Multi-chip touch architecture for scalability

• US 10,488,992 B2
• Filed: 01/11/2016
• Issued: 11/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Shahparnia, Shahrooz, Pant, Vivek, Krah, Christoph H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Abdulselam, Abbas I
• Application Number:
  US14/993,017
• Publication Number:
  US 20160266679A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,415 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• 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 3/04184 Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means

Abstract

A multi-chip touch architecture for scalability can include one or more touch controller application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and one or more switching circuits coupled between the one or more touch controller ASICs and the touch sensor panel. The number of touch controller ASICs and switching circuits can be scaled based on the size of the touch sensor panel. The touch controller ASICs can include an interface for data transfer between the touch controller ASICs to allow for parallel processing of an image of touch by more than one touch controller ASIC. The touch controller ASIC can also include a memory directly accessible by more than one processing circuit (e.g., hardware accelerators), and circuitry to dynamically adjust the coupling between portions (e.g., banks) of memory and inputs of the one or more processing circuits to minimize data transfer and improve processing speeds.

Claims

1. An integrated circuit apparatus comprising:

a touch sensor panel;

a plurality of touch controller integrated circuits, one or more of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits comprising;

a plurality of receive channels configured to receive signals from sensing operations;

a memory configured to store data based on the signals from the plurality of receive channels;

a plurality of processing circuits, wherein at least two of the plurality of processing circuits are configured to access the memory using Direct Memory Access, and wherein the plurality of processing circuits includes one or more hardware accelerators configured to process data accessed from the memory; and

switching circuitry coupled between the memory and at least one of the plurality of processing circuits, wherein the switching circuitry is configured to dynamically couple one or more banks of the memory to one or more inputs or one or more outputs of the one or more of the plurality of processing circuits; and

a plurality of switching circuits coupled between the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits and the touch sensor panel.

2. The integrated circuit apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more hardware accelerators comprises a plurality of hardware accelerators, wherein at least one of the plurality of processing circuits of the one or more of the plurality of touch controller circuits is configured to sequence the processing of the data accessed from the memory by the plurality of hardware accelerators, wherein the one or more of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits further comprise:

switching circuitry coupled between the memory and the plurality of hardware accelerators, the switching circuitry is configured to dynamically couple one or more banks of the memory to one or more inputs or one or more outputs of the plurality of hardware accelerators according the sequencing of the processing.

3. The integrated circuit apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory includes a plurality of access ports for simultaneous direct access of the memory by one or more of the plurality of processing circuits.

4. The integrated circuit apparatus of claim 1, wherein sequencing the processing of the data accessed from the memory of the one or more of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits includes distributing processing of one or more algorithms between the one or more of the plurality of processing circuits.

5. The integrated circuit apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more hardware accelerators include a first hardware accelerator to perform one or more of scaling the data accessed from the memory, subtracting a baseline amount from the data accessed from the memory, and adding or subtracting an offset to the data accessed from the memory.

6. The integrated circuit apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more hardware accelerators include a first hardware accelerator to generate a mapping of touch node locations with signals above a first threshold and below a second threshold.

7. The integrated circuit apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more hardware accelerators include a first hardware accelerator to perform an image diffusion algorithm.

8. The integrated circuit apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more hardware accelerators include a first hardware accelerator configured to convert data represented by a magnitude component and a phase component into data represented by an in-phase component and a quadrature component, or to convert data represented by the in-phase component and the quadrature component into data represented by the magnitude component and the phase component.

9. The integrated circuit apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits further comprise:

an interface with one or more ports for transmitting first touch signals to, or receiving second touch signals from, another of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits.

10. The integrated circuit apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one processing circuit of the plurality of processing circuits in each of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits is configured to generate an image of touch from execution of one or more scans of the touch sensor panel based on one or more parameters associated with the signals or the data, the parameters including one or more of a chip identifier, a scan step, a scan type and a receive channel number.

11. The integrated circuit apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processing circuit of the plurality of processing circuits is configured to map information associated with the signals or the data stored in the memory to physical touch node locations of the touch sensor panel in order to generate the image of touch.

12. The integrated circuit apparatus of claim 1, wherein each touch controller integrated circuit is coupled to two or more of the plurality of switching circuits.

13. The integrated circuit apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits performs a plurality of scan steps and the data stored in the memory based on the received signals are transferred to each of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits such that each touch controller stores in its respective memory the data from the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits.

14. A method for performing sensing scans and for processing data from the sensing scans for a touch-sensitive device including a plurality of touch controller integrated circuits and a plurality of switching circuits coupled between the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits and a touch sensor panel, one or more of the plurality of integrated circuits comprising a plurality of sense channels, a storage device, and a plurality of processing circuits, the method comprising:

decoding synchronization signals;

configuring the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits for performing the sensing scans based on the decoded synchronization signals;

performing one or more scan steps at each of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits, wherein performing the one or more scan steps comprises;

receiving signals at the plurality of sense channels of each of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits from the one or more steps of the sensing scans; and

storing data based on the signals received at the plurality of sense channels in the storage device of each of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits;

transferring the data based on signals received in response to the one or more scanning steps between the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits; and

processing the data at the one or more of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits to generate an image of touch from the execution of one or more scans of the touch sensor panel, wherein processing the data comprises simultaneously processing the data in the storage device of the one or more of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits by the plurality of processing circuits, wherein;

the plurality of processing circuits includes one or more hardware accelerators, and

at least two of the plurality of processing circuits simultaneously access the storage device.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

switching a coupling between data storage locations and one or more inputs or one or more outputs of at least one of the plurality of processing circuits.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more hardware accelerators perform operations including one or more of scaling the data, subtracting a baseline amount from the data, adding or subtracting an offset to the data, generating a mapping of touch node locations with signals above a first threshold or below a second threshold, diffusing an image, and converting between a magnitude and phase representation and an in-phase component and quadrature component representation.

17. The method of claim 14,

wherein generating the image of touch is based on parameters associated with the data from each of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits, the parameters including a circuit identifier, a scan step, a scan type and a receive channel number.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

generating signals for reprogramming the plurality of switching circuits based on the decoded synchronization signals and a scan plan.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

generating signals for reprogramming or adjusting a coupling of one or more of the plurality of switching circuits based on the decoded synchronization signals and output from processing touch data of one or more scans.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein transferring the data based on signals received in response to the one or more scanning steps comprises:

transferring a first portion of the data between a first touch controller integrated circuit and a second touch controller integrated circuit; and

transferring a second portion of the data between the first touch controller integrated circuit and the second touch controller integrated circuit, and simultaneously transferring the first portion of the data from the first scanning step between the second touch controller integrated circuit and a third touch controller integrated circuit.

21. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions, which when executed by a processor, perform a method for performing sensing scans and for processing data from the sensing scans for a touch-sensitive device including a plurality of touch controller integrated circuits and a plurality of switching circuits coupled between the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits and a touch sensor panel, one or more of the plurality of integrated circuits comprising a plurality of sense channels, a storage device, and a plurality of processing circuits, the method comprising:

decoding synchronization signals;

configuring the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits for performing the sensing scans based on the decoded synchronization signals;

performing one or more scan steps at each of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits, wherein performing the one or more scan steps comprises;

receiving signals at the plurality of sense channels of each of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits from the one or more steps of the sensing scans; and

storing data based on the signals received at the plurality of sense channels in the storage device of each of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits;

transferring the data based on signals received in response to the one or more scanning steps between the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits; and

processing the data at the one or more of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits to generate an image of touch from the execution of one or more scans of the touch sensor panel, wherein processing the data comprises simultaneously processing the data in the storage device of the one or more of the plurality of touch controller integrated circuits by the plurality of processing circuits, wherein;

the plurality of processing circuits includes one or more hardware accelerators, and

at least two of the plurality of processing circuits simultaneously access the storage device.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, further comprising:

switching a coupling between data storage locations and one or more inputs or one or more outputs of at least one of the plurality of processing circuits.

23. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21,

wherein generating the image of touch is based on parameters associated with the first data or the second data, the parameters including a circuit identifier, a scan step, a scan type and a receive channel number.

24. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the one or more hardware accelerators perform operations including one or more of scaling the data, subtracting a baseline amount from the data, adding or subtracting an offset to the data, generating a mapping of touch node locations with signals above a first threshold or below a second threshold, diffusing an image, and converting between a magnitude and phase representation and an in-phase component and quadrature component representation.