Mutual capacitance touch sensing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9360967-B2
Application number	US-48228606-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 6, 2006
Priority date	Jul 6, 2006
Publication date	Jun 7, 2016
Grant date	Jun 7, 2016

Abstract

A mutual capacitive touch sensing device is disclosed. The touch sensing device includes a mutual capacitive sensing controller having a plurality of distinct drive lines and a plurality of distinct sense lines; a source for driving a current or voltage separately though each drive line; and a mutual capacitance sensing circuit that monitors the capacitance at the sensing lines. The touch sensing device also includes a plurality of independent and spatially distinct mutual capacitive sensing nodes set up in a non two dimensional array. Each node includes a drive electrode that is spatially separated from a sense electrode. The drive electrode is coupled to one of the drive lines and the sense electrode is coupled to one of the sense lines. Each node is set up with a different combination of drive and sense line coupled thereto.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A touch sensing device, comprising:
a mutual capacitive sensing controller having a plurality of distinct drive lines and a plurality of distinct sense lines, a source for driving a current or voltage separately though each drive line, a mutual capacitance sensing circuit that monitors the capacitance at the sensing lines;
a plurality of independent and spatially distinct mutual capacitive sensing nodes set up in a non two dimensional array, each node including a drive electrode that is spatially separated from a sense electrode, the drive electrode and the sense electrode being configured to capacitively couple a drive line and a sense line,
the plurality of drive lines configured to carry current from the controller to the nodes,
the plurality of sense lines configured to carry current from the plurality of nodes to the controller,
wherein the nodes comprise multiple node groups, at least a first of the node groups comprising multiple nodes, each node in a node group being associated with a sense line that is common to all nodes in the group and a drive line that is not common to any other node in the group, one node in each node group being associated with a drive line that is common to all node groups.

2. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 1 wherein the nodes are positioned next to one another in succession along a prescribed path.

3. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 2 wherein the nodes form a linear path.

4. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 2 wherein the nodes form a circular path.

5. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 4 wherein the nodes represent angular input areas disposed around a circle.

6. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 2 wherein the nodes are placed in an open loop arrangement.

7. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 2 wherein the nodes are placed in a closed loop arrangement.

8. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 1 wherein a portion of the nodes form a scrolling region.

9. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 1 wherein a portion of the nodes form buttons that represent distinct button functions.

10. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 1 further including a filter that rejects parasitic capacitance effects so that a clean representation of the charge transferred across the node is outputted.

11. The touch sensing device as recited in 1 wherein the nodes include a cover film, an electrode layer and a substrate, the cover film being disposed over the electrode layer, the electrode layer being disposed over the substrate, the electrode layer including the drive and sense electrodes.

12. The touch sensing device as recited in 1 wherein the drive and sense electrodes are juxtaposed plates.

13. The touch sensing device as recited in 1 wherein the drive and sense electrode are interleaved with one another.

14. The touch sensing device as recited in 1 further including a floating electrode disposed over and spatially separated from the electrode pair of the node.

15. The touch sensing device as recited in 1 wherein the mutual capacitance sensing circuit continuously monitors all the sensing lines at the same time.

16. The touch sensing device as recited in 1 wherein the mutual capacitance sensing circuit monitors all the sensing lines sequentially.

17. The touch sensing device as recited in 1 wherein the number of nodes is equal to the number of drive lines multiplied by the number of sense lines.

18. The touch sensing device as recited in 17 wherein the number of drive lines is equal to the number of sense lines.

19. The touch sensing device as recited in 17 wherein the number of drive lines is different than the number of sense lines.

20. The touch sensing device as recited in 1 wherein the number of nodes is less than the number of drive lines multiplied by the number of sense lines.

21. A mutual capacitive sensing method, comprising:
separately driving a voltage or current through each of multiple drive lines;
capacitively coupling current between mutual capacitive sensing nodes comprising drive electrodes that are coupled to the driven drive line and corresponding sense electrodes that are coupled to different sense lines,
the nodes forming multiple node groups, each of the multiple groups comprising multiple nodes, each node in a group being associated with a sense line that is common to all nodes in the group and a drive line that is not common to any other node in the group, one node in each group being associated with a drive line that is common to all groups,
detecting with a mutual capacitance sensing circuit capacitance at drive and sense electrode pairs through each sense line each time a drive line is driven;
determining which electrode pairs have been touched based on detected capacitance; and
performing actions based on which electrode pairs have been touched.

22. The method as recited in claim 21 further including filtering parasitic capacitance created by non driven electrode pairs.

23. A touch sensing device that operates via mutual capacitance, comprising:
multiple mutual capacitance sensing nodes,
each mutual capacitance sensing node including a drive electrode that is spatially separated and juxtaposed next to a sense electrode, the drive electrode being coupled to a drive line and the sense electrode being coupled to a sense line of a mutual capacitance sensing circuit, and a floating electrode disposed over and spatially separated from the drive electrode and the sense electrode,
the nodes being arranged in multiple groups,
each of the multiple groups comprising multiple nodes,
each node in a group being associated with a sense line that is common to all nodes in the group and a drive line that is not common to any other node in the group,
one node in each group being associated with a drive line that is common to all groups.

24. A mutual capacitance touch sensing device, comprising:
a plurality of mutual capacitance sensing nodes arranged in a non 2D array and coupled to drive lines and sense lines, each node comprising an electrode pair of drive electrode and sense electrode configured to capacitively couple a drive line and a sense line, at least one of the drive lines configured to carry a current to the drive electrode of the node, and at least one of the sense lines configured to carry a current from the sense electrode of the node to a mutual capacitance sensing circuit indicating a change in capacitance at the node,
the nodes comprising node groups, each node in a node group being associated with a sense line that is common to all nodes in the group and a drive line that is not common to any other node in the group, one node in each node group being associated with a drive line that is common to all node groups.

25. The mutual capacitance touch sensing device of claim 24 , wherein each node in a node group comprises a drive electrode coupled to different ones of the drive lines and a sense electrode coupled to a same one of the sense lines, and each node group comprises a node coupled to a same one of the drive lines.

26. A touch sensing device comprising:
a controller,
multiple nodes,
multiple drive lines configured to carry current from the controller to the nodes,
multiple sense lines configured to carry current from the multiple nodes to the controller,
each of the multiple nodes comprising a drive e

Assignees

• Hotelling Steve
• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Hotelling Steve

Classifications

• H03K2217/96077

  comprising an electrode which is floating · CPC title

• H03K2217/960775

  Emitter-receiver or "fringe" type detection, i.e. one or more field emitting electrodes and corresponding one or more receiving electrodes · CPC title

• G06F3/044 Primary

  by capacitive means · CPC title

• H03K17/962 Primary

  Capacitive touch switches · CPC title

• G06F3/0443

  using a single layer of sensing electrodes · CPC title