Signal processing system, touch panel controller, touch panel system using same, and electronic device

• US 9,223,439 B2
• Filed: 09/10/2013
• Issued: 12/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2012
• 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, Miyamoto, Masayuki, Kuhara, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Amadiz, Rodney
• Application Number:
  US14/425,293
• Publication Number:
  US 20150268792A1
• Time in Patent Office: 840 Days
• Field of Search: 345173-174, 178 1801- 1807
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04101 2.5D-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 and also measures the distance of the input means within a short range in the Z direction, possibly with a separate measurement setup
• 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 2203/04111 Cross over in capacitive digitiser, i.e. details of structures for connecting electrodes of the sensing pattern where the connections cross each other, e.g. bridge structures comprising an insulating layer, or vias through substrate
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04112 Electrode mesh in capacitive digitiser: electrode for touch sensing is formed of a mesh of very fine, normally metallic, interconnected lines that are almost invisible to see. This provides a quite large but transparent electrode surface, without need for ITO or similar transparent conductive material
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• 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: G06F 3/045 using resistive elements, e.g. a single continuous surface or two parallel surfaces put in contact

Abstract

A signal processing system (10) includes a switching circuits (6) which switches between subsystems (5a, 5b), on a basis of a frequency of noise mixed in each of time-series signals, the amount of that noise, and input-output transfer characteristics, to reduce noise present in a result of estimation of the value of a linear element (CX), which estimation is performed by addition- and subtraction-based signal processing.

Claims

1. A signal processing system which performs signal processing on a plurality of time-series signals which are sampled at a discrete time and are derived from a linear element driven in parallel on a basis of a code sequence, the signal processing being performed based on an inner product operation of the time-series signals and the code sequence, to estimate a value or an input of the linear element, the signal processing system comprising:

first and second subsystems which have different input-output transfer characteristics; and

a switching circuit which switches between the first subsystem and the second subsystem and then connects one of the first and second subsystems to the linear element, to reduce noise present in a result of estimation of the value or input of the linear element, which estimation is performed by signal processing through inner product calculation of the code sequence, on a basis of a frequency of noise mixed in each of the time-series signals, an amount of that noise, and the input-output transfer characteristics.

2. The signal processing system as set forth in claim 1, wherein

there is a difference between (i) respective numbers of multiple samplings of the time-series signals derived from the linear element based on the first subsystem and (ii) respective numbers of multiple samplings of the time-series signals derived from the linear element based on the second subsystem.

3. The signal processing system as set forth in claim 1, wherein

there is a difference between (i) a sampling frequency with respect to the time-series signals derived from the linear element based on the first subsystem and (ii) a sampling frequency with respect to the time-series signals derived from the linear element based on the second subsystem.

4. The signal processing system as set forth in claim 1, wherein

polarities of respective codes of the plurality of time-series signals based on the first subsystem are inverted along a time series, and polarities of respective codes of the plurality of time-series signals based on the second subsystem are identical along a time series.

5. The signal processing system as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

a noise amount estimation section which estimates the amount of noise from an estimate of the linear element or from an estimate of the input of the linear element, wherein the estimates are obtained by the addition- and subtraction-based signal processing on the time-series signals, and

the switching circuit switching between the first subsystem and the second subsystem on a basis of a result of the estimation performed by the noise amount estimation section.

6. The signal processing system as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

an analog-to-digital conversion circuit which performs analog-to-digital conversion on the plurality of time-series signals derived from the linear element and then generates a plurality of time-series signals which are sampled at the discrete time.

7. A touch panel controller which controls a touch panel including a plurality of electrostatic capacitors provided at respective intersections where a plurality of drive lines and a plurality of sense lines intersect with each other, the touch panel controller comprising:

a driving circuit which drives the electrostatic capacitors in parallel along the drive lines on a basis of a code sequence;

an amplifier circuit which (i) reads, along the sense lines, a plurality of linear sum signals based on respective ones of the electrostatic capacitors which are driven in parallel by the driving circuit and (ii) then amplifies the linear sum signals thus read;

an analog-to-digital conversion circuit which performs analog-to-digital conversion on outputs of the amplifier circuit;

a decoding operation circuit which estimates respective capacitance values of the electrostatic capacitors on a basis of an inner product operation of (i) the code sequence and (ii) respective ones of the outputs having been fed from the amplifier circuit and then subjected to the analog-to-digital conversion;

first and second subsystems which have different input-output transfer characteristics; and

a switching circuit which switches between the first subsystem and the second subsystem and then connects one of the first and second subsystems to the driving circuit, to reduce noise present in a result of estimation of respective values of the electrostatic capacitors, which estimation is performed by the addition- and subtraction-based signal processing performed by the decoding operation circuit, on a basis of a frequency of noise mixed in each of the linear sum signals, an amount of that noise, and the input-output transfer characteristics.

8. The touch panel controller as set forth in claim 7, wherein

the first subsystem performs first through (M+1)^th frame drivings of performing first through (N+1)^th vector drivings in this order, the first through (N+1)^th vector drivings each including an even-numbered phase driving and an odd-numbered phase driving, and

the second subsystem successively performs respective k^th vector drivings (1≦

k≦

N+1) of the first through (M+1)^th frame drivings.

9. The touch panel controller as set forth in claim 7, wherein

the first subsystem performs first through (M+1)^th frame drivings of performing first through (N+1)^th vector drivings in this order, the first through (N+1)^th vector drivings each including an even-numbered phase driving and an odd-numbered phase driving, and

the second subsystem successively performs even-numbered phase drivings of respective k^th vector drivings (1≦

k≦

N+1) of the first through (M+1)^th frame drivings, and successively performs odd-numbered phase drivings of the respective k^th vector drivings.

10. The touch panel controller as set forth in claim 7, wherein

the driving circuit further includes a third subsystem having an input-output transfer characteristic different from the input-output transfer characteristics of the first and second subsystems,

the first subsystem performs first through (M+1)^th frame drivings of performing first through (N+1)^th vector drivings in this order, the first through (N+1)^th vector drivings each including an even-numbered phase driving and an odd-numbered phase driving,

the second subsystem successively performs respective k^th vector drivings (1≦

k≦

N+1) of the first through (M+1)^th frame drivings, and

the third subsystem successively performs even-numbered phase drivings of respective k^th vector drivings (1≦

k≦

N+1) of the first through (M+1)^th frame drivings, and successively performs odd-numbered phase drivings of the respective k^th vector drivings.

11. The touch panel controller as set forth in claim 7, wherein

the first subsystem performs first through (M+1)^th frame drivings of performing first through (N+1)^th vector drivings in this order, the first through (N+1)^th vector drivings each including an even-numbered phase driving and an odd-numbered phase driving, so that polarities of respective codes of the plurality of linear sum signals are inverted along a time series in respective ones of the first through (M+1)^th frame drivings, and

the second subsystem successively performs respective k^th vector drivings (1≦

k≦

N+1) of the first through (M+1)^th frame drivings so that polarities of respective codes of the plurality of linear sum signals are inverted along a time series in respective ones of the first through (N+1)^th vector drivings.

12. The touch panel controller as set forth in claim 7, wherein

the first subsystem performs first through (M+1)^th frame drivings of performing first through (N+1)^th vector drivings in this order, each of the first through (N+1)^th vector drivings including an even-numbered phase driving and an odd-numbered phase driving, so that polarities of respective codes of the plurality of linear sum signals are inverted along a time series in respective ones of the first through (M+1)^th frame drivings, and

the second subsystem successively performs even-numbered phase drivings of respective k^th vector drivings (1≦

k≦

N+1) of the first through (M+1)^th frame drivings so that polarities of respective codes of the plurality of linear sum signals are inverted along a time series in respective ones of the even-numbered phase drivings, and successively performs odd-numbered drivings of the respective k^th vector drivings so that polarities of respective codes of the plurality of linear sum signals are inverted along a time series in respective ones of the odd-numbered phase drivings.

13. The touch panel controller as set forth in claim 7, wherein

the driving circuit further includes a third subsystem having an input-output transfer characteristic different from the input-output transfer characteristics of the first and second subsystems,

the first subsystem performs first through (M+1)^th frame drivings of performing first through (N+1)^th vector drivings in this order, the first through (N+1)^th vector drivings each including an even-numbered phase driving and an odd-numbered phase driving, so that polarities of respective codes of the plurality of linear sum signals are inverted along a time series in respective ones of the first through (M+1)^th frame drivings,

the second subsystem successively performs respective k^th vector drivings (1≦

k≦

N+1) of the first through (M+1)^th frame drivings so that polarities of respective codes of the plurality of linear sum signals are inverted along a time series in respective ones of the first through (N+1)^th vector drivings, and

the third subsystem successively performs even-numbered phase drivings of respective k^th vector drivings (1≦

k≦

N+1) of the first through (M+1)^th frame drivings so that polarities of respective codes of the plurality of linear sum signals are inverted along a time series in respective ones of the even-numbered phase drivings, and successively performs odd-numbered drivings of the respective k^th vector drivings so that polarities of respective codes of the plurality of linear sum signals are inverted along a time series in respective ones of the odd-numbered phase drivings.

14. The touch panel controller as set forth in claim 7, wherein

the first subsystem reduces a reset time of a reset signal for resetting the amplifier circuit (i) in a case where the plurality of electrostatic capacitors are driven so that polarities of respective codes of the plurality of linear sum signals are inverted along a time series, as compared with (ii) in a case where the plurality of electrostatic capacitors are driven so that polarities of respective codes of the plurality of linear sum signals are identical along a time series.

15. The touch panel controller as set forth in claim 7, wherein

the amplifier circuit includes a differential amplifier which performs differential amplification on the linear sum signals outputted along corresponding respective adjacent sense lines.

16. A touch panel system, comprising:

a touch panel which includes a plurality of electrostatic capacitors provided at respective intersections where a plurality of drive lines and a plurality of sense lines intersect with each other; and

a touch panel controller which controls the touch panel,

the touch panel controller including;

a driving circuit which drives the electrostatic capacitors in parallel along the drive lines on a basis of a code sequence;

an amplifier circuit which (i) reads, along the sense lines, a plurality of linear sum signals based on respective ones of the electrostatic capacitors which are driven in parallel by the driving circuit and (ii) then amplifies the linear sum signals thus read;

an analog-to-digital conversion circuit which performs analog-to-digital conversion on outputs of the amplifier circuit;

a decoding operation circuit which estimates respective capacitance values of the electrostatic capacitors on a basis of an inner product operation of (i) the code sequence and (ii) respective ones of the outputs having been fed from the amplifier circuit and then subjected to the analog-to-digital conversion;

first and second subsystems which have different input-output transfer characteristics; and

a switching circuit which switches between the first subsystem and the second subsystem and then connects one of the first and second subsystems to the driving circuit, to reduce noise present in a result of estimation of respective values of the electrostatic capacitors, which estimation is performed by the addition- and subtraction-based signal processing performed by the decoding operation circuit, on a basis of a frequency of noise mixed in each of the linear sum signals, an amount of that noise, and the input-output transfer characteristics.

17. An electronic apparatus, comprising:

a touch panel system as set forth in claim 16; and

a display section which corresponds to the touch panel system.