SENSING DEVICES FOR SENSING ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS

• US 20180181230A1
• Filed: 07/21/2017
• Published: 06/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SK Hynix Inc.
• Original Assignee: SK Hynix Inc.
• Inventors: CHANG, Keunjin
• Granted Patent: US 10,324,573 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 3/044 by capacitive means
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0291 Details of output amplifiers or buffers arranged for use in a driving circuit
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/2092 Details of a display terminals using a flat panel, the details relating to the control arrangement of the display terminal and to the interfaces thereto suitable for both CRT and flat panel G09G5/003; specific for a CRT G09G1/165

Abstract

A sensing device may include an integrator configured to sense electrical characteristics of first and second nodes to generate an output voltage. A sensing device may include a switching portion configured to include a plurality of switches, wherein the plurality of switches operate to connect at least one of the plurality of switches to the first node and to connect the remaining switches of the plurality of switches to the second node during each of a plurality of successive switching cycles.

Claims

1. A sensing device comprising:

a sensor array portion including a plurality of sensors;

an integrator including a differential amplifier;

a switching portion including a plurality of switches, wherein the plurality of switches are configured to operate to connect at least one of the plurality of sensors to a first input terminal of the differential amplifier and to connect the remaining sensors of the plurality of sensors to a second input terminal of the differential amplifier during each of a plurality of successive switching cycles; and

a logic circuit configured to perform an operation for extracting output data respectively corresponding to the plurality of sensors from an output data matrix generated by the integrator,

wherein the integrator senses electrical characteristics of the sensors to generate the output data matrix.

2. The sensing device of claim 1,

wherein the logic circuit performs an operation for multiplying the output data matrix by an inverse matrix of a switching data matrix;

and

wherein the switching data matrix includes elements which are denoted by a negative numeral corresponding to a switching state of the switches connected to the first input terminal of the differential amplifier and a positive numeral corresponding to a switching state of the switches connected to the second input terminal of the differential amplifier.

3. The sensing device of claim 1,

wherein the logic circuit performs an operation for multiplying the output data matrix by an orthogonal matrix of a switching data matrix;

and

wherein the switching data matrix includes elements which are denoted by a negative numeral corresponding to a switching state of the switches connected to first input terminal of the differential amplifier and a positive numeral corresponding to a switching state of the switches connected to second input terminal of the differential amplifier.

4. The sensing device of claim 1, wherein the integrator outputs an output signal which is proportional to a capacitance value that remains after subtracting a capacitance value of the at least one sensor connected to the first input terminal of the differential amplifier from a sum of capacitance values of the remaining sensors connected to the second input terminal of the differential amplifier.

5. The sensing device of claim 1, further comprising an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) coupled between the integrator and the logic circuit to convert an output signal of the differential amplifier into a digital signal corresponding to the output data matrix.

6. The sensing device of claim 1, wherein the integrator includes:

a first feedback capacitor coupled between one output terminal of the differential amplifier and the second input terminal of the differential amplifier; and

a second feedback capacitor coupled between the other output terminal of the differential amplifier and the first input terminal of the differential amplifier.

7. The sensing device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of switches operate to connect at least two of the plurality of sensors to the second input terminal of the differential amplifier during each of the plurality of successive switching cycles.

8. The sensing device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of switches operate to connect one of the plurality of sensors to the first input terminal of the differential amplifier during each of the plurality of successive switching cycles.

9. The sensing device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of switches operate to connect at least two of the plurality of sensors to the first input terminal of the differential amplifier during each of the plurality of successive switching cycles.

10. The sensing device of claim 1, wherein each of the sensors includes a capacitor that stores variation of a capacitance value.

11. A sensing device comprising:

a sensor array portion including first to fourth sensors;

an integrator including a differential amplifier;

a switching portion including a plurality of switches that are configured to sequentially perform first to fourth switching operations, wherein the first switching operation is performed to connect the fourth sensor to a first input terminal of the differential amplifier and to connect the first to third sensors to a second input terminal of the differential amplifier, the second switching operation is performed to connect the third sensor to the first input terminal of the differential amplifier and to connect the first, second and fourth sensors to the second input terminal of the differential amplifier, the third switching operation is performed to connect the second sensor to the first input terminal of the differential amplifier and to connect the first, third and fourth sensors to the second input terminal of the differential amplifier, and the fourth switching operation is performed to connect the first sensor to the first input terminal of the differential amplifier and to connect the second, third and fourth sensors to the second input terminal of the differential amplifier; and

a logic circuit configured to perform an operation for multiplying an output data matrix outputted from the integrator by an inverse matrix of a switching data matrix,

wherein the switching data matrix includes elements which are denoted by a numeral of “

−

1”

corresponding to a switching state of the switches connected to the first input terminal of the differential amplifier and a numeral of “

+1”

corresponding to a switching state of the switches connected to the second input terminal of the differential amplifier.

12. The sensing device of claim 11, wherein the inverse matrix of the switching data matrix is identical to an orthogonal matrix of the switching data matrix.

13. The sensing device of claim 11, wherein the integrator outputs an output signal which is proportional to a capacitance value that remains after subtracting a capacitance value of the sensor connected to the first input terminal of the differential amplifier from a sum of capacitance values of the sensors connected to the second input terminal of the differential amplifier.

14. The sensing device of claim 11, further comprising an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) coupled between the integrator and the logic circuit to convert an output signal of the differential amplifier into a digital signal corresponding to the output data matrix.

15. A sensing device comprising:

an integrator configured to sense electrical characteristics of first and second nodes to generate an output voltage; and

a switching portion configured to include a plurality of switches, wherein the plurality of switches operate to connect at least one of the plurality of switches to the first node and to connect the remaining switches of the plurality of switches to the second node during each of a plurality of successive switching cycles.

16. The sensing device of claim 15, wherein the integrator generates the output voltage by substantially simultaneously sensing all of the voltage values of the switches for each of the switching cycles.

17. The sensing device of claim 15, wherein the integrator includes a differential amplifier configured to have a first input terminal coupled to the first node and a second input terminal coupled to the second node.

18. The sensing device of claim 15, wherein the switching portion has a greater number of switches than a number of integrators.

19. The sensing device of claim 15,

further comprising a sensor array including a plurality of sensors,

wherein the plurality of switches operate to connect the at least one of the plurality of sensors to the first node and to connect the remaining sensors of the plurality of sensors to the second node during each of the switching cycles.

20. The sensing device of claim 15, further comprising:

a logic circuit configured to perform an operation for extracting output data respectively corresponding to the plurality of switches from the output voltage generated by the integrator.