Compensating force baseline artifacts in a capacitive sensor

• US 10,394,393 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2016
• Issued: 08/27/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
• Inventors: Ramakrishnan, Shubha, Schwartz, Adam L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ghebretinsae, Temesghen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cohen, Yaron
• Application Number:
  US15/199,421
• Publication Number:
  US 20170102800A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,153 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means
• 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

Abstract

An example processing system for a capacitive input device includes sensor circuitry configured to drive a plurality of sensor electrodes with capacitive sensing signals over time to acquire capacitive values of a plurality of capacitive frames. The processing system includes a determination module configured to analyze a first capacitive frame of the plurality of capacitive frames to identify a force event by detecting that a rate of change of a first capacitive value in the first capacitive frame exceeds a first threshold. The determination module is configured to determine a change in capacitance between the first capacitive value and a baseline value, and analyze a second capacitive frame of the plurality of capacitive frames acquired after the force event to adjust the baseline value responsive to a difference between the baseline value and a second capacitive value in the second capacitive frame falling below a second threshold.

Claims

1. A capacitive input device, comprising:

sensor circuitry configured to drive a plurality of sensor electrodes with capacitive sensing signals over time to acquire capacitive values of a plurality of capacitive frames; and

a processing system, coupled to the sensor circuitry, configured to;

analyze a first capacitive frame of the plurality of capacitive frames to identify a force event based on whether a first capacitive value for the first capacitive frame exceeds a baseline value;

in response to determining that the first capacitive value does not exceed the baseline value, set the baseline value equal to the first capacitive value;

analyze a second capacitive frame of the plurality of capacitive frames acquired after the force event to determine whether a second capacitive value for the second capacitive frame exceeds the first capacitive value;

in response to determining that the second capacitive value exceeds the first capacitive value, determine whether a difference between the first capacitive value and the second capacitive value is less than a threshold;

in response to determining that the difference between the first capacitive value and the second capacitive value is less than the threshold, adjust the baseline value based on a function of the difference between the first capacitive value and the second capacitive value; and

determine force information about an input object in contact with the capacitive input device based at least in part on the plurality of capacitive frames.

2. The capacitive input device of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to analyze the first capacitive frame to identify the force event based on rates of change for a plurality of capacitive values acquired from a threshold number of the plurality of sensor electrodes.

3. The capacitive input device of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to reject the second capacitive value if the second capacitive value is less than the baseline value.

4. The capacitive input device of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to reject at least one of the first and second capacitive values by setting the baseline value to a negative capacitive value.

5. The capacitive input device of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to:

analyze a third capacitive frame of the plurality of capacitive frames acquired during the force event; and

reject a decrease in a third capacitive value of the third capacitive frame.

6. The capacitive input device of claim 5, wherein rejecting the decrease in the third capacitive value comprises increasing the third capacitive value to a maximum capacitive value acquired during the force event.

7. An input device, comprising:

a plurality of sensor electrodes disposed in a sensing region;

sensor circuitry configured to drive the plurality of sensor electrodes with capacitive sensing signals over time to acquire capacitive values of a plurality of capacitive frames; and

a processing system, coupled to the sensor circuitry, configured to;

analyze a first capacitive frame of the plurality of capacitive frames to identify a force event based on whether a first capacitive value for the first capacitive frame exceeds a baseline value;

in response to determining that the first capacitive value does not exceed the baseline value, set the baseline value equal to the first capacitive value;

analyze a second capacitive frame of the plurality of capacitive frames acquired after the force event to determine whether a second capacitive value for the second capacitive frame exceeds the first capacitive value;

in response to determining that the second capacitive value exceeds the first capacitive value, determine whether a difference between the first capacitive value and the second capacitive value is less than a threshold;

in response to determining that the difference between the first capacitive value and the second capacitive value is less than the threshold, adjust the baseline value based on a function of the difference between the first capacitive value and the second capacitive value; and

determine force information about an input object in contact with the input device based at least in part on the plurality of capacitive frames.

8. The input device of claim 7, wherein the processing system is further configured to analyze the first capacitive frame to identify the force event based on rates of change for a plurality of capacitive values acquired from a threshold number of the plurality of sensor electrodes.

9. The input device of claim 7, wherein the processing system is further configured to reject the second capacitive value if the second capacitive value is less than the baseline value.

10. The input device of claim 9, wherein the processing system is further configured to reject at least one of the first and second capacitive values by setting the baseline value to a negative capacitive value.

11. The input device of claim 7, wherein the processing system is further configured to:

analyze a third capacitive frame of the plurality of capacitive frames acquired during the force event; and

reject a decrease in a third capacitive value of the third capacitive frame.

12. The input device of claim 11, wherein rejecting the decrease in the third capacitive value comprises increasing the third capacitive value to a maximum capacitive value acquired during the force event.

13. A method of capacitive sensing, comprising:

driving a plurality of sensor electrodes with capacitive sensing signals over time to acquire capacitive values of a plurality of capacitive frames;

analyzing a first capacitive frame of the plurality of capacitive frames to identify a force event based on whether a first capacitive value for the first capacitive frame exceeds a baseline value;

in response to determining that the first capacitive value does not exceed the baseline value, setting the baseline value equal to the first capacitive value;

analyzing a second capacitive frame of the plurality of capacitive frames acquired after the force event to determine whether a second capacitive value for the second capacitive frame exceeds the first capacitive value;

in response to determining that the second capacitive value exceeds the first capacitive value, determining whether a difference between the first capacitive value and the second capacitive value is less than a threshold;

in response to determining that the difference between the first capacitive value and the second capacitive value is less than the threshold, adjusting the baseline value based on a function of the difference between the first capacitive value and the second capacitive value; and

determining force information about an input object in contact with a capacitive input device based at least in part on the plurality of capacitive frames.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising analyzing the first capacitive frame to identify the force event based on rates of change for a plurality of capacitive values acquired from a threshold number of the plurality of sensor electrodes.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising rejecting the second capacitive value if the second capacitive value is less than the baseline value.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

analyzing a third capacitive frame of the plurality of capacitive frames acquired during the force event; and

rejecting a decrease in a third capacitive value of the third capacitive frame.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein rejecting the decrease in the third capacitive value comprises increasing the third capacitive value to a maximum capacitive value acquired during the force event.