TOUCH CONTROLLER, ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND DISPLAY DEVICE INCLUDING TOUCH CONTROLLER, AND TOUCH SENSING METHOD

• US 20150103035A1
• Filed: 07/16/2014
• Published: 04/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: Bum-Soo Kim, Jin-Bong Kim, Jong-Oh Lee, Yoon Kyung Choi
• Inventors: CHOI, Yoon Kyung, KIM, Steve J., KIM, Jin-Bong, LEE, Jong-Oh, KIM, Bum-Soo
• Granted Patent: US 9,569,046 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04101 2.5D-digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface and also measures the distance of the input means within a short range in the Z direction, possibly with a separate measurement setup
• 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 2203/04108 Touchless 2D- digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface without distance measurement in the Z direction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041662 using alternate mutual and self-capacitive scanning
• 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 touch sensing device includes a touch screen panel including a touch sensor configured to generate a first electrical change corresponding to a touch and a touch controller configured to detect touch position data with respect to an area on the touch screen panel associated with the touch, based on the first electrical change or the touch sensor.

Claims

1. A touch sensing device comprising:

a touch screen panel including a touch sensor configured to generate a first electrical change corresponding to a touch; and

a touch controller configured to detect touch position data with respect to an area on the touch screen panel associated with the touch, based on the first electrical change of the touch sensor,

the touch controller including,

a first detection unit configured to detect the first electrical change in the touch sensor in a first mode as a plurality of pieces of candidate position data with respect to an area of at least two hoverings; and

a second detection unit for configured to detect a second electrical change in at least one area of the touch sensor corresponding to the plurality of pieces of candidate position data in a second mode that is different from the first mode, the second detection unit configured to select the touch position data with respect to the at least two hoverings based on the second electrical change.

2. The touch sensing device of claim 1, wherein the first mode is a touch sensing mode with a higher sensing sensitivity with respect to the at least two hoverings than the second mode, and the second mode is a touch sensing mode in which more touches may be sensed at a time than in the first mode.

3. The touch sensing device of claim 1, wherein the first mode is a single touch mode in which only a single touch instance is recognized at a time, and the second mode is a multi-touch mode in which multiple touch instances are recognized at a time

4. The touch sensing device of claim 1, wherein the touch sensor includes:

a sensing array comprising a plurality of sensing units, the at least one area of the touch sensor corresponds to at least one sensing unit.

5. The touch sensing device of claim 4, wherein the sensing array includes a plurality of rows and columns and the first detection unit sequentially applies a driving voltage to each row and each column of the sensing array in the first mode to receive a change in a voltage of each row and each column as the first electrical change.

6. The touch sensing device of claim 4, wherein the sensing array includes a plurality of rows and columns and the second detection unit sequentially applies a driving voltage to each row corresponding to the candidate position data of the sensing array in the second mode and receives a change in a voltage of each column corresponding to the candidate position data of the sensing array as the second electrical change.

7. The touch sensing device of claim 6, wherein the second detection unit is configured to compare voltages of columns, respectively, with respect to at least two pieces of candidate position data of the same row of the sensing array and select one of the at least two pieces of candidate position data of the same row as one of the touch position data.

8. The touch sensing device of claim 4, wherein the sensing array includes groups of rows and groups of columns corresponding to the candidate position data and the second detection unit sequentially applies a driving voltage to each group of rows corresponding to the candidate position data of the sensing array in the second mode and receives a change in a voltage of each group of columns corresponding to the candidate position data of the sensing array as the second electrical change.

9. The touch sensing device of claim 8, wherein the second detection unit applies the driving voltage to each of at least two rows included in a same group of rows.

10. The touch sensing device of claim 8, wherein the second detection unit is configured to obtain a change in a voltage of each of at least two columns included in a same group of columns during a period corresponding to the number of columns included in each group of columns, and the second detection circuit is configured to determine the touch position data based on the obtained change.

11. The touch sensing device of claim 8, wherein the second detection unit is configured to obtain a sum of voltages of at least two columns included in a same group of columns and determine the touch position data based on the obtained sum.

12. The touch sensing device of claim 8, wherein the second detection unit is configured to compare voltages of at least two pieces of candidate position data of a same group of rows of the sensing array and detect one of the at least two pieces of candidate position data of the same group of rows as one of the touch position data.

13. The touch sensing device of claim 1, wherein the touch controller is configured to detect the candidate position data as the touch position data if there is one piece of the candidate position data.

14. The touch sensing device of claim 1, wherein the touch controller is configured to detect an electrical change of the touch sensor corresponding to a contact touch.

15. The touch sensing device of claim 14, wherein the touch controller further comprises:

a control unit configured to set a period to process the contact touch, the period to process the contact touch being longer than a period to process one of the at least two hoverings.

16. An electronic device comprising:

the touch sensing device of claim 1.

17-25. -25. (canceled)

26. A touch sensing device comprising:

a touch panel including a plurality of sensing circuits, the plurality of sensing circuits configured to generate sensing signals in response to a driving voltage; and

a touch controller configured to apply the driving voltage to the sensing circuits in a first mode and apply the driving voltage to at most a portion of the sensing circuits in a second mode based on the sensing signals.

27. The touch sensing device of claim 26, wherein the touch controller includes,

a first detection circuit configured to generate candidate position data based on the sensing signals in the first mode, the candidate position data identifying the portion of the sensing circuits;

and

a second detection circuit configured to generate touch position data based on second signals from the portion of the sensing circuits in the second mode.

28. The touch sensing device of claim 27, wherein the touch controller is configured to supply the driving voltage sequentially to the portion of the sensing circuits.

29. The touch sensing device of claim 28, wherein the touch controller is configured to supply the driving voltage simultaneously to the plurality of sensing circuits.