Capacitance sensing electrode with integrated I/O mechanism

• US 20080007533A1
• Filed: 07/06/2006
• Published: 01/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Computer Incorporated (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Hotelling, Steve P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,022,935 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1684 Constructional details or arrangements related to integrated I/O peripherals not covered by groups G06F1/1635 - G06F1/1675
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 2003/0293 with an integrated touch switch
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/96 Touch switches specially adapted for electronic time-pieces with no moving parts G04G21/08
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/962 Capacitive touch switches
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/96015 Constructional details for touch switches for capacitive touch switches see H03K2217/9607
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/96046 Key-pad combined with display, back-lit
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/960795 using organic light emitting devices, e.g. light emitting polymer [OEP] or OLED

Abstract

A touch sensing device is disclosed. The touch sensing device includes one or more multifunctional nodes each of which represents a single touch pixel. Each multifunctional node includes a touch sensor with one or more integrated I/O mechanisms. The touch sensor and integrated I/O mechanisms share the same communication lines and I/O pins of a controller during operation of the touch sensing device.

Claims

1. A touch sensing device, comprising:

one or more multifunctional nodes each of which represents a single touch pixel, each multifunctional node including a touch sensor with one or more integrated I/O mechanisms, the touch sensor and integrated I/O mechanisms sharing the same communication lines and I/O pins of a controller during operation of the touch sensing device.

2. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 1 wherein the touch sensor is a capacitive sensing electrode.

3. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 1 wherein the capacitive sensing electrode is based on self capacitance.

4. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 1 wherein the I/O mechanism is an input mechanism.

5. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 4 wherein the I/O mechanism is a switch or sensor.

6. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 1 wherein the I/O mechanism is an output mechanism.

7. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 6 wherein the I/O mechanism is a light source.

8. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 6 wherein the I/O mechanism is an LED.

9. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 6 wherein the I/O pins are configurable, and wherein the functionality of the I/O pins are adjusted according to the operation being performed.

10. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 1 wherein the controller selectively switches operations between touch sensor and the one or more I/O mechanism, the switching being serially repeated while the touch sensing device is activated.

11. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 1 wherein the controller selectively switches via time multiplexing.

12. The touch sensing device as recited in claim 1 wherein the touch sensing device includes multiple I/O mechanisms.

13. An I/O device for use in a user interface of an electronic device, the I/O device comprising:

a capacitive sensing electrode;

one or more I/O mechanisms integrated with the capacitive sensing electrode such that the electrode and I/O mechanisms are incorporated into a single defined node of the I/O device.

14. The I/O device as recited in claim 13 wherein the one or more I/O mechanisms are positioned entirely within the edges of the capacitive sensing electrode.

15. The I/O device as recited in claim 13 wherein the one or more I/O mechanism each include an first connection point and a second connection point, the first connection point being electrically coupled to the electrode, the second connection point being electrically isolated from the electrode.

16. The I/O device as recited in claim 15 wherein the I/O device further includes a first communication line electrically coupled to the electrode and a second communication line electrically coupled to the second connection points of the one or more I/O mechanisms.

17. The I/O device as recited in claim 16 wherein the first communication line is connected to a first adjustable contact of a controller, and the second communication line is connected to a second adjustable contact of the controller, the adjustable contacts being adjusted between ground, voltage and digital input depending on whether the node is being used for capacitive sensing or I/I operations.

18. The I/O device as recited in claim 16 further comprising a capacitor positioned between the first and second communication lines in order include the one or more I/O mechanism in the total electrode area during capacitive sensing.

19. The I/O device as recited in claim 13 wherein the one or more I/O mechanisms is a single switch

20. The I/O device as recited in claim 19 wherein the switch is a dome switch or momentary switch.

21. The I/O device as recited in claim 13 wherein the one or more I/O mechanisms is a single light source

22. The I/O device as recited in claim 21 wherein the light source is a LED.

23. The I/O device as recited in claim 13 wherein the one or more I/O mechanisms includes a switch and a light source.

24. The I/O device as recited in claim 13 wherein the I/O device serially operates the capacitive sensing electrode and one or more I/O mechanisms via time multiplexing.

25. A touch device including a plurality of touch sensing nodes positioned in an array within a touch plane, at least one of the touch sensing nodes being embodied as a multifunctional touch sensing node that performs touch sensing operations in addition to one or more I/O operations.

26. The touch device as recited in claim 25 wherein each of the touch sensing nodes include a capacitive sensing electrode, and each of the multifunctional nodes further include one or more I/O mechanisms that are integrated with the capacitive sensing electrode at the node.

27. The touch device as recited in claim 25 wherein the touch sensing device include more than one multifunctional node, and wherein the multifunctional nodes are different.

28. The touch device as recited in claim 25 wherein all the touch sensing nodes are multifunctional nodes.

29. The touch device as recited in claim 25 wherein the touch sensing device include more than one multifunctional node, and wherein the multifunctional nodes are different.

30. The touch device as recited in claim 25 wherein the touch sensing nodes are laid out in a circular fashion such that each touch sensing node represents a distinct angular position within the touch plane.

31. The touch device as recited in claim 25 wherein the multifunctional nodes are located at least at the north, south, east and west positions within the circular arrangement.

32. The touch device as recited in claim 25 wherein the touch device is a touch pad.

33. The touch device as recited in claim 25 wherein the touch device is a touch screen.

34. The touch device as recited in claim 25 wherein the touch device is a touch sensitive housing.