INTEGRATED TOUCH SCREENS

• US 20170269738A1
• Filed: 05/11/2017
• Published: 09/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: CHANG, Shih Chang, ZHONG, John Z.
• Application Number:
  US15/593,182
• Publication Number:
  US 20170269738A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13306 Circuit arrangements or driving methods for the control of single liquid crystal cells G02F1/132, G02F1/133382 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133305 Flexible substrates, e.g. plastics, organic film
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13338 Input devices, e.g. touch panels
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133512 Light shielding layers, e.g. black matrix G02F1/136209 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133514 Colour filters
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/134336 Matrix
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/1368 in which the switching element is a three-electrode device G02F1/136277 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/16 Constructional details or arrangements
• 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 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04164 Connections between sensors and controllers, e.g. routing lines between electrodes and connection pads
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0445 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

Integrated touch screens are provided including drive lines formed of grouped-together circuit elements of a thin film transistor layer and sense lines formed between a color filter layer and a material layer that modifies or generates light. The common electrodes (Vcom) in the TFT layer can be grouped together during a touch sensing operation to form drive lines. Sense lines can be formed on an underside of a color filter glass, and a liquid crystal region can be disposed between the color filter glass and the TFT layer. Placing the sense lines on the underside of the color filter glass, i.e., within the display pixel cell, can provide a benefit of allowing the color filter glass to be thinned after the pixel cells have been assembled, for example.

Claims

1. An integrated touch sensitive display, comprising:

a first portion of the display comprising first integrated display and touch sensing circuitry; and

a second portion of the display comprising second integrated display and touch sensing circuitry;

wherein the second integrated display and touch sensing circuitry is configured to perform touch sensing operations, and the first integrated display and touch sensing circuitry is configured to perform display operations simultaneous with the performance of the touch sensing operations by the second integrated display and touch sensing circuitry.

2. The integrated touch sensitive display of claim 1, further comprising:

a display driver coupled to the display and configured for enabling the display operations; and

a touch controller coupled to the display and configured for enabling the touch sensing operations.

3. The integrated touch sensitive display of claim 2, wherein during a first time period, the touch controller is configured for performing the touch sensing operations at the second portion of the display, and the display driver is configured for performing the display operations at the first portion of the display simultaneous with the performance of the touch sensing operations at the second portion of the display.

4. The integrated touch sensitive display of claim 3, wherein during a second time period, the touch controller is configured for performing touch sensing operations at a third portion of the display comprising third integrated display and touch sensing circuitry, and the display driver is configured for performing display operations at a fourth portion of the display comprising fourth integrated display and touch sensing circuitry simultaneous with the performance of the touch sensing operations at the third portion of the display.

5. The integrated touch sensitive display of claim 1, wherein the first portion of the display comprises a single row of the first integrated display and touch sensing circuitry, and the second portion of the display comprises a plurality of rows of the second integrated display and touch sensing circuitry.

6. The integrated touch sensitive display of claim 4, wherein the third portion of the display comprises at least part of the first integrated display and touch sensing circuitry.

7. The integrated touch sensitive display of claim 4, the display driver further configured for updating first display pixels in the first portion of the display by applying a common voltage of a first polarity to the first display pixels, and updating second display pixels in the fourth portion of the display by applying the common voltage of a second polarity opposite the first polarity to the second display pixels.

8. The integrated touch sensitive display of claim 1, incorporated into a portable computing device.

9. An integrated touch screen, comprising:

a plurality of rows of display pixels, each row of display pixels configurable for either display operations or touch sensing operations; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the plurality of rows of display pixels and capable of, in a first time period,

configuring a first set of one or more rows of display pixels to perform first touch sensing operations, and

configuring a second set of one or more row of display pixels to perform first display operations;

wherein the first touch sensing operations are performed at the same time as the first display operations; and

wherein the second set is nonoverlapping with the first set.

10. The integrated touch screen of claim 9, further comprising:

a display driver coupled to the plurality of rows of display pixels and the processor, and configured for enabling the first display operations; and

a touch controller coupled to the plurality of rows of display pixels and the processor, and configured for enabling the first touch sensing operations.

11. The integrated touch screen of claim 9, the processor further capable of, in a second time period,

configuring a third set of one or more rows of display pixels to perform second touch sensing operations, and

configuring a fourth set of one or more row of display pixels to perform second display operations;

wherein the second touch sensing operations are performed at the same time as the first display operations; and

wherein the fourth set is nonoverlapping with the third set.

12. The integrated touch screen of claim 9, wherein the first set comprises a single row of the display pixels, and the second set comprises a plurality of rows of the display pixels.

13. The integrated touch screen of claim 11, wherein the third set of one or more rows of display pixels comprises at least part of the first set of one or more rows of display pixels.

14. The integrated touch screen of claim 11, the display driver further configured for updating first display pixels in the first set by applying a common voltage of a first polarity to the first display pixels, and updating second display pixels in the fourth set by applying the common voltage of a second polarity opposite the first polarity to the second display pixels.

15. The integrated touch sensitive display of claim 9, incorporated into a portable computing device.

16. A method of operating an integrated touch screen, comprising:

in a first time period,

configuring a first set of one or more rows of display pixels to perform first touch sensing operations, and

configuring a second set of one or more row of display pixels to perform first display operations;

wherein the first touch sensing operations are performed at the same time as the first display operations; and

wherein the second set is nonoverlapping with the first set.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

in a second time period,

configuring a third set of one or more rows of display pixels to perform second touch sensing operations, and

configuring a fourth set of one or more row of display pixels to perform second display operations;

wherein the second touch sensing operations are performed at the same time as the second display operations; and

wherein the fourth set is nonoverlapping with the third set.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the first set comprises a single row of the display pixels, and the second set comprises a plurality of rows of the display pixels.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the third set of one or more rows of display pixels comprises at least part of the first set of one or more rows of display pixels.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising updating first display pixels in the first set by applying a common voltage of a first polarity to the first display pixels, and updating second display pixels in the fourth set by applying the common voltage of a second polarity opposite the first polarity to the second display pixels.