Touch sensitive display device comprising a flexible circuit routing having a set of drive lines and a set of sense lines wherein drive line traces and sense line traces are non-overlapping

• US 9,600,113 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2015
• Issued: 03/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Hotelling, Steven P., Wurzel, Joshua G., Martisauskas, Steven J., Miller, Thayne M., Sung, Kuo-Hua
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Paul
• Application Number:
  US14/952,664
• Publication Number:
  US 20160077647A1
• Time in Patent Office: 482 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13338 Input devices, e.g. touch panels
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1643 the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1658 related to the mounting of internal components, e.g. disc drive or any other functional module
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/028 Bending or folding regions of flexible printed circuits H05K1/0283 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/147 at least one of the printed circuits being bent or folded, e.g. by using a flexible printed circuit H05K1/148 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/40 OLEDs integrated with touch screens

Abstract

Flexible circuits for routing signals of a device, such as a touch sensor panel of a touch sensitive device, are provided. The flexible circuit can include a first set of traces for routing a first set of lines and a second set of traces for routing a second set of lines. The first set of traces can couple together the ends of at least a portion of the first set of lines. Additionally, the first set of traces can be non-intersecting or non-overlapping with the second set of traces. The flexible circuit can have a T-shape configuration and can be incorporated within a touch sensitive device, display device, printed circuit board, or the like. The flexible circuit can be placed over another flexible circuit, and can extend onto the device.

Claims

1. A touch sensitive display device comprising:

a touch sensor panel comprising;

a set of drive lines, and

a set of sense lines; and

a flex circuit coupled to the set of drive lines and the set of sense lines, the flex circuit comprising;

an output portion;

an inner portion including a set of drive line traces coupling one or more drive lines of the set of drive lines to the output portion; and

an outer portion at least partially surrounding the inner portion, the outer portion including a set of sense line traces coupling one or more sense lines of the set of sense lines to the output portion,

wherein the drive line traces and the sense line traces are non-overlapping with each other on the flex circuit.

2. The touch sensitive display device of claim 1, wherein the flex circuit is operable to transmit display signals for the touch sensitive display device, and wherein the flex circuit is further coupled to a backlight assembly.

3. The touch sensitive display device of claim 1, wherein the flex circuit covers at least a portion of a thin film transistor glass of the touch sensitive display device, and wherein the touch sensitive display device further comprises an insulating layer between the thin film transistor glass and the flex circuit.

4. The touch sensitive display device of claim 1, wherein:

the flex circuit comprises a first section and a second section, the second section including a second inner portion and a second outer portion at least partially surrounding the second inner portion,

in the first section, the set of sense line traces is located in the outer portion and the set of drive lines traces is located in the inner portion, and

in the second section, the set of sense line traces is located in the second inner portion, and the set of drive line traces is located in the second outer portion.

5. The touch sensitive display device of claim 1, wherein the flex circuit further comprises a guard trace between the set of drive line traces and the set of sense line traces.

6. The touch sensitive display device of claim 5, wherein the guard trace comprises a conductive material coupled to ground.

7. The touch sensitive display device of claim 1, wherein the set of drive line traces is operable to couple a first end of at least a portion of the set of drive lines to a second end of each corresponding drive line.

8. The touch sensitive display device of claim 1, wherein the set of drive line traces creates an open circuit between a first end of at least one drive line of the set of drive lines and a second end of the at least one drive line.

9. The touch sensitive display device of claim 1, wherein the flex circuit comprises a first layer and a second layer.

10. The touch sensitive display device of claim 9, wherein the set of sense line traces is routed through the first layer, and wherein the set of drive line traces is routed through the first layer and the second layer.

11. The touch sensitive display device of claim 1, comprising at least one of a mobile telephone, a digital media player, an LCD, an OLED display, or a personal computer.

12. The touch sensitive display device of claim 1, wherein the flex circuit is a second flex circuit attached to a distal end of a substrate comprising the touch sensor panel, the touch sensitive display device further comprising:

a first flex circuit attached to the distal end of the substrate,

wherein the second flex circuit overlaps the first flex circuit.

13. The touch sensitive display device of claim 12, wherein the first flex circuit is coupled to an integrated circuit at the distal end of the substrate.

14. The touch sensitive display device of claim 12, further comprising a grounded silver film disposed between the first flex circuit and the second flex circuit.

15. The touch sensitive display device of claim 12, wherein the second flex circuit comprises at least one pre-bend section operable to reduce a distance between the second flex circuit and the first flex circuit.

16. The touch sensitive display device of claim 12, further comprising a stiffener disposed on the second flex circuit, the stiffener operable to limit a distance between the second flex circuit and the first flex circuit, wherein the stiffener comprises a grounded metal plate or polyimide film.

17. The touch sensitive display device of claim 12, wherein the second flex circuit is in a T-shape configuration.

18. The touch sensitive display device of claim 1, wherein a first subset of sense line traces of the set of sense line traces and a second subset of sense line traces of the set of sense line traces are disposed on either side of the set of drive line traces on the flex circuit.

19. The touch sensitive display device of claim 18, wherein the first subset of sense line traces is coupled to the first subset of sense lines of the set of sense lines, and the second subset of sense line traces is coupled to the second subset of sense lines of the set of sense lines, different from the first subset of sense lines.

20. The touch sensitive display device of claim 1, wherein the output portion comprises a connector pin.

21. A flex circuit comprising:

an output portion;

an inner portion including a set of drive line traces couplable to one or more drive lines of a set of drive lines on a touch sensor panel to the output portion; and

an outer portion at least partially surrounding the inner portion, the outer portion including a set of sense line traces couplable to one or more sense lines of a set of sense lines on the touch sensor panel to the output portion,

wherein the drive line traces and the sense line traces are non-overlapping with each other on the flex circuit.