Touch sensor layout design

• US 7,834,862 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Issued: 11/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AU Optronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: AU Optronics Corporation
• Inventors: Liao, Shi-Yi, Hsieh, Yao-Jen, Lee, Hsin-Hung, Chang, Meng-Hsiang, Chou, Heng-Sheng
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Nitin
• Application Number:
  US11/863,918
• Publication Number:
  US 20090084611A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,145 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-173, 178 1801- 1806
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means

Abstract

The present invention relates to a touch sensing device. In one embodiment, the touch sensing device includes a plurality of sensor units arranged in the form of an M×N matrix having M rows and N columns. Each sensor unit has a first touch sensor, S_1,1, a second touch sensor, S_1,2, a third touch sensor, S_2,2, and a fourth touch sensor, S_2,1, arranged in the form of a 2×2 matrix, where the first touch sensor S_1,1 is connected to the third touch sensor S_2,2, and the second touch sensor S_1,2 is connected to the fourth touch sensor S_2,1, respectively. The touch sensing device further includes a number of control lines having M row control lines and N column control lines. Each row control line is adapted for connecting sequentially the sensor units of a corresponding row, and each column control line is adapted for connecting sequentially the sensor units of a corresponding column.

Claims

1. A touch sensing device, comprising:

a plurality of X touch sensors and a plurality of Y touch sensors forming a sensor matrix having M rows and N columns, wherein the plurality of X touch sensors and the plurality of Y touch sensors are alternately arranged in each of the M rows and each of the N columns, and wherein each of M and N is a positive integer greater than 1;

N/2 column control lines for N being an even integer or (N+1)/2 column control lines for N being an odd integer, wherein for N being an even integer, the j-th column control line connects each X touch sensor in a pair of the (2j−

1)-th column and the 2j-th column sequentially from the first row to the M-th row, wherein j=1, 2, 3, . . . , N/2, and wherein for N being an odd integer, the j-th column control line connects each X touch sensor in a pair of the (2j−

1)-th column and the 2j-th column sequentially from the first row to the M-th row, wherein j=1, 2, 3, . . . , (N−

1)/2, and the (N+1)/2-th column control line connects each X touch sensor in the N-th column sequentially from the first row to the M-th row; and

M/2 row control lines for M being an even integer or (M+1)/2 row control lines for M being an odd integer, wherein for M being an even integer, the k-th row control line connects each Y touch sensor in a pair of the (2k−

1)-th row and the 2k-th row sequentially from the first column to the N-th column, wherein k=1, 2, 3, . . . , M/2, and wherein for M being an odd integer, the k-th row control line connects each Y touch sensor in a pair of the (2k−

1)-th row and the 2k-th row sequentially from the first column to the N-th column, wherein j=1, 2, 3, . . . , (M−

1)/2, and the (M+1)/2-th row control line connects each Y touch sensor in the M-th row sequentially from the first column to the N-th column.

2. The touch sensing device of claim 1, further comprising a controller, wherein each column control line and each row control line are addressably connected to the controller.

3. The touch sensing device of claim 2, further comprising a touch screen positioned over the sensing matrix such that each of the plurality of X touch sensors and the plurality of Y touch sensors is associated with coordinates of the touch screen at which the touch sensor is located.

4. The touch sensing device of claim 3, wherein when the touch screen is touched, the touch location at the touch screen is detectable by the controller that measures a signal generated responsively by one or more of the plurality of X touch sensors and the plurality of Y touch sensors associated with the touch location.

5. The touch sensing device of claim 4, wherein the controller further performs a function associated with the touch location responsive to the measured signal.

6. The touch sensing device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of X touch sensors is identical to or substantially different from the plurality of Y touch sensors.

7. The touch sensing device of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of X touch sensors has a geometric shape of a triangle, a square, a rectangle, a polygon or a circle, and wherein each of the plurality of Y touch sensors has a geometric shape of a triangle, a square, a rectangle, a polygon or a circle.

8. The touch sensing device of claim 1, wherein each column control line and each row control line are electrically insulated from one another at crossover regions.

9. A touch sensing device, comprising:

a plurality of sensor units, {U_i,j}, arranged in the form of an M×

N matrix having M rows and N columns, wherein i=1, 2, 3, . . . , M, and j=1, 2, 3, . . . , N, M, N being an positive integer greater than zero, wherein each sensor unit U_i,j has a first touch sensor, S_1,1, a second touch sensor, S_1,2, a third touch sensor, S_2,2, and a fourth touch sensor, S_2,1, arranged in the form of a 2×

2 matrix, the first touch sensor S_1,1 being connected to the third touch sensor S_2,2, and the second touch sensor S_1,2 being connected to the fourth touch sensor S_2,1, respectively; and

a number of control lines having M row control lines and N column control lines, wherein each row control line has a first portion and a second portion adapted for connecting sequentially sensor units of a corresponding row; and

each column control line has a first portion and a second portion adapted for connecting sequentially sensor units of a corresponding column, respectively, such that

(i) the first touch sensor S_1,1 of a sensor unit U_i,j is connected to the third touch sensor S_2,2 of an immediately prior sensor unit U<sub>i,j−

1</sub>, and the third touch sensor S_2,2 of the sensor unit U_i,j is connected to the first touch sensor S_1,1 of an immediately next sensor unit U_i,j+1 by the i-th row control line along the i-th row direction, and the second touch sensor S_1,2 of the sensor unit U_i,j is connected to the fourth touch sensor S_2,1 of an immediately prior sensor unit U<sub>i−

1,j</sub>, and the fourth touch sensor S_2,1 of the sensor unit U_i,j is connected to the second touch sensor S_1,2 of an immediately next sensor unit U_i+1,j by the j-th column control line along the j-th column;

or

(ii) the first touch sensor S_1,1 of a sensor unit U_i,j is connected to the third touch sensor S_2,2 of an immediately prior sensor unit U<sub>i−

1,j</sub>, and the third touch sensor S_2,2 of the sensor unit U_i,j is connected to the first touch sensor S_1,1 of an immediately next sensor unit U_i+1,j by the j-th column control line along the j-th column direction, and the fourth touch sensor S_2,1 of the sensor unit U_i,j is connected to the second touch sensor S_1,2 of an immediately prior sensor unit U<sub>i,j−

1</sub>, and the second touch sensor S_1,2 of the sensor unit U_i,j is connected to the fourth touch sensor S_2,1 of an immediately next sensor unit U_i,j+1 by the i-th row control line along the i-th row direction.

10. The touch sensing device of claim 9, further comprising a controller, wherein the first portions of each row control line and each column control line are addressably connected to the controller.

11. The touch sensing device of claim 10, further comprising a touch screen positioned over the plurality of sensor units such that each of the first touch sensor S_1,1, the second touch sensor S_1,2, the third touch sensor S_2,2, and the fourth touch sensor S_2,1 of each sensor unit of the plurality of sensor units is associated with coordinates of the touch screen at which the touch sensor is located.

12. The touch sensing device of claim 11, wherein when the touch screen is touched, the touch location at the touch screen is detectable by the controller that measures a signal generated responsively by one or more touch sensors associated with the touch location.

13. The touch sensing device of claim 9, wherein each of the first touch sensor S_1,1, the second touch sensor S_1,2, the third touch sensor S_2,2, and the fourth touch sensor S_2,1 is identical to or substantially different from one another.

14. The touch sensing device of claim 9, wherein each of the first touch sensor S_1,1, the second touch sensor S_1,2, the third touch sensor S_2,2, and the fourth touch sensor S_2,1 has a geometric shape of a triangle, a square, a rectangle, a polygon or a circle.