TOUCH PANEL AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE INCLUDING THE SAME

• US 20110227862A1
• Filed: 11/17/2010
• Published: 09/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Inventors: LIM, Seong-Taek
• Granted Patent: US 8,982,089 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/174
• 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 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes

Abstract

A touch panel and an electronic device including the same are provided. The touch panel includes a touch panel body including a first substrate and a second substrate that is spaced apart from the first substrate, driving electrodes that are arranged on the first substrate and the second substrate, and electro-rheological fluid that fills a gap between the first substrate and the second substrate; a driver that applies a driving voltage to all or a portion of the driving electrodes; and a sensor that applies a sensing signal sequentially to the driving electrodes and senses a variation in capacitance between the driving electrodes due to a variation of the gap between the first substrate and the second substrate in response to the sensing signal.

Claims

1. A touch panel comprising:

a touch panel body comprising a first substrate and a second substrate that is spaced apart from the first substrate, a plurality of driving electrodes that are arranged on the first substrate and the second substrate, and electro-rheological fluid that fills a gap between the first substrate and the second substrate;

a driving unit that applies a driving voltage to all or a portion of the plurality of driving electrodes; and

a sensing unit that applies a sensing signal sequentially to the plurality of driving electrodes and senses a variation in capacitance between the driving electrodes due to a variation of the gap between the first substrate and the second substrate in response to the sensing signal.

2. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein if the variation in capacitance sensed by the sensing unit is equal to or greater than a threshold capacitance, the driving unit stops applying the applied driving voltage.

3. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the sensing signal is a sensing pulse voltage, and

the plurality of driving electrodes are arranged on the first substrate and the second substrate to form driving electrode arrays, and

the touch panel further comprises a combining unit that combines the driving voltage with the sensing pulse voltage and applies the combined voltage to the driving electrode arrays.

4. The touch panel of claim 3, further comprising a selecting unit that selects one voltage of the combined voltage and the sensing pulse voltage and applies the selected voltage to the plurality of driving electrodes.

5. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the plurality of driving electrodes comprise a plurality of first electrode lines arranged on the first substrate and extending in parallel in a first direction, and a plurality of second electrode lines arranged on the second substrate and extending in parallel in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, and

the sensing signal is applied sequentially to the plurality of first electrode lines while the driving voltage is applied to all or a portion of the plurality of driving electrodes.

6. The touch panel of claim 5, wherein the sensing unit comprises a voltage-current converter or a charge amplifier connected to each of the plurality of second electrode lines.

20. An electronic device comprising a touch panel of claim 1 as a user input device.

7. A touch panel comprising:

a first substrate comprising M first electrode lines arranged in parallel and extending in a first direction, wherein M is an integer equal to or greater than 2;

a second substrate spaced apart from the first substrate by a gap, the second substrate comprising N second electrode lines arranged in parallel and extending in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, wherein N is an integer equal to or greater than 2;

electro-rheological fluid filled in the gap between the first substrate and the second substrate;

a pulse generating circuit unit that generates a driving pulse voltage for driving the electro-rheological fluid and a sensing pulse voltage for determining an occurrence of an input on the touch panel;

a pulse applying circuit unit that combines the driving pulse voltage received from the pulse generating unit with the sensing pulse voltage and applies the combined voltage to the M first electrode lines; and

a sensing circuit unit that senses a variation in capacitance at each of intersections of the M first electrode lines and the N second electrode lines, in response to the sensing pulse voltage.

8. The touch panel of claim 7, wherein the sensing pulse voltage is applied sequentially to the M first electrode lines.

9. The touch panel of claim 8, wherein the sensing pulse voltage is applied when the driving pulse voltage is applied to all or a portion of the M first electrode lines.

10. The touch panel of claim 7, wherein the pulse applying circuit unit comprises M subtractors provided to correspond one to one with the M first electrode lines and connected respectively thereto, each subtractor subtracting the sensing pulse voltage from the driving pulse voltage and outputting the subtracted voltage to a first electrode line connected thereto.

11. The touch panel of claim 10, wherein the pulse applying circuit unit comprises M switching devices provided to correspond one to one with the M first electrode lines and connected respectively thereto, each switching device selectively applying one voltage of a subtracted pulse voltage output from a corresponding subtractor and the sensing pulse voltage received from the pulse generating unit to a first electrode line connected thereto.

12. The touch panel of claim 7, wherein the sensing circuit unit comprises N voltage-to-current converters or N charge amplifiers connected one to one to the N second electrode lines.

13. The touch panel of claim 12, wherein each voltage-current converter or each charge amplifier is a switchable OP amplifier.

14. The touch panel of claim 7, wherein the sensing circuit unit selectively sets each of the N second electrode lines to one state of a ground state and a floating state.

15. The touch panel of claim 7, wherein a width of the sensing pulse voltage is equal to or smaller than a width of the driving pulse voltage multiplied by (1/M).

16. The touch panel of claim 7, wherein if the sensing circuit unit determines that a variation in capacitance sensed from at least one electrode line among the N electrode lines is equal to or greater than a threshold capacitance, the pulse applying unit releases the applied driving voltage from all or a portion of the N electrode lines.

17. A method of controlling a touch panel, the touch panel comprising a first substrate comprising M first electrode lines arranged in parallel and extending in a first direction wherein M is an integer equal to or greater than 2, a second substrate spaced apart from the first substrate by a gap and comprising N second electrode lines arranged in parallel and extending in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, wherein N is an integer equal to or greater than 2, and electro-rheological fluid filled in the gap between the first substrate and the second substrate, the method comprising:

sequentially applying a sensing signal to the M first electrode lines; and

sensing, from the N second electrode lines, a variation in capacitance at intersections of the M first electrode lines and the N second electrode lines, in response to the sensing signal.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

applying a driving voltage to all or a portion of the M first electrode lines,

wherein the sensing signal is applied when the driving voltage is applied.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the sensing of the variation in capacitance further comprises:

releasing the applied driving voltage from all or a portion of the M first electrode lines when the variation in the capacitance is equal to or greater than a threshold capacitance.

21. A touch panel comprising:

an M×

N array of first driving electrodes arranged on a first substrate and an M×

N array of second driving electrodes arranged on a second substrate so as to form an M×

N array of driving electrode pairs, the first substrate and the second substrate being spaced apart by a gap;

electro-rheological fluid filled in the gap;

a pulse generating circuit unit that generates a driving pulse voltage and a sensing pulse voltage;

a pulse applying circuit unit that combines the driving pulse voltage received from the pulse generating unit with the sensing pulse voltage and applies the combined voltage individually to each of the driving electrode pairs of the M×

N array of driving electrode pairs; and

a sensing circuit unit that senses a variation in capacitance at each driving electrode pair of the M×

N array of driving electrode pairs in response to the combined voltage individually applied thereto.

22. The touch panel according to claim 21, wherein M is at least 2 and N is at least 2.