DISPLAY APPARATUS WITH TOUCH DETECTION FUNCTIONS, DRIVING METHOD, AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE

• US 20110267293A1
• Filed: 04/15/2011
• Published: 11/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Japan Display Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kida, Yoshitoshi, Noguchi, Koji
• Granted Patent: US 9,804,711 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13338 Input devices, e.g. touch panels
• 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 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes

Abstract

A display apparatus with a substrate having a long side and a short side, a plurality of driving electrodes arranged on the substrate parallel to the long side of the substrate, a plurality of touch detection electrodes arranged on the substrate parallel to the short side of the substrate, a control unit electrically coupled to each of the plurality of driving electrodes and which sequentially drives the plurality of driving electrodes, and a detection unit electrically coupled to each of the touch detection electrodes.

Claims

1. A display apparatus comprising:

a substrate having a long side and a short side;

a plurality of driving electrodes arranged on the substrate parallel to the long side of the substrate;

a plurality of touch detection electrodes arranged on the substrate parallel to the short side of the substrate; and

a control unit electrically coupled to each of the plurality of driving electrodes and which sequentially drives the plurality of driving electrodes;

a detection unit electrically coupled to each of the touch detection electrodes.

2. The display apparatus of claim 1 wherein the control unit sequentially drives each of the plurality of driving electrodes in a display mode.

3. The display apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

each touch detection electrode has a corresponding driving electrode, and

each of the touch detection electrodes transmits a touch detection signal to the touch detection unit when the control unit drives the corresponding driving electrode.

4. The display apparatus of claim 3, wherein the control unit sequentially drives the plurality of driving electrodes with pulsed touch driving signals during the touch detection period.

5. The display apparatus of claim 1 including

a plurality of pixels;

a plurality of signal electrodes, each signal electrode coupled to at least one pixel and disposed in parallel to a corresponding driving electrode.

6. The display apparatus of claim 5 wherein:

the control unit transmits a pixel signal to each of the plurality of signal electrodes in a display mode, and

the plurality of pixels display an image during the display mode.

7. The display apparatus of claim 5 wherein:

each driving electrode has a corresponding touch detection electrode,

during a touch detection period, the control unit transmits a touch driving signal to one of the signal electrodes after putting the corresponding driving electrode into a floating state, thereby propagating the touch driving signal to the driving electrode via capacitive coupling between the signal electrode and the driving electrode, and

the touch detection electrode receives the touch driving signal from the corresponding driving electrode and outputs a touch detection signal in response to the touch driving signal.

8. The display apparatus of claim 1 wherein the detection unit includes an analog low pass filter, an analog to digital converter, a signal processor, a coordinate extractor, and a detection timing controller.

9. The display apparatus of claim 1 wherein the direction in which the driving electrodes are sequentially scanned during a display mode differs from the direction in which the driving electrodes are sequentially scanned in a touch detection mode.

10. The display apparatus of claim 5 wherein intersecting electrode patterns between the driving electrodes and the touch detection electrodes form a capacitor at each intersection site.

11. The display apparatus of claim 5 wherein the control unit sequentially scans each of the plurality of driving units along the long side of the display device during a display mode and the control unit sequentially scans each of the plurality of driving units along the short side of the display device during a touch detection mode.

12. The display apparatus of claim 5 wherein each of the pixels includes a display element between a signal line and one of the driving electrodes,

13. The display apparatus of claim 12 wherein the display elements are liquid crystal display elements having a liquid crystal layer.

14. A method of detecting an object in contact with a display apparatus, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a display apparatus with a substrate having a long side and a short side, the substrate having a plurality of driving electrodes arranged on the substrate parallel to the long side of the substrate, the substrate also having a plurality of touch detection electrodes arranged on the substrate parallel to the short side of the substrate.

15. The method if claim 14 wherein the control unit sequentially drives each of the plurality of driving electrodes in a display mode.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein

each touch detection electrode has a corresponding driving electrode, and

each of the touch detection electrodes transmits a touch detection signal to the touch detection unit when the control unit drives the corresponding driving electrode.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the control unit sequentially drives the plurality of driving electrodes with pulsed touch driving signals during the touch detection period.

18. The method of claim 14 including the step of

electrically coupling each of a plurality of signal electrodes to at least one of a plurality of pixels,

wherein the signal electrodes are disposed in parallel to a corresponding driving electrode.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein

the control unit transmits a pixel signal to each of the plurality of signal electrodes in a display mode, and

the plurality of pixels display an image during the display mode.

20. The method of claim 18 including the steps of

transmitting a touch driving signal to one of the signal electrodes after putting a driving electrode that corresponds to a touch detection electrode into a floating state, thereby propagating the touch driving signal to the driving electrode via capacitive coupling between the signal electrode and the driving electrode, and

receiving the touch driving signal from the corresponding driving electrode and outputting a touch detection signal in response to the touch driving signal.

21. The method of claim 14 wherein the detection unit includes an analog low pass filter, an analog to digital converter, a signal processor, a coordinate extractor, and a detection timing controller.

22. The method of claim 14 wherein the direction in which the driving electrodes are sequentially scanned during a display mode differs from the direction in which the driving electrodes are sequentially scanned in a touch detection mode.

23. The method of claim 14 wherein intersecting electrode patterns between the driving electrodes and the touch detection electrodes form a capacitor at each intersection site.

24. The method of claim 18 wherein the control unit sequentially scans each of the plurality of driving units along the long side of the display device during a display mode and the control unit sequentially scans each of the plurality of driving units along the short side of the display device during a touch detection mode.

25. The method of claim 18 wherein:

each of the pixels includes a display element between a signal line and one of the driving electrodes.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein he display elements are liquid crystal display elements having a liquid crystal layer.

27. A mobile device comprising:

a display apparatus including a substrate having a short side and a long side;

a plurality of driving electrodes arranged parallel to the long side of the substrate;

a plurality of touch detection electrodes arranged parallel to the short side of the substrate;

a control unit electrically coupled to each of the plurality of driving electrodes and which sequentially drives the plurality of driving electrodes; and

a detection unit electrically coupled to each of the plurality of touch detection electrodes.