TOUCH PANEL, METHOD FOR DRIVING TOUCH PANEL, AND DISPLAY APPARATUS HAVING TOUCH PANEL

• US 20110261020A1
• Filed: 11/05/2010
• Published: 10/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation), LG Display Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation), LG Display Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Volodkina, Svetlana, Kim, Sungchul, Song, Munbong, Pushchin, Victor, Lee, Youngjoon, Ahn, Byeongkil, Yu, Byungchun, Moon, Seonghak, Song, Byungsoo
• Granted Patent: US 9,158,415 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/175
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/042 by opto-electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0421 by interrupting or reflecting a light beam, e.g. optical touch-screen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0428 by sensing at the edges of the touch surface the interruption of optical paths, e.g. an illumination plane, parallel to the touch surface which may be virtual sensing beam interruptions in a planar beam grid of an optical touch-screen G06F3/0421

Abstract

A touch panel includes: a substrate; a plurality of light emitting elements; and a plurality of light receiving elements, wherein the number of light receiving elements may be greater than the number of light emitting elements.

Claims

1. A touch panel comprising:

a substrate;

a plurality of light emitting elements disposed on the substrate; and

a plurality of light receiving elements disposed on the substrate;

wherein the number of light receiving elements is greater than the number of light emitting elements.

2. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein at least one light receiving element is disposed between two adjacent light emitting elements.

3. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein at least two light receiving elements are continuously disposed.

4. The touch panel of claim 3, wherein the space between two continuously disposed light receiving elements is greater than the shortest space between a certain light emitting element and the light receiving element.

5. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the space between two adjacent light receiving elements is smaller than the space between two adjacent light emitting elements.

6. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein an extending line perpendicular to the substrate among the plurality of light emitting elements corresponds to an area between two adjacent light receiving elements.

7. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the plurality of light emitting elements comprise a first light emitting element disposed at a first area of the substrate and a second light emitting element disposed at a second area that faces the first area of the substrate, and the first and second light emitting elements overlap in a direction perpendicular to the first and second areas.

8. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein a plurality of light emitting elements and a plurality of light receiving elements are disposed at a first area of the substrate and a second area that faces the first area of the substrate, respectively, and the light receiving element is disposed at both ends of the first area and both ends of the second area.

9. The touch panel of claim 8, wherein the light emitting element and the light receiving element are alternately disposed at the first and second area.

10. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein a plurality of light emitting elements and a plurality of light receiving elements are disposed at a first area and a third area side adjacent to the first area, and the light receiving element is disposed at the first and the third area at the boundary of the first and third area.

11. A touch panel comprising:

a substrate;

a plurality of light emitting elements disposed on the substrate; and

a plurality of light receiving elements disposed on the substrate;

wherein the space between an end of the substrate and the light receiving element and the space between the end of the substrate and the light emitting element are different.

12. The touch panel of claim 11, wherein the shortest space between the end of the substrate and the light receiving element is smaller than the shortest space between the end of the substrate and the light emitting element.

13. A touch panel comprising:

a substrate;

a plurality of light emitting elements disposed on the substrate; and

a plurality of light receiving elements disposed on the substrate;

wherein the plurality of light receiving elements disposed abreast at a first area of the substrate comprises first and second light receiving elements, and when a first light emitting element, among the plurality of light emitting elements, emits light, the first light receiving element is turned on and the second light receiving element is turned off.

14. The touch panel of claim 13, wherein the space between the first light emitting element and the first light receiving element is smaller than the space between the first light emitting element and the second light receiving element.

15. A touch panel comprising:

a substrate;

a plurality of light emitting elements disposed on the substrate; and

a plurality of light receiving elements disposed on the substrate;

wherein the plurality of light emitting elements comprises first and second light emitting elements, and the number of light receiving element turned on correspondingly according to the first light emitting element is different from the number of light receiving elements turned on correspondingly according to the second light emitting element.

16. The touch panel of claim 15, wherein the first and second light emitting elements are disposed abreast.

17. The touch panel of claim 15, wherein the first light emitting element is disposed at a longer side of the substrate, the second light emitting element is disposed at a shorter side of the substrate, and the number of light receiving element turned on correspondingly according to the first light emitting element is larger than the number of light receiving elements turned on correspondingly according to the second light emitting element.

18. A display device a touch panel, the device comprising:

a display panel;

a plurality of light emitting elements disposed at an edge of the display panel;

a plurality of light receiving elements disposed at an edge of the display panel,

wherein the number of light receiving elements is larger than that of the light emitting elements.

22. The display device of claim 18, wherein the light emitting elements and the light receiving elements are disposed at an outer edge of an active area of the display panel on which an image is displayed.

19. A display device including a touch panel, the device comprising:

a display panel;

a plurality of light emitting elements disposed at an edge of the display panel; and

a plurality of light receiving elements disposed at an edge of the display panel,

wherein the space between an end of the display panel and the light receiving element and the space between the end of the substrate and the light emitting element are different.

20. A display device including a touch panel, the device comprising:

a display panel;

a plurality of light emitting elements disposed at an edge of the display panel;

a plurality of light receiving elements disposed at an edge of the display panel,

wherein a plurality of light receiving elements disposed abreast at a first area of the display panel comprise first and second light receiving elements, and when a first light emitting element, among the plurality of light emitting elements, emits light, the first light receiving element is turned on and the second light receiving element is turned off.

21. A display device including a touch panel, the device comprising:

a display panel;

a plurality of light emitting elements disposed at an edge of the display panel;

a plurality of light receiving elements disposed at an edge of the display panel,

wherein the plurality of light emitting elements comprise first and second light emitting elements, and the number of light receiving elements turned on correspondingly according to the first light emitting element is different from the number of light receiving elements turned on correspondingly according to the second light emitting element.

23. A method for driving a touch panel including a plurality of light emitting elements and a plurality of light receiving elements, the method comprising:

a radiation operation of sequentially turning on the plurality of light emitting elements to radiate beams;

a light receiving operation of turning on the plurality of light receiving elements to receive the beams radiated by the light emitting elements; and

a position calculation operation of grouping a plurality of detection data according to the position of the light emitting elements and light reception data of the plurality of light receiving elements turned on correspondingly according to each of the light emitting elements to calculate a touched position,

wherein the position calculation operation comprises;

a mapping operation of mapping the plurality of detection data to orthogonal coordinates system;

a first central point acquiring operation of primarily converting the mapped detection data to associate the plurality of mapped detection data corresponding to the same position and then acquiring data regarding a central point of the mapped detection data;

a reverse conversion operation of reversely converting the data regarding the central point to acquire converted detection data; and

a operation of calculating a cross point of the converted detection data to acquire a touched position.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein, in the light receiving operation, when each of the light emitting elements are turned on, the plurality of light receiving elements are turned on and the other remaining light receiving elements are turned off.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the detection data comprises data regarding the position of the light emitting element which is turn on, and the position of alight receiving element, which has failed to detect a beam of the light emitting element, among the plurality of light receiving elements turned on correspondingly according to the light emitting element which is turned on.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the first central point acquiring operation further comprises:

an operation of acquiring the number of touches through the central point.

27. A method for driving a touch panel including a plurality of light emitting elements and a plurality of light receiving elements, the method comprising:

a radiation operation of sequentially turning on the plurality of light emitting elements to radiate beams;

a light receiving operation of turning on the plurality of light receiving elements to receive the beams radiated by the light emitting elements;

a operation of converting a plurality of detection data according to the position of the light emitting elements and a light reception data of the plurality of light receiving elements turned on correspondingly according to each of the light emitting elements to acquire a central point of each of the detection data; and

a position calculation operation of reversely converting data regarding the central point to calculate a touched position.

28. A touch panel comprising:

a substrate formed to substantially have a quadrangular shape, having first and second areas which face each other and third and fourth areas which face each other, the third area being positioned to be adjacent to the first and second areas and the fourth area being positioned to be adjacent to the first and second areas at a position at which it faces the third area;

a plurality of light emitting elements disposed at the first area of the substrate and emitting light in the form of a radiation shape having a certain angle; and

a plurality of light receiving elements disposed at the second area of the substrate,

wherein when a first light emitting element, among the plurality of light emitting elements, emits light, at least one light receiving element positioned within a light radiation coverage of the first light emitting element is turned on and the light receiving element positioned to be out of the light radiation coverage of the first light emitting element is turned off.

29. The touch panel of claim 28, wherein at least three light receiving elements positioned within the light radiation coverage of the first light emitting element are turned on.

30. The touch panel of claim 28, wherein the distance between the light receiving element turned on correspondingly according to the light emission of the first light emitting element and the first light emitting element is shorter than the distance between the light receiving element in an OFF state correspondingly according to the light emission of the first light emitting element and the first light emitting element.

31. The touch panel of claim 30, wherein the light receiving element tuned on correspondingly according to a light emission of the first light emitting element is positioned at the shortest distance from the first light emitting element.

32. The touch panel of claim 28, wherein when a light emitting element positioned at a central portion of the first area is a central light emitting element and a light emitting element positioned at the end of the first area is an outer light emitting element, the number of light receiving elements turned on correspondingly according to a light emission of the central light emitting element is different from the number of light receiving elements turned on correspondingly according to a light emission of the outer light emitting element.

33. The touch panel of claim 32, wherein the number of light receiving elements turned on correspondingly according to a light emission of the outer light emitting element is greater than the number of light receiving elements turned on correspondingly according to a light emission of the central light emitting element.

34. The touch panel of claim 32, wherein the radiation angle of the outer light emitting element is greater than that of the central light emitting element.