Multipoint touchscreen

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8928618-B2
Application number	US-201414308595-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 18, 2014
Priority date	May 6, 2004
Publication date	Jan 6, 2015
Grant date	Jan 6, 2015

Abstract

A touch panel having a transparent capacitive sensing medium configured to detect multiple touches or near touches that occur at the same time and at distinct locations in the plane of the touch panel and to produce distinct signals representative of the location of the touches on the plane of the touch panel for each of the multiple touches is disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device comprising:
a touch sensor panel configured to detect multiple touches or near touches that occur at a same time and at distinct locations in a plane of the touch sensor panel, the touch sensor panel comprising:
a first layer having a plurality of transparent first conductive lines that are electrically isolated from one another, the plurality of transparent first conductive lines have first linewidths; and
a second layer spatially separated from the first layer and having a plurality of transparent second conductive lines that are electrically isolated from one another, the plurality of transparent second conductive lines having second linewidths wider than the first linewidths, the second conductive lines being positioned transverse to the first conductive lines, the intersection of transverse lines being positioned at different locations in a plane of the touch sensor panel;
capacitive monitoring circuitry configured to detect a decrease in charge coupling between the first conductive lines and the second conductive lines; and

a display device positioned adjacent the touch sensor panel.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the capacitive monitoring circuitry including a virtual ground charge amplifier.

3. The device of claim 2 wherein the transparent first conductive lines of the first layer are disposed on a first member, and wherein the transparent second conductive lines of the second layer are disposed on a second member, the first member being disposed over the second member.

4. The device of claim 3 , further including a third member disposed over the first member, the first and second members being attached to one another via an adhesive layer, the third member being attached to the first member via another adhesive layer.

5. The device of claim 2 , wherein the first conductive lines and the second conductive lines are coupled by mutual capacitive coupling.

6. The device of claim 2 , wherein the first and second conductive lines are positioned on opposite sides of the same substrate.

7. The device of claim 2 , wherein the first conductive lines have different shapes.

8. The device of claim 7 , wherein the different shapes include at least one of a rectilinear or a curvilinear shape.

9. The device of claim 2 , wherein the geometry of the first lines are the same.

10. The device of claim 9 , wherein the geometry of the first lines includes at least one of linewidths or spacings.

11. The device of claim 2 , wherein the first conductive lines are drive lines and the second conductive lines are sense lines, and the sense lines are connected to the capacitive monitoring circuitry.

12. The device of claim 2 , wherein the first conductive lines are sense lines and the second conductive lines are drive lines, and the sense lines are connected to the capacitive monitoring circuitry.

13. The device of claim 2 , wherein the number of first conductive lines in the first layer is different from the number of the second conductive lines in the second layer.

14. The device of claim 1 wherein the transparent first conductive lines of the first layer are disposed on a first member, and wherein the transparent second conductive lines of the second layer are disposed on a second member, the first member being disposed over the second member.

15. The device of claim 14 , further including a third member disposed over the first member, the first and second members being attached to one another via an adhesive layer, the third member being attached to the first member via another adhesive layer.

16. The device of claim 1 , wherein the first conductive lines and the second conductive lines are coupled by mutual capacitive coupling.

17. The device of claim 1 , wherein the first and second conductive lines have different shapes.

18. A device comprising:
a display having a screen for displaying a graphical user interface; and
a transparent touch panel allowing the screen to be viewed therethrough and capable of recognizing multiple touch events that occur at different locations on the touch panel at a same time;
wherein the touch panel includes a multipoint sensing arrangement configured to simultaneously detect the touch events and a change in capacitive coupling associated with those touch events at distinct points across the touch panel; and
wherein the touch panel comprises:
a first member disposed over the screen of the display;
a first transparent conductive layer disposed over the first member, the first transparent conductive layer comprising a first plurality of spaced apart parallel lines having first linewidths;
a second member disposed over the first transparent conductive layer;
a second transparent conductive layer disposed over the second member, the second transparent conductive layer comprising a second plurality of spaced apart parallel lines having second linewidths, different from the first linewidths, the second plurality of parallel lines of the second transparent conductive layer being substantially perpendicular to the first plurality of parallel lines of the first transparent conductive layer;
one or more sensor circuits operatively coupled to one of the first and second plurality of parallel lines for detecting a decrease in charge coupling between the first plurality of parallel lines and the second plurality of parallel lines.

19. The device of claim 18 , wherein the one or more sensor circuits includes a virtual ground charge amplifier.

20. The device of claim 19 , further including dummy features disposed in the space between the first plurality of parallel lines and the second plurality of parallel lines, the dummy features optically improving the visual appearance of the touch screen by more closely matching the optical index of the first and second plurality of parallel lines.

21. The device of claim 18 , further including dummy features disposed in the space between the first plurality of parallel lines and the second plurality of parallel lines, the dummy features optically improving the visual appearance of the touch screen by more closely matching the optical index of the first and second plurality of parallel lines.

22. The device of claim 18 , wherein a pitch of one of the first and second plurality of parallel lines is different from the pitch of the other of the first and second plurality of parallel lines.

23. A device comprising:
a touch sensor panel configured to detect multiple touches or near touches that occur at a same time and at distinct locations in a plane of the touch sensor panel, the touch sensor panel comprising:
a first layer having a plurality of transparent first conductive lines that are electrically isolated from one another, the plurality of transparent first conductive lines have first linewidths; and
a second layer spatially separated from the first layer and having a plurality of transparent second conductive lines that are electrically isolated from one another, the plurality of transparent second conductive lines having second linewidths wider than the first linewidths, and the number of conductive lines in one of the first and second layers is different from the number of conductive lines in the other of the first and second layer, the second conductive lines being positioned transverse to the first conductive lines, the intersection of transverse lines being positioned at different locations in a plane of the touch sensor panel;
capacitive monitoring circuitry con

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Hotelling Steve
• Strickon Joshua A
• Huppi Brian Q

Classifications

• G06F2203/04105

  Pressure sensors for measuring the pressure or force exerted on the touch surface without providing the touch position · CPC title

• G06F2203/04104

  Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger · CPC title

• G06F2203/04101

  2.5D-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 and also measures the distance of the input means within a short range in the Z direction, possibly with a separate measurement setup · CPC title

• G02F1/13338

  Input devices, e.g. touch panels · CPC title

• G06F3/0416

  Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers · CPC title