Force sensing using capacitive touch surfaces

• US 10,209,843 B2
• Filed: 02/13/2018
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Sundara-Rajan, Kishore
• Primary Examiner(s): Abdin, Shaheda
• Application Number:
  US15/895,641
• Publication Number:
  US 20180188855A1
• Time in Patent Office: 371 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0445 using two or more layers of sensing electrodes, e.g. using two layers of electrodes separated by a dielectric layer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0447 Position sensing using the local deformation of sensor cells

Abstract

In one general aspect, a method can include identifying contact with a surface of a touch-sensitive input device, identifying a location of the contact on the surface of the touch-sensitive input device, and calculating a change in a mutual capacitance between a first electrode and a second electrode included in a sensor module disposed below the surface of the touch-sensitive input device. The first electrode can be adjacent to the second electrode. The first electrode and the second electrode can be located approximate to the identified location of the contact on the surface of the touch-sensitive input device. The method can include estimating a contact-coupled capacitance based on the calculated change in a mutual capacitance between the first electrode and the second electrode, and calculating a force applied to the surface of the touch-sensitive input device at the identified location.

Claims

1. A touch-sensitive input device comprising:

a glass-plus-sensor module including;

a cover glass including a top surface and a bottom surface; and

at least two electrodes attached to the bottom surface of the cover glass, the at least two electrodes having an associated self-capacitance;

an adhesive layer attached to the bottom surface of the cover glass, the adhesive layer having a thickness; and

a processor configured to calculate a force applied by a contact with the top surface of the cover glass based on a change in self-capacitance for each electrode and the thickness of the adhesive layer, the change in self-capacitance for each electrode being caused by the force applied by the contact bending the glass-plus-sensor module toward the adhesive layer.

2. The touch-sensitive input device of claim 1, further comprising:

a display device having a top surface and a bottom surface; and

a ground plane attached to the bottom surface of the display device,

wherein the adhesive layer comprises an optically clear adhesive (OCA) layer attaching the bottom surface of the cover glass to the top surface of the display device, and

wherein the self-capacitance associated with each electrode is a capacitance as measured between each electrode and the ground plane.

3. The touch-sensitive input device of claim 1,

wherein the at least two electrodes are adjacent to one another;

and

wherein the calculation of a force applied by the contact with the top surface of the cover glass is further based on a mutual capacitance between the at least two electrodes.

4. The touch-sensitive input device of claim 1, wherein the contact is by one of a finger of a user or a stylus.

5. The touch-sensitive input device of claim 1, wherein the touch-sensitive input device is one of a touchpad or a touchscreen.

6. The touch-sensitive input device of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to calculate the force applied by the contact with the top surface of the cover glass based on the change in self-capacitance for each electrode, the thickness of the adhesive layer, and proportionality of the self-capacitance to the thickness of the adhesive layer.

7. A computing device comprising:

at least one controller; and

a touch-sensitive input device configured to facilitate interaction by a user with a graphical user interface (GUI), the touch-sensitive input device comprising;

a glass-plus-sensor module including;

a cover glass including a top surface and a bottom surface; and

at least two electrodes attached to the bottom surface of the cover glass, the at least two electrodes having an associated self-capacitance;

a display device having a top surface and a bottom surface, the computing device being configured to render the GUI on the display device;

an optically clear adhesive (OCA) layer attaching the bottom surface of the cover glass to the top surface of the display device, the OCA layer having a thickness; and

a ground plane attached to the bottom surface of the display device,

wherein the at least one controller and the touch-sensitive input device are collectively configured to;

detect contact of a conductive element with the top surface of the cover glass; and

based on the detected contact, determine, for each of the at least two electrodes, a self-capacitance associated with the electrode; and

calculate a force applied by the contact of the conductive element with the top surface of the cover glass based on the determined self-capacitance associated with each of the at least two electrodes, the thickness of the OCA layer, and proportionality of the self-capacitance to the thickness of the OCA layer, the change in self-capacitance for each electrode being caused by the force applied by the contact of the conductive element bending the glass-plus-sensor module toward the OCA layer.

8. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the at least one controller is configured to:

execute an application on the computing device; and

provide the calculated force as input to the application.

9. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the at least one controller is configured to control a function of the application based on the calculated force.

10. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the conductive element is one of a finger of a user or a stylus.

11. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the self-capacitance associated with the electrode is a capacitance as measured between the electrode and the ground plane.

12. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the at least one controller and the touch-sensitive input device are collectively configured to determine, for each of the at least two electrodes, a mutual capacitance between the at least two electrodes.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein calculating a force applied by the contact of the conductive element with the top surface of the cover glass is further based on the determined mutual capacitance between the at least two electrodes.

14. A touch-sensitive input device comprising:

a glass-plus-sensor module including;

a cover glass including a top surface and a bottom surface; and

at least three electrodes attached to the bottom surface of the cover glass, each of the at least three electrodes having an associated self-capacitance;

a display device, the glass-plus-sensor module bending towards the display device at a point of contact of a conductive element with the top surface of the cover glass, the bending changing, for each of the at least three electrodes, the self-capacitance associated with each of the at least three electrodes, and a calculation of a force applied by the contact of the conductive element with the top surface of the cover glass being based on the change in self-capacitance for each of the at least three electrodes, and

an optically clear adhesive (OCA) layer attaching the bottom surface of the cover glass to the top surface of the display device, the OCA layer having a thickness,

wherein the calculation of the force applied by the contact of the conductive element with the top surface of the cover glass is further based on the thickness of the OCA layer.

15. The touch-sensitive input device of claim 14, wherein the display device includes a top surface and a bottom surface.

16. The touch-sensitive input device of claim 15, further comprising a ground plane attached to the bottom surface of the display device.

17. The touch-sensitive input device of claim 16, wherein the self-capacitance associated with each of the at least three electrodes is a capacitance as measured between the electrode and the ground plane.

18. The touch-sensitive input device of claim 14,

wherein the at least three electrodes include a first electrode, a second electrode, and a third electrode, the first electrode being adjacent to the second electrode, the first electrode and the second electrode located approximate to the point of contact of the conductive element with the top surface of the cover glass, and the third electrode being adjacent to the second electrode and located closer to the point of contact of the conductive element with the top surface of the cover glass than the first electrode;

and

wherein the calculation of the force applied by the contact of the conductive element with the top surface of the cover glass is further based on calculating a change in a mutual capacitance between the first electrode and the second electrode, and calculating a change in a mutual capacitance between the second electrode and the third electrode.