for at least a portion of the conductive overlay based on the distorted sense signal.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the conductive overlay is coupled to a ground terminal.

16. The system of claim 10 , further comprising a conductive layer that mechanically coupled to the conductive overlay, the conductive layer electrically isolated from the conductive overlay, the transmitter electrode, and the receiver electrode, and the conductive layer electrically coupled to a ground terminal.

17. A method, comprising:
transmitting, by a controller, a sense signal having a peak;
receiving, by the controller, a distorted sense signal having a distorted peak;
charging a capacitor with the distorted sense signal;
determining, by the controller, a conductive surface deflection, based on the peak and the distorted peak; and
activating a conductive surface deflection signal in response to determining the distorted sense signal stored on the capacitor is less than a threshold when a conductive surface electrode is grounded to a circuit ground node.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein determining the conductive surface deflection is performed based on a rise time of the distorted peak, a rising slope of the distorted peak, a fall time of the distorted peak, a falling slope of the distorted peak, or a magnitude of the peak.

Assignees

• Texas Instruments Inc

Inventors

• Spevak Peter

Classifications

• G06F3/0448

  Details of the electrode shape, e.g. for enhancing the detection of touches, for generating specific electric field shapes, for enhancing display quality · CPC title

• G06F3/0446 Primary

  using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes · CPC title

• G06F3/0445

  using two or more layers of sensing electrodes, e.g. using two layers of electrodes separated by a dielectric layer · CPC title

• G06F3/0444 Primary

  using a single conductive element covering the whole sensing surface, e.g. by sensing the electrical current flowing at the corners · CPC title

• G06F3/0416

  Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers · CPC title