Capacitance scanning proximity detection

• US 9,250,752 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2011
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Parade Technologies, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Parade Technologies, Ltd.
• Inventors: Karpin, Oleksandr, Maharyta, Andriy, Ryshtun, Andriy, Kremin, Victor, Hutnyk, Volodymyr
• Primary Examiner(s): Lao, Lun-Yi
• Assistant Examiner(s): McLoone, Peter D
• Application Number:
  US13/183,263
• Publication Number:
  US 20120044199A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,664 Days
• Field of Search: 345/55, 345/173, 345/174, 178/18.03, 178/18.06
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 3/041662 using alternate mutual and self-capacitive scanning
• 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

A method and apparatus for scanning a first set of electrodes of a capacitive sense array using a first sensing mode to identify a presence of an object in proximity to the capacitive sense array, where scanning using the first sensing mode identifies objects not in physical contact with the capacitive sense array. The first set of electrodes is scanned using a second sensing mode to determine a location of the object in relation to the capacitive sense array, where rescanning using the second sensing mode determines locations of objects in physical contact with the capacitive sense array.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

scanning, by a processing device, a first set of electrodes in a first dimension of a capacitive sense array to measure self-capacitances of the first set of electrodes, using a first dimension multiplexer to route measured signals from the first set of electrodes to receive channels of the processing device, wherein a shield signal is routed through a second dimension multiplexer to a second set of electrodes in a second dimension;

identifying, based on the measured self-capacitances of the first set of electrodes, the presence of an object in proximity to the first set of electrodes and the capacitive sense array and not in physical contact with the capacitive sense array;

responsive to identifying the presence of the object based on the measured self-capacitances of the first set of electrodes, configuring the capacitive sense array to measure a mutual capacitance of at least the first set of electrodes and the second set of electrodes by routing a transmit signal through the first dimension multiplexer to the first set of electrodes and routing measured signals from the second set of electrodes to the receive channels of the processing device; and

scanning, by the processing device, the first set of electrodes and the second set of electrodes of the capacitive sense array to measure mutual capacitances of intersections between the first set of electrodes and the second set of electrodes to determine a location of the object.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of electrodes comprises four electrodes disposed at four edges of the capacitive sense array, the method further comprising:

scanning a first electrode of the four electrodes of the capacitive sense array to measure a self-capacitance of the first electrode to generate a first signal;

scanning a second electrode of the four electrodes of the capacitive sense array to measure a self-capacitance of the second electrode to generate a second signal; and

identifying the presence of the object in proximity to the capacitive sense array based on the first signal and the second signal.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

driving a third electrode and a fourth electrode of the four electrodes of the capacitive sense array with a shield signal while scanning the first electrode and the second electrode.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

scanning the first electrode of the four electrodes of the capacitive sense array to measure a mutual capacitance of an intersection between the first electrode and a third electrode of the capacitive sense array to generate a third signal;

scanning the second electrode of the four electrodes of the capacitive sense array to measure a mutual capacitance of an intersection between the second electrode and a fourth electrode of the capacitance sense array to generate a fourth signal; and

determining a location of the object in relation to the capacitive sense array based on the third signal and the fourth signal, wherein the object is in physical contact with the capacitive sense array.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying the presence of the object in proximity to the capacitive sense array comprises:

comparing the first and second signals to at least one baseline capacitance value to determine a differential value; and

determining if the differential value is greater than a proximity threshold value.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

scanning the first set of electrodes and the second set of electrodes using a hybrid mutual self-capacitance sensing mode; and

determining a location of the object based on the scanning using the hybrid mutual-self capacitance sensing mode, wherein the object is hovering over the capacitive sense array.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

measuring a baseline capacitance value for each of a plurality of additional electrodes of the capacitive sense array.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of electrodes and the second set of electrodes comprise all of the electrodes included in the capacitive sense array.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a capacitive sense array comprising a plurality of electrodes, including a first set of electrodes in a first dimension and a second set of electrodes in a second dimension;

a first dimension multiplexer coupled to the first set of electrodes;

a second dimension multiplexer coupled to the second set of electrodes; and

a processing device coupled to the capacitive sense array through the first dimension multiplexer and the second dimension multiplexer, the processing device to;

scan the first set electrodes to measure self-capacitances of the first set of electrodes, using the first dimension multiplexer to route measured signals from the first set of electrodes to receive channels of the processing device, wherein a shield signal is routed through the second dimension multiplexer to the second set of electrodes;

identify, based on the measured self-capacitances of the first set of the plurality of electrodes, the presence of an object in proximity to the first set of the plurality of electrodes and the capacitive sense array and not in physical contact with the capacitive sense array;

responsive to the identification of the presence of the object based on the measured self-capacitances of the first set of the plurality of electrodes, configure the capacitive sense array to measure a mutual capacitance of at least the first set of electrodes and the second set of electrodes by routing a transmit signal through the first dimension multiplexer to the first set of electrodes and routing measured signals from the second set of electrodes to the receive channels of the processing device; and

scan the first set of the plurality of electrodes and the second set of the plurality of electrodes to measure mutual capacitances of intersections between the first set of the plurality of electrodes and the second set of the plurality of electrodes to determine a location of the object.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first set of the plurality of electrodes comprises four electrodes disposed at four edges of the capacitive sense array and wherein the processing device is further to:

scan a first electrode of the four electrodes to measure a self-capacitance of the first electrode to generate a first signal;

scan a second electrode of the four electrodes to measure a self-capacitance of the second electrode to generate a second signal; and

identify the presence of the object in proximity to the capacitive sense array based on the first signal and the second signal.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processing device is further to:

drive a third electrode and a fourth electrode of the four electrodes with a shield signal while scanning the first electrode and the second electrode.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first electrode, the second electrode, the third electrode and the fourth electrode comprise discrete electrodes adjacent to additional electrodes of the capacitive sense array.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processing device is to:

compare the first and second signals to at least one baseline capacitance value to determine a differential value; and

determine if the differential value is greater than a proximity threshold value.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processing device is further to:

scan the first electrode and a third electrode of the plurality of electrodes to measure a mutual capacitance of an intersection between the first electrode and the third electrode to generate a third signal;

scan the second electrode and a fourth electrode of the plurality of electrodes to measure a mutual capacitance of an intersection between the second electrode and the fourth electrode to generate a fourth signal; and

determine a location of the object in relation to the capacitive sense array based on the third signal and the fourth signal, wherein the object is in physical contact with the capacitive sense array.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processing device is further to:

scan the first set of electrodes and the second set of electrodes using a hybrid mutual-self capacitance sensing mode; and

determine a location of the object based on the scanning using the hybrid mutual-self capacitance sensing mode, wherein the object is hovering over the capacitive sense array.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processing device is further to:

measure a baseline capacitance value for each of a plurality of additional electrodes in the capacitive sense array.