Reducing noise in a force signal in an electronic device

• US 10,296,123 B2
• Filed: 05/19/2015
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Agarwal, Manu, Smith, John Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Ketema, Benyam
• Application Number:
  US14/716,659
• Publication Number:
  US 20160259465A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,463 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04106 Multi-sensing digitiser, i.e. digitiser using at least two different sensing technologies simultaneously or alternatively, e.g. for detecting pen and finger, for saving power or for improving position detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0414 using force sensing means to determine a position
• 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 3/04182 Filtering of noise external to the device and not generated by digitiser components

Abstract

A force sensing device can be included in a display. Noise produced by various sources can be injected into the force signals produced by the force sensing device. Example noise sources include, but are not limited to, the display, Johnson or Thermal noise from the force sensing device, system noise, and magnetically-coupled or background noise produced by ambient light sources. A sampling scheme that includes one or more noise cancelling techniques can be employed to reduce the amount of noise in the force signals.

Claims

1. A method of operating a force sensing device incorporated with a display of an electronic device, the method comprising:

dividing a scanning period for a frame of the display into a plurality of sub scan time periods; and

within each sub scan time period, sampling force signals only during a scan period and not sampling force signals during a delay period, wherein the scan and delay periods are offset from one another within a sub scan time period;

wherein;

a time period between the scan periods in only every other sub scan time period is set to a value that reduces background noise in the force signals.

2. The method as in claim 1, wherein a signal instability produced by a VCOM signal transitioning between high and low signal levels occurs only during the delay period.

3. The method as in claim 1, wherein a signal instability produced by a VCOM signal transitioning between high and low signal levels partially overlaps with the scan period.

4. The method as in claim 1, wherein the background noise is produced by A/C power.

5. The method as in claim 1, further comprising switching reference voltages received by one or more strain sensing elements in the force sensing device between subscan time periods.

6. An electronic device, comprising:

a display stack for a display, comprising;

a cover glass; and

a strain sensing structure positioned below the cover glass, the strain sensing structure comprising a substrate, a first set of strain sensitive films positioned on a first surface of the substrate, and a second set of strain sensitive films positioned on a second surface of the substrate and aligned vertically with the first set of strain sensitive films, wherein a strain sensitive film in the first set and a vertically aligned strain sensing film in the second set together form a strain sensing element;

wherein a strain sensitive film in the first set and a vertically aligned strain sensing film in the second set together from a strain sensing element;

sense circuitry operably connected to each strain sensing element; and

a controller operably connected to the sense circuitry and configured to cause force signals to be sampled from one or more strain sensing elements multiple times during a frame scanning period of the display, wherein the force signals are sampled only during multiple scan periods in the frame scanning period and the scan periods are offset from one another by a delay period;

wherein;

a time period between only every other scan period is set to a value that reduces background noise in the force signals.

7. The electronic device as in claim 6, wherein the background noise is produced by A/C power.

8. The electronic device as in claim 6, wherein the display stack further comprises a display layer and a VCOM buffer layer and a signal instability produced by a VCOM signal transitioning between high and low signal levels occurs only during the delay periods.

9. The electronic device as in claim 6, wherein the controller is configured to switch reference voltages received by each strain sensing element in the strain sensing structure between scan periods.

10. The electronic device as in claim 6, wherein the sense circuitry comprises a sigma delta analog-to-digital converter.

11. The electronic device as in claim 10, wherein a size of a step for one analog-to-digital conversion is selected to produce sufficient attenuation at a display line refresh noise frequency.

12. A method of operating a force sensing device incorporated with a display of an electronic device, wherein the force sensing device comprises a strain sensing element, the method comprising:

dividing a scanning period for a frame of the display into a plurality of sub scan time periods;

within each sub scan time period, sampling force signals only during a scan period and not sampling force signals during a delay period, wherein the scan and delay periods are offset from one another within each sub scan time period; and

flipping a first reference voltage and a second reference voltage between first and second nodes of the strain sensing element when a force signal not sampled from the strain sensing element;

wherein;

a time period between the scan periods in only every other sub scan time period Is set to a value that reduces background noise in the force signals.

13. The method as in claim 12, wherein the reference voltages are flipped during the delay periods.

14. The method as in claim 12, wherein a signal instability produced by a VCOM signal in the display transitioning between high and low signal levels occurs only during the delay period.

15. The method as in claim 12, wherein the background noise is produced by A/C power.

16. A method of operating a force sensing device incorporated with a display of an electronic device, wherein the force sensing device comprises a strain sensing element, the method comprising:

sampling a force signal from the strain sensing element during a scan period in at least one sub scan time period, wherein a plurality of sub scan time periods occur during a scanning period for a frame of the display and the scan period is offset from a signal instability produced by a VCOM signal in the display transitioning between two signal levels;

wherein;

a time period between the scan periods in only every other sub scan time period is set to a value that reduces background noise in the force signals.

17. The method as in claim 16, further comprising flipping a first reference voltage and a second reference voltage between first and second nodes of the strain sensing element when the force signal not sampled from the strain sensitive element.