Coarse scan and targeted active mode scan for touch

• US 10,061,450 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2015
• Issued: 08/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Shahparnia, Shahrooz, Mullens, Christopher Tenzin, Grunthaner, Martin Paul, Geboff, Adam
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Jennifer
• Application Number:
  US14/869,982
• Publication Number:
  US 20160162102A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,064 Days
• Field of Search: 345174, 178 1806
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3215 Monitoring of peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3262 Power saving in digitizer or tablet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04101 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 Class Codes: G06F 3/04162 for exchanging data with external devices, e.g. smart pens, via the digitiser sensing hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041661 using detection at multiple resolutions, e.g. coarse and fine scanning; using detection within a limited area, e.g. object tracking window
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0442 using active external devices, e.g. active pens, for transmitting changes in electrical potential to be received by the digitiser
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes

Abstract

Power consumption of touch sensing operations for touch sensitive devices can be reduced by implementing a coarse scan (e.g., banked common mode scan) to coarsely detect the presence or absence of an object touching or proximate to a touch sensor panel and the results of the coarse scan can be used to dynamically adjust the operation of the touch sensitive device to perform or not perform a fine scan (e.g., targeted active mode scan). In some examples, the results of the coarse scan can be used to program a touch controller for the next touch sensing frame to idle when no touch event is detected or to perform a fine scan when one or more touch events are detected. In some examples, the results of the coarse scan can be used to abort a scheduled fine scan during the current touch sensing frame when no touch event is detected.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a touch sensor panel; and

processing circuitry coupled to the touch sensor panel, the processing circuitry capable of;

scheduling, prior to the start of a scan frame, a coarse scan to be executed during a first time period of the scan frame and a fine scan to be executed during a second time period of the scan frame, wherein the second time period is after the first time period and wherein the fine scan includes a plurality of predetermined fine scan steps;

executing the coarse scan;

beginning execution of the fine scan after executing the coarse scan; and

aborting, after executing at least a first portion of the fine scan including one or more first fine scan steps of the plurality of predetermined fine scan steps, at least a second portion of the fine scan including one or more second fine scan steps of the plurality of predetermined fine scan steps when no touch event is detected during execution of the coarse scan.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the touch sensor panel comprises drive lines and sense lines, and executing the coarse scan comprises:

stimulating a bank comprising a plurality of the drive lines with a common mode stimulation signal;

receiving sense signals at one or more of the sense lines, the sense signals generated in response to the common mode stimulation signal; and

generating at least one touch value for the bank.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the touch sensor panel comprises drive lines and sense lines, and executing the fine scan comprises:

stimulating, in one or more steps, the drive lines with stimulation signals;

receiving sense signals at the sense lines, the sense signals generated in response to the stimulation signals applied to the drive lines; and

generating a touch value for a plurality of touch sensing nodes of the touch sensor panel, each of the plurality of touch sensing nodes measuring a mutual capacitance between a drive line and a sense line.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the touch sensor panel comprises drive lines and sense lines, and executing the fine scan comprises:

stimulating, in one or more steps, the drive lines of one or more banks, but fewer than all banks, with stimulation signals, each bank comprising a plurality of the drive lines, at least one of the one or more banks having detected a touch event during the coarse scan;

receiving sense signals at the sense lines, the sense signals generated in response to the stimulation signals applied to the drive lines of the one or more banks; and

generating a touch value for a plurality of touch sensing nodes corresponding to the one or more banks, each touch sensing node measuring a mutual capacitance between a drive line and a sense line.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further capable of generating an abort command, the abort command preventing or terminating execution of the fine scan.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further capable of generating one or more abort commands, the one or more abort commands preventing or terminating execution of one or more portions of the fine scan.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further capable of discarding scan results from an aborted fine scan.

8. A method for reducing power consumption of touch scanning operations, comprising:

scheduling, prior to the start of a scan frame, a coarse scan to be executed during a first time period of the scan frame and a fine scan to be executed during a second time period of the scan frame, wherein the second time period is after the first time period and wherein the fine scan includes a plurality of predetermined fine scan steps;

executing the coarse scan;

beginning execution of the fine scan after executing the coarse scan; and

aborting, after executing at least a first portion of the fine scan including one or more first fine scan steps of the plurality of predetermined fine scan steps, at least a second portion of the fine scan including one or more second fine scan steps of the plurality of predetermined fine scan steps when no touch event is detected during execution of the coarse scan.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the coarse scan is a banked common mode scan, wherein drive lines of a touch sensor panel are divided between a plurality of banks, and banks are stimulated with a common mode stimulation signal.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the fine scan is a full panel scan.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein scan results from the fine scan are discarded or ignored.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

generating an abort command, the abort command preventing or terminating execution of the fine scan.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating one or more abort commands, the one or more abort commands preventing or terminating execution of one or more portions of the fine scan.

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, the computer readable medium containing instructions that, when executed by a processor, can perform a method, the method comprising:

scheduling, prior to the start of a scan frame, a coarse scan to be executed during a first time period of the scan frame and a fine scan to be executed during a second time period of the scan frame, wherein the second time period is after the first time period and wherein the fine scan includes a plurality of predetermined fine scan steps;

executing the coarse scan;

beginning execution of the fine scan after executing the coarse scan; and

aborting, after executing at least a first portion of the fine scan including one or more first fine scan steps of the plurality of predetermined fine scan steps, at least a second portion of the fine scan including one or more second fine scan steps of the plurality of predetermined fine scan steps when no touch event is detected during execution of the coarse scan.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein executing the coarse scan comprises:

stimulating a bank comprising a plurality of drive lines of a touch sensor panel with a common mode stimulation signal;

receiving sense signals at one or more sense lines of the touch sensor panel, the sense signals generated in response to the common mode stimulation signal; and

generating at least one touch value for the bank.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein executing the fine scan comprises:

stimulating, in one or more steps, drive lines of a touch sensor panel with stimulation signals;

receiving sense signals at sense lines of the touch sensor panel, the sense signals generated in response to the stimulation signals applied to the drive lines; and

generating a touch value for a plurality of touch sensing nodes of the touch sensor panel, each of the plurality of touch sensing nodes measuring a mutual capacitance between a drive line and a sense line.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein executing the fine scan comprises:

stimulating, in one or more steps, one or more banks, but fewer than all banks, of a touch sensor panel with stimulation signals, the touch sensor panel comprising drive lines and sense lines, each bank comprising a plurality of the drive lines, at least one of the one or more banks having detected a touch event during the coarse scan;

receiving sense signals at the sense lines, the sense signals generated in response to the stimulation signals applied to the plurality of drive lines of the one or more banks; and

generating a touch value for a plurality of touch sensing nodes corresponding to the one or more banks, each touch sensing node measuring a mutual capacitance between a drive line and a sense line.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising:

generating an abort command, the abort command preventing or terminating execution of the fine scan.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising:

generating one or more abort commands, the one or more abort commands preventing or terminating execution of one or more portions of the fine scan.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising:

discarding scan results from an aborted fine scan.