Activation of different subsets of drive-sense circuits in accordance with different modes of operation of a touch-based device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12360628-B2
Application number	US-202418607675-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 18, 2024
Priority date	Oct 26, 2021
Publication date	Jul 15, 2025
Grant date	Jul 15, 2025

Abstract

A touch screen display is operable to operate in a first mode during a first temporal period based on activating exactly one set of drive-sense circuits of a plurality of sets of drive-sense circuits to generate a corresponding one set of sensed signals during the first temporal period, and processing the corresponding one set of sensed signals to generate first proximal interaction data for the first temporal period. The touch screen display is operable to operate in a second mode during a second temporal period after the first temporal period based on activating more than one set of drive-sense circuits of the plurality of sets of drive-sense circuits to generate a corresponding more than one set of sensed signals during the second temporal period, and processing the set of sensed signals to generate second proximal interaction data for the second temporal period.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A touch screen display comprises:
a display configured to render frames of data into visible images;
a plurality of sets of electrodes integrated into the display to facilitate touch sense functionality based on electrode signals having a drive signal component and a receive signal component, wherein each set of electrodes of the plurality of sets of electrodes includes a corresponding proper subset of non-neighboring ones of a plurality of row electrodes and a corresponding proper subset of non-neighboring ones of a plurality of column electrodes, wherein the plurality of row electrodes is separated from each the plurality of column electrodes by a dielectric material, and wherein the plurality of row electrodes and the plurality of column electrodes form a plurality of cross points;
a plurality of sets of drive-sense circuits, wherein each set of drive-sense circuits of the plurality of sets of drive-sense circuits includes a plurality of drive-sense circuits coupled to electrodes of a corresponding set of electrodes of the plurality of sets of electrodes, and wherein each set of drive-sense circuits is operable to generate a set of sensed signals indicating variations in capacitance associated with a proper subset of the plurality of cross points formed by the corresponding set of electrodes; and
a processing module that includes at least one memory that stores operational instructions and at least one processing circuit that executes the operational instructions to perform operations to:
operate exactly one set of drive-sense circuits of the plurality of sets of drive-sense circuits in a first mode during a first temporal period to facilitate detection of first proximal interaction of a user; and
operate more than one set of drive-sense circuits of the plurality of sets of drive-sense circuits in a second mode during a second temporal period after the first temporal period to facilitate detection of second proximal interaction of the user.

2. The touch screen display of claim 1 , wherein the processing module that includes the at least one memory that stores operational instructions and the at least one processing circuit that executes the operational instructions further configured to perform operations to operate more than one set of drive-sense circuits of the plurality of sets of drive-sense circuits in a third mode, which includes both the first mode and the second mode, during a third temporal period after the second temporal period to facilitate detection of third proximal interaction of the user.

3. The touch screen display of claim 1 , wherein the processing module that includes the at least one memory that stores operational instructions and the at least one processing circuit that executes the operational instructions further configured to perform operations to operate the sets of drive-sense circuits of the plurality of sets of drive-sense circuits in a multiple, different respective sensing modes of a plurality of possible sensing modes at multiple, different respective temporal periods to facilitate detection of multiple, different respective proximal interactions of the user.

4. The touch screen display of claim 1 , wherein the processing module that includes the at least one memory that stores operational instructions and the at least one processing circuit that executes the operational instructions further configured to:
operate in the first mode during the first temporal period based on:
activating the exactly one set of drive-sense circuits of the plurality of sets of drive-sense circuits to generate a corresponding one set of sensed signals during the first temporal period;
receiving the corresponding one set of sensed signals from the exactly one set of drive-sense circuits during the first temporal period; and
processing the corresponding one set of sensed signals to generate first proximal interaction data of the first proximal interaction of the user for the first temporal period; and

operating in a second mode during a second temporal period after the first temporal period based on:
activating more than one set of drive-sense circuits of the plurality of sets of drive-sense circuits to generate a corresponding more than one set of sensed signals during the second temporal period;
receiving the corresponding more than one set of sensed signals from the more than one set of drive-sense circuits during the second temporal period; and
processing the set of sensed signals to generate second proximal interaction data of the second proximal interaction of the user for the second temporal period.

5. The touch screen display of claim 4 , wherein each of the plurality of drive-sense circuits includes a first conversion circuit and a second conversion circuit, and wherein, when the exactly one set of drive-sense circuits of the plurality of drive-sense circuits is enabled to monitor a corresponding electrode of the plurality of sets of electrodes based on being activated, each first conversion circuit of each drive-sense circuit of the exactly one set of drive-sense circuits is configured to convert the receive signal component into a sensed signal of the set of sensed signals and each second conversion circuit of each drive-sense circuit of the exactly one set of drive-sense circuits is configured to generate the drive signal component from the sensed signal of the set of sensed signals.

6. The touch screen display of claim 4 , wherein a plurality of proper subsets of the plurality of row electrodes corresponding to the plurality of sets of electrodes each include a first same number of row electrodes, wherein the plurality of proper subsets of the plurality of row electrodes are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive with respect to the plurality of row electrodes;
wherein a plurality of proper subsets of the plurality of column electrodes corresponding to the plurality of sets of electrodes each include a second same number of row electrodes; and wherein the plurality of proper subsets of the plurality of column electrodes are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive with respect to the plurality of column electrodes.

7. The touch screen display of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of row electrodes are physically arranged in accordance with a first linear ordering, wherein the plurality of column electrodes are physically arranged in accordance with a second linear ordering, wherein an ordering multiple is equal to a number of sets of electrodes included in the plurality of sets of electrodes, wherein the plurality of row electrodes are ordered in the first linear ordering based on spacing row electrodes in each given proper subset of the plurality of row electrodes apart by the ordering multiple in the first linear ordering, and wherein the plurality of column electrodes are ordered in the second linear ordering based on spacing column electrodes in each given proper subset of the plurality of column electrodes apart by the ordering multiple in the second linear ordering.

8. The touch screen display of claim 4 , each set of electrodes of the plurality of sets of electrodes forms a corresponding electrode grid of a set of electrode grids, wherein each electrode grid is in accordance with a common uniform row spacing and a common uniform column spacing, wherein the corresponding proper subset of the plurality of row electrodes belonging to the each set of electrodes form rows of the electrode grid in accordance with the common uniform row spacing, wherein the corresponding proper subset of the plurality of column electrodes belonging to the each set of electrodes form columns of the electrode grid in accordance with the common uniform column spacing.

9. The touch screen display of

Assignees

• Sigmasense Llc

Inventors

• Van Ostrand Daniel Keith
• Gray Michael Shawn
• Gray Patrick Troy
• Seger Jr Richard Stuart

Classifications

• G06F3/0446

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

• G06F3/0412 Primary

  Digitisers structurally integrated in a display · 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

• G06F2203/04108

  Touchless 2D- digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface without distance measurement in the Z direction · CPC title

• G06F3/041662

  using alternate mutual and self-capacitive scanning · CPC title