DEVICES AND METHODS FOR CONTROLLING BOTH LED AND TOUCH SENSE ELEMENTS VIA A SINGLE IC PACKAGE PIN

• US 20110069013A1
• Filed: 09/23/2009
• Published: 03/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Original Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Inventors: Wong, Sze Main, Rabenstein, Arno
• Granted Patent: US 8,576,183 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• 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: G09G 2300/0426 Layout of electrodes and connections
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3208 organic, e.g. using organic light-emitting diodes [OLED]
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/96 Touch switches specially adapted for electronic time-pieces with no moving parts G04G21/08
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/96046 Key-pad combined with display, back-lit

Abstract

Devices and methods for minimizing a number of I/O pins needed to control LED and touch sense operations are described and disclosed herein. In an embodiment, a method comprises controlling at least one light emitting diode (LED) element via a single pin, and controlling at least one touch sense element via the single pin. In an embodiment, a touch-sensitive light emitting diode (LED) display device comprises at least one LED element, at least one touch sense element, and a controller integrated in an integrated circuit (IC) and coupled to the at least one LED element and the at least one touch sense element via a single pin. The controller is configured to communicate via the pin with the at least one LED element and the at least one touch sense element.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

controlling at least one light emitting diode (LED) element via a single pin; and

controlling at least one touch sense element via the single pin.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling the at least one LED element includes controlling during a first time period;

and

wherein controlling the at least one touch sense element includes controlling during a second time period distinct from the first time period.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

defining the first time period and the second time period based on at least one count value of a counter.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein defining includes defining based on at least one count value of a zero to N+1 counter, where N is a number of LED element arrangements.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein defining includes defining the first time period by a first N count values of the counter and defining the second time period by an N+1 count value of the counter.

6. A method comprising:

sequentially controlling at least one light emitting diode (LED) element of each of N LED element arrangements via a single pin; and

controlling at least one touch sense element via the single pin.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein sequentially controlling includes sequentially controlling during a first time period;

and

wherein controlling the at least one touch sense element includes controlling during a second time period distinct from the first time period.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

defining the first time period and the second time period based on at least one count value of a counter.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein defining includes defining based on a counter adapted to sequentially count for a range of zero to N+1.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein defining includes defining the first time period based on a first N count values of the counter, and defining the second time period based on an N+1 count value of the counter.

11. A controller comprising:

a pin coupled to at least one light-emitting diode (LED) element and at least one touch sense element,

wherein the controller is integrated in an integrated circuit (IC) and configured to communicate via the pin with the at least one LED element and the at least one touch sense element to control a touch-sensitive LED display device.

12. The controller of claim 11, wherein the controller is housed in an IC package.

13. The controller of claim 12, wherein the pin is a pin of the IC package.

14. The controller of claim 11, wherein the controller is operable to communicate with the at least one LED element during a first time period, and wherein the controller is operable to communicate with the at least one touch sense element during a second time period distinct from the first time period.

15. The controller of claim 14, further comprising at least one counter, wherein the controller is adapted to define the first time period and the second time period based on at least one count value of the counter.

16. The controller of claim 11, wherein the controller is adapted to operably couple the at least one touch sense element to a terminal of a power supply of the IC via at least one resistor during the second time period.

17. The controller of claim 11, further comprising:

N arrangements of LED elements; and

at least one N+1 bit counter operable to sequentially communicate with at least one LED element of each of the N arrangements of LED elements during a first N operation durations based on a first N count values of the N+1 bit counter, and communicate with the at least one touch sense element during at least one operations duration based on an N+1 count value of the N+1 bit counter.

18. A touch-sensitive light emitting diode (LED) display device, comprising:

at least one LED matrix including a plurality of LED elements arranged into N columns;

at least one first touch sense element;

a counter adapted to provide at least one indication of count values of a first count ranging from zero to N+1;

a controller integrated in an integrated circuit (IC) and coupled to the N columns of the LED matrix and the at least one first touch sense element via a first pin and configured to, during a first time period based on a first N count values of the first count, sequentially communicate via the pin with LED elements of each of the N columns and, during a second time period based on an N+1 count value of the first count, communicate via the pin with the at least one first touch sense element.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the controller is adapted to couple the at least one touch sense element to a terminal of a power supply of the IC via at least one resistor during the second time period.

20. The device of claim 18, wherein the counter is adapted to provide at least one indication of count values of a second count ranging from zero to N+1;

wherein the controller is operable to, during a third time period based on a first N count values of the second count, sequentially communicate via a second pin with LED elements of each of the N columns of the at least one LED matrix; and

during a fourth time period based on an N+1 count value of the second count, communicate via the second pin with the at least one second touch sense element.

21. The device of claim 18, wherein the touch sense element is a capacitive touch sense element.

22. A touch-sensitive display device, comprising:

display means for displaying at least one visual indication;

detection means for detecting at least one touch-based command; and

control means integrated in an integrated circuit (IC) and coupled to the display means and the detection means via a single pin of the IC package for communicating with the display means via the pin and for communicating with the detection means via the pin.

23. The device of claim 22, wherein the display means includes at least one light-emitting diode (LED) element.

24. The device of claim 22, wherein the display means is one of a light-emitting diode (LED) display or a liquid crystal display (LCD).

25. The device of claim 22, wherein the control means is configured to communicate with the display means during a first time period;

and

wherein the control means is operable for communicating with the detection means during a second time period distinct from the first time period.