Touch screen with relatively conductive grid

• US 20040135775A1
• Filed: 12/10/2002
• Published: 07/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elo Touch Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Tyco Electronics Corporation (TE Connectivity Ltd. (United Kingdom))
• Inventors: Ritchie, Rufus H, Hurst, G Samuel, Bouldin, Donald W, Warmack, Robert J
• Granted Patent: US 7,800,589 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/179
• 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 3/045 using resistive elements, e.g. a single continuous surface or two parallel surfaces put in contact

Abstract

A new touch screen design provides for corrections of non-uniformities, more accurate touch point measurement, and multiple simultaneous touch point measurements through the use of a grid of relatively conductive lines.

Claims

1. A touchscreen position sensor that comprising:

(a) a touch area having generally relatively low conductivity;

(b) a relatively high conducting border defining a perimeter on the touch area;

(c) a grid of intermediate conductivity defining cells of relatively low conductivity within the high conducting perimeter of the touch area

(d) a set of electrodes attached to the high conductivity perimeter and connected to an electrical power source;

(e) an electric circuit that measures the potential of a selected point on the touch area when brought in proximity thereto;

(f) a controller that sequentially switches electrical power from the power source to a first group of the electrodes thereby establishing a first electrical potential distribution on the touch area, and then to a second group of said electrodes thereby establishing a second electrical potential distribution on the touch area; and

(g) a controller that processes sets of potential measurements of said first and second electrical potential distributions from the electric circuit to determine the location of the selected point.

2. The sensor of claim 1 wherein the conductivity of the cells and the touch area are not uniform.

3. The sensor of claim 1 wherein the touch area is generally rectangular and an electrode is located near each corner of said area.

4. The sensor of claim 1 wherein the controller may select subsets of the first group of electrodes to poll a subset of the cells.

5. The sensor of claim 1 wherein polling of subsets of cells permits the determination of more than one pint of simultaneous contact with the touch area.

6. The sensor of claim 1 wherein the line width of the relatively high conducting border is greater than and the line width of the grid of intermediate conductivity defining cells.

7. The sensor of claim 1 wherein the grid lines are transparent to light.

8. The sensor of claim 1 wherein the relatively high conductive border has a conductivity at least about ten times greater than the conductivity of the relatively lower conductive touch area and the grid of intermediate conductive material has a conductivity at least about four times greater than the relatively low conductivity touch area.

13. The sensor of claim 1 or of clam 11 wherein the electrically conductive area is generally rectangular.

29. The method of claim 4 wherein the controller sequentially switches electrical power from the power source to a first subset of the electrodes thereby establishing a first subset electrical potential subset distributor a first subset of cells as the touch area, and thereto a second subset of said electrodes thereby establishing a second subset of cells on the touch area, the controller processing the sets of potential measurements of said first and second subset electrical potential distributions to more precisely determine the location of the selected point within the cells of the intersection of the first and second subsets of cells.

30. The method of claim 4 wherein the locations of multiple points of simultaneous contact are determined by polling separate subsets of cells, each subset of cells being selected to contain only one point of contact.

9. A touchscreen position sensor comprising:

(a) a touch area having generally relatively low conductivity;

(b) a relatively high conducting border defining a perimeter on the touch area;

(c) a grid of intermediate conductivity defining cells of relatively low conductivity within the high conducting perimeter of the touch area

(d) a set of electrodes attached to the high conductivity perimeter and connected to an electrical power source;

(e) an electric circuit that measures the current received by an electrode from a selected point on the conductive area when the point is touched;

(f) a controller that processes sets of current measurements from the electrodes to determine the location of the selected point.

10. The sensor of claim 9 wherein the conductivity of the electrically conductive area is not uniform.

11. The sensor of claim 9 wherein the line width of the high conducting material and the line width of the intermediate conducting material is not uniform.

12. The sensor of claim 9 wherein the relatively high conductive border has a conductivity at least about ten times greater than the conductivity of the relatively lower conductive touch area and the grid of intermediate conductive material has a conductivity at least about four times greater than the relatively low conductivity touch area.

14. A method of determining the location of a selected point on a sensor apparatus having a relatively highly conductive border surrounding an area of relatively low conductivity featuring a grid having a conductivity intermediate the conductivity of the border and low conductivity area, defining cells on the low conductivity area, and an associated set of electrodes through which electrical current may be applied to establish electric potential distribution on the conductive area, an electrical circuit that measures the potential of points on the conductive area when brought in proximity thereto and a controller, comprising the steps of:

(a) introducing an electrical current to the border area through a first group of at least one electrode selected from said associated set of electrodes, and thereby establishing a first electric potential distribution within the border;

(b) bringing the electrical circuit in proximity with a selected point within the border and thereby measuring a first potential reading of said point;

(c) storing said first potential reading;

(d) introducing an electrical current of the border area through a second group of at least one electrode selected from said associated set of electrodes and wherein not all of said first and second groups of electrodes are identical, and thereby establishing a second electric potential distribution within the border;

(e) measuring the second potential reading of the selected point with the electrical circuit;

(f) processing said first and second potential readings to determine the location of the selected point.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the first and second electric potential distributions are monotonic.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the first electric potential distribution defines a first set of potential lines within the border and the second electric potential distribution defines a second set of potential lines within the border, and said first and second sets of potential lines substantially intersect.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein said first and second readings are uniquely mapped into spatial coordinates for the selected point.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein an algorithm is implemented in software run on a controller to interpolate the first and second readings.

19. A touch sensor having a touch area of generally low conductivity defined by a border of relatively high conductivity wherein the touch area is divided into cells by lines of intermediate conductivity.

20. The touch sensor of claim 19 wherein the lines of intermediate conductivity are at least about four times more conductive than the low conducting touch area.

21. The touch sensor of claim 19 wherein the border is at least about ten times as conductive as the low conductivity touch area.

22. The touch sensor of claim 19 wherein the border is about 500 times the conductivity of the low conductivity touch area and about 50 times the conductivity of the lines of intermediate conductivity.

23. The touch sensor of claim 19 wherein the conductivity of the border is at least about five times that of the lines of intermediate conductivity

24. The touch sensor of claim 19 wherein the lines are substantially transparent to light.

25. The touch sensor of claim 19 wherein the width of the lines is less than the width of the border.

26. The touch sensor of claims 19-25 wherein the conductivity of the low conductivity touch area is not uniform.

27. The touch sensor of claims 19-26 wherein the conductivity of the low conductivity touch area within a single cell is substantially uniform.

28. The touch sensor of claim 26 wherein the lines of intermediate conductivity are sufficiently close together that the low conductivity touch area within a single cell is substantially uniform.