Self and mutual capacitance measurement in a touch screen

• US 9,684,418 B1
• Filed: 07/08/2014
• Issued: 06/20/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Parade Technologies, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Parade Technologies, Ltd.
• Inventors: Karpin, Oleksandr, Hills, Michael Patrick, Burkovskyy, Volodymyr, Park, Seok-Pyong, Prendergast, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): He, Amy
• Application Number:
  US14/325,582
• Time in Patent Office: 1,078 Days
• Field of Search: 324662, 324663, 324658, 345173, 345174
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 27/22 by investigating capacitance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041662 using alternate mutual and self-capacitive scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• 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 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

A water-resistant capacitance sensing apparatus comprising a plurality of capacitive sense elements and a capacitance sensing circuit configured to measure both the mutual capacitance and self-capacitance on the plurality of capacitive sense elements.

A method for water-resistant capacitance sensing, the method comprising performing a self-capacitance scan and a mutual capacitance scan, and detecting, by a processing device, a presence of an object with the plurality of sense elements. The method further determines whether the detected presence of the object is legitimate.

Claims

1. A capacitance sensing device comprising:

a first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes disposed along a first axis;

a second plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes disposed along a second axis, the second axis substantially perpendicular to the first axis; and

a controller configured to;

measure a self capacitance of either;

at least one of the first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes or at least one of the second plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes and update a mutual capacitance baseline based on the measured self capacitance in a first mode,

measure a mutual capacitance between at least one of the first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes and at least one of the second plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes and update a self capacitance baseline based on the measured mutual capacitance in a second mode,

identify a touch on the capacitance sensing device if the measured self capacitance is above a first self capacitance threshold and if the measured mutual capacitance is above a first mutual capacitance threshold so as to prevent reporting of false touches before one or more of the baselines is updated, and calculate a position of the touch on the capacitance sensing device based on one or more of the measured self capacitance and the measured mutual capacitance.

2. The capacitance sensing device of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes are configured as transmit electrodes and the second plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes are configured as receive electrodes in the second mode.

3. The capacitance sensing device of claim 1, wherein the controller alternates between the first mode and the second mode to measure self capacitance and mutual capacitance.

4. The capacitance sensing device of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to measure the mutual capacitance between at least one of the first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes and at least one of the second plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes only if the measured self capacitance is above the first self capacitance threshold.

5. The capacitance sensing device of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to calculate the position of the touch on the capacitance sensing device based on the measured mutual capacitance.

6. The capacitance sensing device of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises:

a first measurement circuit configured to measure self capacitance; and

a second measurement circuit configured to measure mutual capacitance.

7. The capacitance sensing device of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises a measurement circuit configured to measure self capacitance in the first mode and measure mutual capacitance in the second mode.

8. The capacitance sensing device of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to drive either:

a first inactive subset of the first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes or a second inactive subset of the second plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes with a shield signal while measuring the self capacitance in the first mode so as to reduce measurement effects caused by water in proximity to a sensor array of the capacitance sensing device.

9. A method comprising:

measuring a self capacitance of at least one of a first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes and updating a mutual capacitance baseline based on the measured self capacitance;

measuring a mutual capacitance between at least one of the first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes and at least one of a second plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes, wherein the second plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes is disposed substantially perpendicular to the first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes;

recognizing a touch on a surface above the first and second pluralities of capacitance sensing electrodes if the measured self capacitance is above a first threshold and the measured mutual capacitance is above a second threshold so as to prevent reporting of false touches before the mutual capacitance baseline is updated;

calculating a first position of the touch on the surface based on the measured capacitances.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the measuring a mutual capacitance occurs if the measured self capacitance is above a third threshold.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein a first calculated position is based on only the measured mutual capacitance.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

measuring the self capacitance of at least one of the second plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes; and

calculating a second position based on the measured self capacitance on the first and second pluralities of electrodes.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the self capacitance measurement is performed by a first measurement circuit and the mutual capacitance measurement is performed by a second measurement circuit.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the self capacitance measurement and the mutual capacitance measurement are performed by a single measurement circuit operating in a first mode self capacitance measurement and in a second mode for mutual capacitance measurement.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the measuring the self capacitance of the at least one of a first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes comprises:

driving a first inactive electrode of the first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes with a shield signal; and

measuring the self capacitance of a second electrode of the first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes, the second electrode being substantially adjacent to the first electrode, so as to reduce measurement effects caused by water in proximity to the first electrode.

16. A touch screen controller configured to:

measure a self capacitance of at least one of a first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes in a first mode and update a mutual capacitance baseline based on the measured self capacitance;

measure a mutual capacitance between at least one of the first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes and at least one of a second plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes in a second mode;

identify a touch on the capacitance sensing device if the measured self capacitance is above a first self capacitance threshold and if the measured mutual capacitance is above a first mutual capacitance threshold so as to prevent reporting of false touches before the mutual capacitance baseline is updated; and

calculate a position of the touch on the first and second pluralities of a capacitance sensing electrodes.

17. The touch screen controller of claim 16, further configured to alternate between the first mode and the second mode to measure self capacitance and mutual capacitance.

18. The touch screen controller of claim 16, further configured to measure the mutual capacitance between at least one of the first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes and at least one of the second plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes only if the measured self capacitance is above the first self capacitance threshold.

19. The touch screen controller of claim 16, comprising:

a first measurement circuit configured to measure self capacitance; and

a second measurement circuit configured to measure mutual capacitance.

20. The touch screen controller of claim 16, further configured to drive either:

a first inactive subset of the first plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes or a second inactive the second plurality of capacitance sensing electrodes with a shield signal while measuring self capacitance in a first mode so as to reduce measurement effects caused by water in proximity to a sensor array associated with the touch screen controller.