Capacitive touchscreen or touchpad for finger and active stylus
First Claim
1. An electronic device, comprising:
- a mutual capacitance combined finger and active stylus sensing touchscreen or touchpad comprising an outer touch surface, at least one substrate disposed beneath the touch surface, a first plurality of mutual capacitance drive electrodes arranged in first rows or columns on the at least one substrate, a second plurality of mutual capacitance sense electrodes arranged in second rows or columns on the at least one substrate, the first rows or columns not being parallel to the second rows or columns;
electrode driving and sensing circuitry operably connected to the drive and sense electrodes and configured to permit at least some of the drive electrodes to be switchably configured thereby for operation as either drive electrodes in a first finger touch mode or as additional sense electrodes in a second active stylus mode, andan active stylus comprising stylus driving circuitry configured to emit an active signal from the active stylus when the touchscreen or touchpad is operating in the second mode, the active signal having the same amplitude, phase and frequency of a drive signal output by the drive electrodes when the drive electrodes are operating in the first finger touch mode;
wherein the outer touch surface is configured for a user to place and move the finger or active stylus thereon and thereacross, the first and second pluralities of electrodes form an electrode array, and the electrode driving and sensing circuitry and the electrode array are together configured to permit a first finger position on the outer touch surface to be detected capacitively thereby when operating in the first mode and to detect a second active signal location on the outer touch surface to be detected capacitively thereby when operating in the second mode.
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Accused Products
Abstract
There is provided an electronic device having a mutual capacitance touchscreen or touchpad having combined finger navigation and active stylus navigation and character entry capabilities. According to one such embodiment, first and second pluralities of sense and drive electrodes are disposed in or on at least one substrate, and form an array configured to permit a first location corresponding to a finger or a second location corresponding to an active stylus to be detected thereby. The drive electrodes in the array are configured to operate as drive electrodes when the touchscreen or touchpad operates in a first finger touch mode, and to operate as additional sense electrodes when the touchscreen or touchpad operates in a second active stylus mode.
167 Citations
27 Claims
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1. An electronic device, comprising:
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a mutual capacitance combined finger and active stylus sensing touchscreen or touchpad comprising an outer touch surface, at least one substrate disposed beneath the touch surface, a first plurality of mutual capacitance drive electrodes arranged in first rows or columns on the at least one substrate, a second plurality of mutual capacitance sense electrodes arranged in second rows or columns on the at least one substrate, the first rows or columns not being parallel to the second rows or columns; electrode driving and sensing circuitry operably connected to the drive and sense electrodes and configured to permit at least some of the drive electrodes to be switchably configured thereby for operation as either drive electrodes in a first finger touch mode or as additional sense electrodes in a second active stylus mode, and an active stylus comprising stylus driving circuitry configured to emit an active signal from the active stylus when the touchscreen or touchpad is operating in the second mode, the active signal having the same amplitude, phase and frequency of a drive signal output by the drive electrodes when the drive electrodes are operating in the first finger touch mode; wherein the outer touch surface is configured for a user to place and move the finger or active stylus thereon and thereacross, the first and second pluralities of electrodes form an electrode array, and the electrode driving and sensing circuitry and the electrode array are together configured to permit a first finger position on the outer touch surface to be detected capacitively thereby when operating in the first mode and to detect a second active signal location on the outer touch surface to be detected capacitively thereby when operating in the second mode. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method of sensing a position of a finger or an active stylus on a touchscreen or touchpad, comprising:
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detecting, in a first finger touch mode, a first position of the finger on the touchscreen or touchpad when a mutual capacitance changes between a first plurality of electrodes and a second plurality of electrodes near the first position, the first and second pluralities of electrodes forming an electrode array in the touchscreen or touchpad, and detecting, in a second active stylus mode, a second position of the active stylus on the touchscreen or touchpad when an active signal emitted by the active stylus is detected by the first plurality of electrodes and the second plurality of electrodes near the second position, the active signal having the same amplitude, phase and frequency of a drive signal output by the first plurality of electrodes when the first plurality of electrodes is operating in the first finger touch mode.
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Specification