TOUCH SENSING APPARATUS AND OPERATING METHOD THEREOF

• US 20130113722A1
• Filed: 01/10/2012
• Published: 05/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Inventors: PARK, Tah Joon, KWON, Yong Il, HONG, Gyung Hee, LEE, Sang Ho
• Granted Patent: US 8,878,795 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3231 Monitoring the presence, absence or movement of users
• 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 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/00 Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators image data processing or generation, in general G06T
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

There are provided a touch sensing apparatus and an operating method thereof. The touch sensing apparatus includes: a panel unit including a plurality of first electrodes and a plurality of second electrodes, the first and second electrodes intersecting each other; a circuit unit applying first driving signals to the first electrodes and detecting sensed signals from the second electrodes; and a control unit controlling an operation of the circuit unit, wherein the control unit controls the circuit unit to simultaneously apply the first driving signals to the first electrodes during a first duration corresponding to a sleep mode and detect first sensed signals from the second electrodes, and determines whether a valid touch has occurred during the first duration to determine whether to cancel the sleep mode.

Claims

1. A touch sensing apparatus, comprising:

a panel unit including a plurality of first electrodes and a plurality of second electrodes, the first and second electrodes intersecting each other;

a circuit unit applying first driving signals to the plurality of first electrodes and detecting sensed signals from the plurality of second electrodes; and

a control unit controlling an operation of the circuit unit,

wherein the control unit controls the circuit unit to simultaneously apply the first driving signals to the plurality of first electrodes during a first duration corresponding to a sleep mode and detect first sensed signals from the plurality of second electrodes, and determines whether a valid touch has occurred during the first duration to determine whether to cancel the sleep mode.

2. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 1, wherein, when it is determined that the valid touch has occurred during the first duration, the control unit terminates the first duration to cancel the sleep mode.

3. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 2, wherein the control unit initiates a second duration corresponding to an active mode after cancelling the sleep mode by terminating the first duration, and controls the circuit unit to sequentially apply second driving signals to the plurality of first electrodes during the second duration and detect second sensed signals from the plurality of second electrodes.

4. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 3, wherein the control unit determines a touch from the second sensed signals.

5. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the circuit unit to individually apply second driving signals to the plurality of respective first electrodes, during a second duration corresponding to an active mode.

6. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 4, wherein the control unit sets a first reference value for determining whether a valid touch has occurred during the first duration corresponding to the sleep mode and a second reference value for determining whether a valid touch has occurred during the second duration corresponding to the active mode to be different from each other.

7. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 5, wherein the control unit sets the first reference value and the second reference value as a voltage level or a time.

8. An operating method of a touch sensing apparatus, comprising:

simultaneously applying first driving signals to a plurality of first electrodes during a first duration;

simultaneously detecting first sensed signals from a plurality of second electrodes intersecting the plurality of first electrodes;

determining whether a valid touch has occurred based on the first sensed signals; and

determining whether to terminate the first duration according to valid touch occurrence.

9. The operating method of claim 8, further comprising :

terminating the first duration and initiating a second duration when the valid touch has occurred, and sequentially applying second driving signals to the plurality of first electrodes; and

determining a touch by detecting second sensed signals from the plurality of second electrodes.

10. The operating method of claim 9, wherein the first duration corresponds to a sleep mode of the touch sensing apparatus, and

the second duration corresponds to an active mode of the touch sensing apparatus.

11. The operating method of claim 9, wherein, in the determining of the touch, at least one of a position, number, and movement of the touch is determined based on the second sensed signals.

12. The operating method of claim 9, wherein the determining of the touch includes determining whether the valid touch has occurred by comparing the second sensed signals with predetermined second reference values.

13. The operating method of claim 8, further comprising:

terminating the first duration and initiating a third duration having a predetermined time range when it is determined that the valid touch has not occurred; and

simultaneously applying the first driving signals to the plurality of first electrodes, by initiating the first duration when the third duration is terminated.

14. The operating method of claim 8, wherein, in the determining of the valid touch occurrence, it is determined whether the valid touch has occurred by comparing the first sensed signals with predetermined first reference values.