TOUCH PANEL CONTROLLER, TOUCH PANEL DEVICE, AND ELECTRONIC INFORMATION DEVICE

• US 20150363021A1
• Filed: 06/18/2013
• Published: 12/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: HAMAGUCHI, Mutsumi, NAKAUE, Eiji, SAKURAI, Shohji, AMANO, Shinji, SHIMOMURA, Narakazu
• Granted Patent: US 9,606,684 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• 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 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/04 Structural and physical details of display devices
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/003 Details of a display terminal, the details relating to the control arrangement of the display terminal and to the interfaces thereto specific for a CRT G09G1/165; for a flat panel G09G3/2092
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/18 Timing circuits for raster scan displays specially adapted for television H04N ; synchronisation between the display unit and other display units, videodisc player G09G5/12

Abstract

The present invention provides a touch panel controller for controlling even a large touch panel with little EMI. The touch panel controller of the present invention includes a plurality of driving circuits (DC1 through DCm) for driving respective drive lines (DL1 through DLm) of a capacitive touch panel unit 2 by supplying driving signals (Ds) to the respective drive lines (DL1 through DLm), and a rise/fall time of each of the driving signals (Ds) is variable.

Claims

1. A touch panel controller comprising:

a plurality of driving circuits that drive respective drive lines of a capacitive touch panel by supplying driving signals to the respective drive lines,

a rise/fall time of each of the driving signals being variable;

said controller further comprising;

a control section that controls the rise/fall time,

each of the plurality of driving circuits including a plurality of inverter circuits, and

the control section selectively operating the plurality of inverter circuits.

6. The touch panel controller as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

the control section controls the rise/fall time based on a control signal that has been supplied from outside of said touch panel controller.

7. The touch panel controller as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

a receiving section that receives a sensing signal supplied via a sense line of the capacitive touch panel and thus detects electrostatic capacitance of the capacitive touch panel,

the control section controlling the rise/fall time based on an output signal supplied from the receiving section.

8. A touch panel device, comprising:

a capacitive touch panel; and

a touch panel controller that includes a plurality of driving circuits for driving respective drive lines of the capacitive touch panel by supplying driving signals to the respective drive lines,

the touch panel controller being a touch panel controller recited in claim 1.

9. An electronic information device, comprising:

a display for displaying an image; and

a touch panel device,

the touch panel device including;

a capacitive touch panel which is provided on the display, and

a touch panel controller that includes a plurality of driving circuits for driving respective drive lines of the capacitive touch panel by supplying driving signals to the respective drive lines,

the touch panel controller being a touch panel controller recited in claim 1.

2. (canceled)

3. The touch panel controller as set forth in claim 2, wherein:

the plurality of inverter circuits include (i) one (1) first inverter circuit, (ii) a plurality of second inverter circuits, and (iii) a plurality of switches whose number is identical with that of the plurality of second inverter circuits;

an input terminal of the first inverter circuit serves as an input terminal of the driving circuit;

the plurality of second inverter circuits are connected in series with the respective plurality of switches so as to constitute a plurality of series circuits whose number is identical with that of the plurality of second inverter circuits and that of the plurality of switches;

the plurality of series circuits are connected in parallel with each other between an output terminal of the first inverter circuit and an output of the driving circuit; and

the control section controls ON/OFF of each of the plurality of switches.

4. The touch panel controller as set forth in claim 3, wherein:

the plurality of second inverter circuits are configured by respective transistors that have different sizes.

5. The touch panel controller as set forth in claim 3, wherein:

the plurality of second inverter circuits are configured by respective transistors having different channel widths.