Capacitance sensing and inductance sensing in different modes

• US 10,635,246 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2017
• Issued: 04/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (Infineon Technologies AG)
• Original Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (Infineon Technologies AG)
• Inventors: O'Lionaird, Cathal, Unseld, Markus, Walsh, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Kent W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bibbee, Chayce R
• Application Number:
  US15/637,090
• Publication Number:
  US 20180260049A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,034 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1692 the I/O peripheral being a secondary touch screen used as control interface, e.g. virtual buttons or sliders
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04103 Manufacturing, i.e. details related to manufacturing processes specially suited for touch sensitive devices
• 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 2203/04106 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 3/04164 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 3/0445 using two or more layers of sensing electrodes, e.g. using two layers of electrodes separated by a dielectric layer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0448 Details of the electrode shape, e.g. for enhancing the detection of touches, for generating specific electric field shapes, for enhancing display quality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/046 by electromagnetic means
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/9622 using a plurality of detectors, e.g. keyboard
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2017/9602 characterised by the type or shape of the sensing electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2017/9613 using two electrodes per touch switch
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/9607 Capacitive touch switches
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/96073 Amplitude comparison

Abstract

An apparatus for inductive sensing or capacitive sensing is described. The apparatus may include a signal generator to output on a first terminal a first signal in a first mode and a second signal in a second mode. The apparatus may include a charge measuring circuit to receive on a second terminal a third signal in the first mode and a fourth signal in the second mode. The third signal is representative of an inductance of a sense unit coupled between the first terminal and the second terminal. The fourth signal is representative of a capacitance of the sense unit.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a signal generator to output on a first terminal, a first signal in a first mode and on the first terminal, a second signal in a second mode; and

a charge measuring circuit to;

receive on a second terminal a third signal in the first mode responsive to the first signal being concurrently output at the first terminal by the signal generator, wherein the third signal is representative of an inductance of a sense unit coupled between the first terminal and the second terminal in the first mode;

receive on the second terminal a fourth signal in the second mode responsive to the second signal being concurrently output on the first terminal by the signal generator, wherein the fourth signal is representative of a capacitance of the sense unit coupled between the first terminal and the second terminal in the second mode; and

receive on a third terminal a fifth signal representative of a reference capacitance, wherein the third terminal is decoupled from the second terminal.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the charge measuring circuit comprises a capacitive sensing sigma-delta (CSD) unit configured to measure the inductance of the sense unit in the first mode and the capacitance of the sense unit in the second mode, and wherein signal generator is to generate the first signal, the second signal, or both the first and the second signal and a phase shifter is to shift a phase of the signal.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the charge measuring circuit is configured to:

operate at a first frequency for the first mode; and

operate at a second frequency for the second mode.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the first frequency is a resonant frequency of the charge measuring circuit and the second frequency is at a frequency other than the resonant frequency.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the signal generator, the charge measuring circuit, and the sense unit are located on a single integrated circuit substrate.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the charge measuring circuit is configured to detect an object proximate to the sense unit using at least one of the first signal or the second signal.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sense unit comprises a first electrode and a second electrode, wherein the capacitance is a mutual capacitance between the first electrode and the second electrode.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the charge measuring circuit is further configured to:

measure a charge of the first signal to determine the inductance of the sense unit; and

measure a charge of the second signal to determine the capacitance of the sense unit.

9. A device comprising:

a signal generator to generate a first signal, the signal generator to selectively output the first signal on a first terminal;

a phase shifter coupled to the signal generator, the phase shifter to shift a phase of the first signal by approximately 90 degrees to obtain a second signal, the phase shifter to selectively output on the first terminal; and

a charge measuring circuit to;

measure on a second terminal a third signal on a sense unit when the second signal is concurrently applied to the first terminal of the sense unit by the signal generator, wherein the third signal is representative of a capacitance of the sense unit;

measure on the second terminal a fourth signal on the sense unit when the second signal is concurrently applied to the first terminal of the sense unit by the signal generator, wherein the fourth signal is representative of an inductance of the sense unit coupled between the phase shifter and the charge measuring circuit, and

measure on a third terminal a fifth signal representative of a reference capacitance, wherein the third terminal is decoupled from the second terminal.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the charge measuring circuit is further to detect a presence of an object proximate to the sense unit in a first mode when a first digital value representative of an amplitude level of the third signal exceeds a threshold digital value representative of an amplitude level of the fifth signal.

11. The device of claim 10, further comprising a digital sequencer coupled to the charge measuring circuit, the digital sequencer is configured to control one or more switches at the charge measuring circuit to switch the charge measuring circuit between the first mode and a second mode.

12. The device of claim 9, wherein the signal generator and the phase shifter are part of a pulse width modulator (PWM).

13. The device of claim 9, wherein the capacitance of the sense unit indicates a proximity of a capacitive object proximate to the sense unit and wherein the inductance of the sense unit indicates a proximity of a ferrous metal object or a non-ferrous metal object proximate to the sense unit.

14. The device of claim 9, wherein to determine the inductance of the sense unit, the charge measuring circuit is to compare a first digital value representative of an amplitude of the fourth signal with a second digital value representative of an amplitude of the fifth signal.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein when a difference between the first digital value and the second digital value exceeds a threshold value, the difference indicates a ferrous metal object or a non-ferrous metal object is proximate to the sense unit.

16. The device of claim 9, wherein the charge measuring circuit is further configured to:

determine the capacitance of the sense unit using the second signal, when the first signal is applied to the sense unit by the signal generator; and

determine the inductance of the sense unit using the fourth signal, when the second signal is applied to the sense unit by the signal generator.

17. The device of claim 9, wherein the phase shifter shifts the phase of the second signal so that a peak of the second signal occurs approximately 90 degrees after a rising edge of a reference signal at the charge measuring circuit.

18. A method comprising:

exciting a sense unit with a first signal by a signal generator on a first terminal;

measuring, by a charge measuring circuit on a second terminal, a second signal on the sense unit when the first signal is concurrently applied to the first terminal of the sense unit, wherein the second signal is representative of an inductance of the sense unit;

exciting the sense unit with a third signal by the signal generator on the first terminal;

measuring, by the charge measuring circuit on the second terminal, a fourth signal on the sense unit when the third signal is concurrently applied to the first terminal of the sense unit by the signal generator, wherein the fourth signal is representative of a capacitance of the sense unit; and

measuring, by the charge measuring circuit on a third terminal, a fifth signal representative of a reference capacitance, wherein the third terminal is decoupled from the second terminal.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising detecting a presence of an object proximate to the sense unit based on the inductance or capacitance of the sense unit.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises:

generating the first signal and the third signal by the signal generator; and

shifting a phase of the first signal to obtain the third signal by a pulse width modulator (PWM).