Measuring circuit and measuring method for a capacitive touch-sensitive panel
First Claim
1. A measuring circuit electrically connected to a capacitive touch-sensitive panel, the capacitive touch-sensitive panel including a plurality of sense electrodes, the measuring circuit being adapted to electrically connect to the sense electrodes, and measure variations in an instantaneous electric capacity of the sense electrodes in response to proximity to conductive bodies, wherein the sense electrodes are biased at a fixed voltage relative to a common floating reference potential, the measuring circuit comprising:
- a power management circuit comprising a modulated voltage source generating a modulation voltage having a variable frequency that determines said common floating reference potential, one or more readout units, each connected to a subset of the sense electrodes and operatively arranged for generating signals representing the instantaneous electric capacity of the sense electrodes in the subset;
a detector for generating said signals synchronously with the modulation voltage.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A measuring circuit connectable to a capacitive touch-sensitive panel, the panel including a plurality of sense electrodes and optionally a common guard electrode, adapted to measure variations in the instantaneous electric capacity of the sense electrodes in response to proximity to conductive bodies, wherein the sense electrodes are biased at a fixed voltage relative to the common guard electrode, the measuring circuit comprising: a power management integrated circuit comprising a voltage source generating a modulation voltage that is available at a guard terminal of the power management integrated circuit that is in electric connection with the guard electrode; one or more slave integrated circuits, each connected to a plurality of sense electrodes and comprising a Capacity-to-Digital converter or a plurality of Capacity-to-Digital converters that are operatively arranged for generating digital measure codes representing the instantaneous electric capacity of sense electrodes; a means for varying the frequency of the modulation voltage.
9 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A measuring circuit electrically connected to a capacitive touch-sensitive panel, the capacitive touch-sensitive panel including a plurality of sense electrodes, the measuring circuit being adapted to electrically connect to the sense electrodes, and measure variations in an instantaneous electric capacity of the sense electrodes in response to proximity to conductive bodies, wherein the sense electrodes are biased at a fixed voltage relative to a common floating reference potential, the measuring circuit comprising:
- a power management circuit comprising a modulated voltage source generating a modulation voltage having a variable frequency that determines said common floating reference potential, one or more readout units, each connected to a subset of the sense electrodes and operatively arranged for generating signals representing the instantaneous electric capacity of the sense electrodes in the subset;
a detector for generating said signals synchronously with the modulation voltage. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
- a power management circuit comprising a modulated voltage source generating a modulation voltage having a variable frequency that determines said common floating reference potential, one or more readout units, each connected to a subset of the sense electrodes and operatively arranged for generating signals representing the instantaneous electric capacity of the sense electrodes in the subset;
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8. A method for measuring variations in an instantaneous electric capacity of sense electrodes in a touch-sensitive panel, in response to proximity to conductive bodies, wherein the sense electrodes are biased at a floating reference voltage, the touch-sensitive panel including a common guard electrode, the method comprising the steps of generating a modulation voltage that determines said floating reference voltage with a voltage source comprised in a power management circuit, detecting the instantaneous electric capacity of the sense electrodes synchronously with the modulation voltage, generating signals representing the instantaneous electric capacity of the sense electrodes;
- varying a frequency of the modulation voltage.
- View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
Specification