Detection apparatus and display apparatus with touch detection function

• US 10,082,898 B2
• Filed: 03/20/2017
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Japan Display Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Japan Display Incorporated
• Inventors: Kurasawa, Hayato, Teranishi, Yasuyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Premal R
• Application Number:
  US15/463,065
• Publication Number:
  US 20170277328A1
• Time in Patent Office: 554 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 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 Class Codes: G06F 2203/04107 Shielding in digitiser, i.e. guard or shielding arrangements, mostly for capacitive touchscreens, e.g. driven shields, driven grounds
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04108 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 Class Codes: G06F 2203/04112 Electrode mesh in capacitive digitiser: electrode for touch sensing is formed of a mesh of very fine, normally metallic, interconnected lines that are almost invisible to see. This provides a quite large but transparent electrode surface, without need for ITO or similar transparent conductive material
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04164 Connections between sensors and controllers, e.g. routing lines between electrodes and connection pads
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04166 Details of scanning methods, e.g. sampling time, grouping of sub areas or time sharing with display driving Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally G06F3/04184
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041662 using alternate mutual and self-capacitive scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04182 Filtering of noise external to the device and not generated by digitiser components
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04184 Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0445 using two or more layers of sensing electrodes, e.g. using two layers of electrodes separated by a dielectric layer
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0447 Position sensing using the local deformation of sensor cells
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0448 Details of the electrode shape, e.g. for enhancing the detection of touches, for generating specific electric field shapes, for enhancing display quality

Abstract

According to an aspect, a detection apparatus includes a touch detection surface having two dimensions, a touch detection unit and a force detection unit. The touch detection unit includes: first electrodes extending along a first direction; and a first signal output unit configured to output a first signal indicating a position of the touch operation in a second direction. Each first electrode includes divided electrodes provided in the first direction. First detection regions each provided by bundling the divided electrodes arranged in the second direction are set. The force detection unit includes a base electrode configured such that distances between the base electrode and the respective divided electrodes change when the first electrodes bend according to the applied force applied. The force signal is a signal based on electrostatic capacitances obtained by individual detection.

Claims

1. A detection apparatus comprising:

a touch detection surface serving as a detection region having two dimensions;

a touch detection unit configured to output a touch detection signal indicating a position where a touch operation has been performed with the touch detection surface; and

a force detection unit configured to output a force signal corresponding to force applied to the touch detection surface with the touch operation,

wherein the touch detection unit comprises

a plurality of first electrodes extending along a first direction of two directions in the two dimensions; and

a first signal output unit that is coupled to the first electrodes and configured to output a first signal indicating a position in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction where the touch operation has been performed, the first signal being represented by self-capacitances of the first electrodes,

wherein each of the first electrodes comprises a plurality of divided electrodes provided in the first direction,

a plurality of first detection regions each provided by bundling the divided electrodes arranged in the second direction are set,

the force detection unit comprises a base electrode opposed to the divided electrodes with a predetermined gap therebetween, the base electrode being configured such that distances between the base electrode and the respective divided electrodes change when the first electrodes bend toward the predetermined gap according to the applied force,

the force signal is a signal based on electrostatic capacitances obtained by individual detection, and

the individual detection is such that detection of each of the electrostatic capacitances between the base electrode and the divided electrodes of the first detection regions is individually performed.

2. The detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the touch detection unit further comprises:

a plurality of second electrodes extending along the second direction; and

a mutual capacitance signal output unit that is coupled to the second electrodes configured to output a mutual capacitance signal indicating the two-dimensional position where the touch operation has been performed, based on mutual capacitances formed by the first electrodes and the second electrodes according to a voltage applied to the first electrodes.

3. The detection apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the force signal includes information represented by the electrostatic capacitances in the first detection regions that has been obtained by the individual detection in a first period in which the second electrodes are in an active shield state of having a varying potential, and information represented by the electrostatic capacitances in the first detection regions that has been obtained by the individual detection in a second period in which the second electrodes have a fixed potential.

4. The detection apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a first force calculation unit configured to calculate a level of the force and a position in the first direction where the force is applied, based on differences between the electrostatic capacitances in the first detection regions obtained in the first period and the electrostatic capacitances in the first detection regions obtained in the second period.

5. The detection apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

a plurality of second detection regions are set along the second direction, each of the second detection regions including one or more of the first electrodes arranged therein, and

the force signal includes information represented by the electrostatic capacitances in the second detection regions obtained by performing detection of the electrostatic capacitance formed by the first electrodes included in the single second detection region and the base electrode for each of the second detection regions, individually in a first period in which the second electrodes are in an active shield state of having a varying potential and in a second period in which the second electrodes have a fixed potential.

6. The detection apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a second force calculation unit configured to calculate a level of the force and a position in the second direction where the force is applied, based on differences between the electrostatic capacitances in the second detection regions obtained in the first period and the electrostatic capacitances in the second detection regions obtained in the second period.

7. The detection apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a force calculation unit configured to calculate a level of the force and a two-dimensional position where the force is applied, based on levels of the electrostatic capacitances in the first detection regions obtained by the individual detection.

8. The detection apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a touch calculation unit configured to calculate, based on the mutual capacitance signal, the two-dimensional position where the touch operation has been performed; and

a touch correction unit configured to correct, based on the first signal, the two-dimensional position calculated by the touch calculation unit.

9. The detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the touch detection unit further comprises:

a plurality of second electrodes extending along the second direction; and

a second signal output unit that is coupled to the second electrodes configured to output a second signal indicating the position in the first direction where the touch operation has been performed, the position in the first direction being represented by self-capacitances of the second electrodes.

10. The detection apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a force calculation unit configured to calculate a level of the force and a two-dimensional position where the force is applied, based on levels of the electrostatic capacitances in the first detection regions obtained by the individual detection;

a touch calculation unit configured to calculate, based on the first signal and the second signal, the two-dimensional position where the touch operation has been performed; and

a touch correction unit configured to correct the two-dimensional position where the touch operation has been performed, based on the two-dimensional position where the force is applied calculated by the force calculation unit.

11. The detection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a calculation unit configured to calculate a level of the force and a two-dimensional position where the force is applied, based on levels of the electrostatic capacitances in the first detection regions obtained by the individual detection.

12. The detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the divided electrodes included in the first electrode have an overlap region in which two divided electrodes are arranged in the second direction.

13. The detection apparatus according to claim 12, wherein, in each of the first electrodes, the respective divided electrodes included in the first electrode have a shape tapered or inversely tapered in the first direction.

14. The detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the divided electrodes included in each of the first electrodes are arranged in the first direction.

15. A display apparatus with a touch detection function comprising:

the detection apparatus according to claim 1; and

a display device configured to display an image on the touch detection surface.