Touch screen and method for compensating sensing capacitance variations and offset variations thereof

• US 8,629,852 B2
• Filed: 09/09/2010
• Issued: 01/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Industry-University Cooperation Foundation Hanyang University
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Industry-University Cooperation Foundation Hanyang University
• Inventors: Kwon, Oh-Kyong, Park, Jang Hyun, Roh, Yea Chul, Kim, Chang Sun
• Primary Examiner(s): FARAGALLA, MICHAEL A
• Application Number:
  US12/878,338
• Publication Number:
  US 20110109585A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,223 Days
• Field of Search: 345/173, 345/174, 345/178
• US Class Current: 345/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• 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

Abstract

Provided are a touch screen and a method for compensating sensing capacitance variations and offset variations thereof. The touch screen includes: a touch panel where a plurality of driving lines and a plurality of sensing lines intersect and are wired; a driving unit for activating the driving lines sequentially; an input unit for measuring a sensing capacitance formed in a sensing line corresponding to an activated driving line; a multiplexer for serializing and outputting the measured sensing capacitance; an analog-to-digital converter for sampling the sensing capacitance outputted from the multiplexer by reflecting an initial sensing capacitance as an offset and performing analog-to-digital conversion for the sampling result; and a host processor for determining a touch event in response to the analog-to-digital conversion result.

Claims

1. A touch screen comprising:

a touch panel having a plurality of driving lines and a plurality of sensing lines intersecting with the plurality of driving lines, respectively;

a driving unit configured to activate the driving lines sequentially;

an input unit configured to measure a sensing capacitance formed in a sensing line corresponding to an activated driving line;

a multiplexer configured to sequentially output the measured sensing capacitance;

an analog-to-digital converter configured to sample the measured sensing capacitance outputted from the multiplexer using an initial sensing capacitance as an offset and perform analog-to-digital conversion on the sampling result; and

a host processor configured to determine a touch event in response to the analog-to-digital conversion result,

wherein the analog-to-digital conversion result corresponds to a difference between the measured sensing capacitance and the initial sensing capacitance.

2. The touch screen of claim 1, wherein the initial sensing capacitance is measured when the touch panel is not touched.

3. The touch screen of claim 1, wherein the analog-to-digital converter comprises:

a first switch configured to provide the measured sensing capacitance outputted from the multiplexer into a capacitor array at a sampling phase;

the capacitor array including a plurality of capacitors and configured to sample the measured sensing capacitance at the sampling phase after the plurality of capacitors are selectively connected to a ground or a first reference voltage by the initial sensing capacitance;

a Successive Approximation Register (SAR) logic configured to control providing the initial sensing capacitance to the capacitor array and output the sampling result of the capacitor array by a bit unit at a digital conversion phase;

a comparator configured to output digital data of a bit unit by receiving the sampling result by a bit unit at the digital conversion phase; and

a second switch configured to provide the sampling result from the capacitor array to the comparator at the digital conversion phase.

4. The touch screen of claim 3, wherein the capacitor array samples a voltage corresponding to a difference between a second reference voltage and a compensation voltage, the compensation voltage corresponding to the initial sensing capacitance.

5. The touch screen of claim 4, wherein when the second reference voltage is V_REF and bits of the initial sensing capacitance are COMP₁, COMP₂, . . . , and COMP_N, respectively, the compensation voltage V_COMP is determined as follows:

6. The touch screen of claim 3, wherein the host processor comprises a memory for storing the initial sensing capacitance and the initial sensing capacitance is provided from the memory to the capacitor array before the sampling phase begins.

7. The touch screen of claim 1, wherein the input unit comprises a plurality of charge amplifiers for converting the measured sensing capacitance into a voltage and each of the plurality of charge amplifiers comprises at least one feedback capacitor.

8. The touch screen of claim 7, wherein in order to adjust gains of the plurality of charge amplifiers, the feedback capacitor is implemented with a programmable capacitor array to compensate a sensing capacitor by a control of the host processor.

9. The touch screen of claim 7, in order to compensate offset variations of the plurality of charge amplifiers, further comprising an offset digital-to-analog converter for adjusting a level of a reference voltage of the analog-to-digital converter by a control of the host processor.

17. The touch screen of claim 5, wherein N is 10.

10. A method for compensating for sensing capacitance variations and offset variations of a touch screen, the method comprising:

storing first data measured from a sensing capacitor when the touch screen is not touched; and

converting second data measured from the sensing capacitor when the touch panel is touched into digital data,

wherein the first data is used to adjust a level of a sampling voltage of the second data when the second data is converted into the digital data,

wherein the digital data corresponds to a difference between the first data and the second data,

wherein the converting of the second data into the digital data comprises;

selectively connecting a plurality of capacitors of a capacitor array to a ground or a first reference voltage based on the first data;

sampling the second data in the capacitor array; and

converting the sampling result into N-bit digital data, N being a positive integer, and

wherein the converting of the sampling result into the N-bit digital data comprises;

sequentially generating N scan signals corresponding to bits of the N-bit digital data, respectively;

sequentially inputting voltages corresponding to the bits of the N-bit digital data, respectively, among the sampling result into a comparator; and

determining each of the bits of the N-bit digital data by comparing a voltage inputted into the comparator with a second reference voltage.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the capacitor array samples a voltage corresponding to a difference between the second reference voltage and a compensation voltage, the compensation voltage corresponding to the first data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein when the second reference voltage is V_REF and bits of the first data are COMP₁, COMP₂, . . . , and COMP_N, respectively, the compensation voltage V_COMP is determined as follows:

14. The method of claim 12, wherein a level of the compensation voltage is adjusted according to the first data.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the storing of the first data is performed when an initial operation, in which the touch panel is driven for the first time, is performed or environment is changed.

16. The method of claim 10, before converting the second data into the digital data, further comprising compensating for an offset of a charge amplifier for measuring the second data from the sensing capacitor,

wherein the charge amplifier comprises a programmable feedback capacitor.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein N is 10.

11. The method of claimer 10, wherein the sampling result is inputted into an inverting input of the comparator.

19. A method for compensating for sensing capacitance variations and offset variations of a touch screen, the method comprising:

storing first data measured from a sensing capacitor when the touch screen is not touched; and

converting second data measured from the sensing capacitor when the touch panel is touched into digital data,

wherein the first data is used to adjust a level of a sampling voltage of the second data when the second data is converted into the digital data,

wherein the digital data corresponds to a difference between the first data and the second data,

wherein the converting of the second data into the digital data comprises;

selectively connecting a plurality of capacitors of a capacitor array to a ground or a first reference voltage based on the first data;

sampling the second data in the capacitor array; and

converting the sampling result into N-bit digital data, N being a positive integer,

wherein the capacitor array samples a voltage corresponding to a difference between a second reference voltage and a compensation voltage, the compensation voltage corresponding to the first data, and

wherein when the second reference voltage is V_REF and bits of the first data are COMP₁, COMP₂, . . . , and COMP_N, respectively, the compensation voltage V_COMP is determined as follows;

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the converting of the sampling result into the N-bit digital data comprises:

sequentially generating N scan signals corresponding to bits of the N-bit digital data, respectively;

sequentially inputting voltages corresponding to the bits of the N-bit digital data, respectively, among the sampling result into a comparator; and

determining each of the bits of the N-bit digital data by comparing a voltage inputted into the comparator with the second reference voltage.