Touch detection using multiple simultaneous frequencies

• US 8,493,331 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2007
• Issued: 07/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Krah, Christoph Horst, Hotelling, Steve Porter, O'Connor, Sean Erik, Westerman, Wayne Carl
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisen, Alexander
• Assistant Examiner(s): MARINELLI, PATRICK
• Application Number:
  US11/818,345
• Publication Number:
  US 20080309625A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,232 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-184, 178 1801- 2004
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04166 Details of scanning methods, e.g. sampling time, grouping of sub areas or time sharing with display driving Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally G06F3/04184
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• 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

The use of multiple stimulation frequencies and phases to generate an image of touch on a touch sensor panel is disclosed. Each of a plurality of sense channels can be coupled to a column in a touch sensor panel and can have multiple mixers. Each mixer in the sense channel can utilize a circuit capable generating a demodulation frequency of a particular frequency. At each of multiple steps, various phases of selected frequencies can be used to simultaneously stimulate the rows of the touch sensor panel, and the multiple mixers in each sense channel can be configured to demodulate the signal received from the column connected to each sense channel using the selected frequencies. After all steps have been completed, the demodulated signals from the multiple mixers can be used in calculations to determine an image of touch for the touch sensor panel at each frequency.

Claims

1. A system for determining an amount of touch at each of a plurality of locations of touch sensor circuitry, the system comprising:

touch sensor circuitry having a plurality of drive lines and a plurality of sense lines; and

an integrated circuit coupled to the touch sensor circuitry, including

driver logic that generates a plurality of different sets of stimulation signals and applies the sets sequentially to the plurality of drive lines such that the stimulation signals in each set are applied simultaneously to the plurality of drive lines, the stimulation signals in each set including stimulation signals of different frequencies;

a plurality of sense channels, each sense channel receiving a sense signal from a different sense line of the touch sensor circuitry during application of each set of stimulation signals to the drive lines, wherein each sense signal includes a composite signal based on a plurality of stimulation signals in the applied set;

a demodulation section that demodulates each sense signal with demodulation signals at demodulation frequencies corresponding to the stimulation frequencies in the corresponding applied set, wherein each sense signal is demodulated with multiple demodulation signals to produce multiple demodulated values, each demodulated value including a composite value based on touch information of a plurality of locations of the touch sensor circuitry; and

a calculation section that calculates, based on a plurality of the demodulated values produced over a plurality of sequential applications of sets of stimulation signals, an amount of touch at each of the plurality of locations of the touch sensor circuitry.

2. The system of claim 1, the demodulation section including:

a plurality of mixers coupled to an output of a multiplexer;

a frequency generator circuit coupled to each of the plurality of mixers for generating a demodulation signal at one of the demodulation frequencies; and

an accumulator coupled to each of the plurality of mixers for generating the values representing the accumulated mixer outputs;

wherein each frequency generator circuit generates a different demodulation frequency, the different demodulation frequencies corresponding to different stimulation frequencies simultaneously applied to the drive lines of the touch sensor circuitry.

3. The system of claim 2, one or more of the frequency generator circuits comprising a numerically controlled oscillator (NCO).

4. The system of claim 2, further comprising memory for storing the plurality of demodulated values produced by the demodulation section.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising a processor for computing and storing, for each of the plurality of sense lines, a drive line result for each drive line and each of the plurality of demodulation frequencies using the stored plurality of demodulation values, each drive line result including the demodulated values produced when the drive line was stimulated with the stimulation frequency corresponding to the demodulation frequency.

6. A computing system comprising the system of claim 2.

7. A mobile telephone comprising the computing system of claim 6.

8. A digital audio player comprising the computing system of claim 6.

9. A method for determining an amount of touch at each of a plurality of locations of touch sensor circuitry, the method comprising:

generating a plurality of different sets of stimulation signals and applying the sets sequentially to a plurality of drive lines of the touch sensor circuitry such that the stimulation signals in each set are applied simultaneously to the plurality of drive lines, the stimulation signals in each set including stimulation signals of different frequencies;

receiving a sense signal from each of a plurality of sense lines in the touch sensor circuitry into a corresponding one of a plurality of sense channels during application of each set of stimulation signals to the drive lines, wherein each sense signal includes a composite signal based on a plurality of stimulation signals in the applied set;

demodulating each sense signal with demodulation signals at a plurality of demodulation frequencies corresponding to the stimulation frequencies in the corresponding applied set, wherein each sense signal is demodulated with multiple demodulation frequencies to produce multiple demodulated values, each demodulated value including a composite value based on touch information of a plurality of locations of the touch sensor circuitry; and

calculating, based on a plurality of the demodulated values produced over a plurality of sequential applications of sets of stimulation signals, an amount of touch at each of the plurality of locations of the touch sensor circuitry.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein demodulating the sense signals includes:

demodulating the received sense signal in each sense channel using a plurality of different demodulation frequencies, the different demodulation frequencies corresponding to different stimulation frequencies simultaneously applied to the drive lines of the touch sensor circuitry; and

accumulating the demodulated sense signals in each sense channel to generate the plurality of values.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising generating demodulation frequencies for demodulating the received sense signals using one or more numerically controlled oscillators (NCOs).

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising storing the plurality of demodulated values, and computing and storing, for each of the plurality of sense lines, a drive line result for each drive line and each of the plurality of demodulation frequencies using the stored plurality of values demodulation values, each drive line result including the demodulated values produced when the drive line was stimulated with the stimulation frequency corresponding to the demodulation frequency.

13. A method for obtaining a plurality of values used to generate an image of touch from touch sensor circuitry, the touch sensor circuitry including a plurality of drive lines and sense lines, the method comprising:

simultaneously driving one or more drive lines with a first stimulation signal of a first frequency and a first phase, one or more drive lines with a second stimulation signal of the first frequency and a second phase, one or more drive lines with a third stimulation signal of a second frequency and the first phase, and one or more drive lines with a fourth stimulation signal of the second frequency and the second phase, wherein one stimulation signal is applied to each drive line;

receiving a sense signal from each of a plurality of the sense lines into a different sense channel of the touch sensor circuitry;

demodulating the sense signal received into each sense channel with a first demodulation signal of the first frequency and one of the first and second phases and a second demodulation signal of the second frequency and one of the first and second phases;

accumulating the sense signals demodulated with the first and second demodulation signals in each sense channel to generate a plurality of values representing the accumulated demodulated sense signals for each sense channel; and

storing the plurality of values for all sense channels.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising simultaneously driving the plurality of drive lines with multiple unique distributions of the first, second, third, and fourth stimulation signals and storing multiple pluralities of values after applying each of the multiple unique distributions.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising, for each of the plurality of sense lines, computing and storing a drive line result for each drive line and each of the first and second frequencies using the stored multiple pluralities of values.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the first and second frequencies are selected low noise frequencies.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising obtaining the plurality of values during the vertical blanking phase of a liquid crystal display (LCD) adjacent to the touch sensor circuitry.

18. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing program code for determining an amount of touch at each of a plurality of locations of touch sensor circuitry, the program code for performing a method comprising:

generating a plurality of different sets of stimulation signals and applying the sets sequentially to a plurality of drive lines of the touch sensor circuitry such that the stimulation signals in each set are applied simultaneously to the plurality of drive lines, the stimulation signals in each set including stimulation signals of different frequencies;

receiving sense signals from a plurality of sense lines of the touch sensor circuitry during application of each set of stimulation signals to the drive lines, wherein each sense signal includes a composite signal based on a plurality of stimulation signals in the applied set;

demodulating the sense signals with demodulation signals at a plurality of demodulation frequencies corresponding to the stimulation frequencies in the corresponding applied set, wherein each sense signal is demodulated with multiple demodulation signals to produce multiple demodulated values, each demodulated value including a composite value based on touch information of a plurality of locations of the touch sensor circuitry; and

calculating, based on a plurality of the demodulated values produced over a plurality of sequential applications of sets of stimulation signals, an amount of touch at each of the plurality of locations of the touch sensor circuitry.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, the method further comprising demodulating each of the sense signals by:

generating demodulation signals at the demodulation frequencies; and

accumulating the demodulated values produced by each of the demodulation signals.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, the method further comprising generating the demodulation frequencies using a numerically controlled oscillator (NCO).

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, the method further comprising storing the plurality of demodulated values.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, the method further comprising computing and storing, for each of the plurality of sense lines, a drive line result for each drive line and each of the plurality of demodulation frequencies using the stored plurality of demodulation values, each drive line result including the demodulated values produced when the drive line was stimulated with the stimulation frequency corresponding to the demodulation frequency.

23. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing program code for determining an amount of touch at each of a plurality of locations of touch sensor circuitry, the program code for performing a method comprising:

generating a plurality of different sets of stimulation signals and applying the sets sequentially to a plurality of drive lines of the touch sensor circuitry such that the stimulation signals in each set are applied simultaneously to the plurality of drive lines, the stimulation signals in each set including stimulation signals of different frequencies;

receiving a sense signal from each of a plurality of sense lines in the touch sensor circuitry into a corresponding one of a plurality of sense channels during application of each set of stimulation signals to the drive lines, wherein each sense signal includes a composite signal based on a plurality of stimulation signals in the applied set;

demodulating each sense signal with demodulation signals at a plurality of demodulation frequencies corresponding to the stimulation frequencies in the corresponding applied set, wherein each sense signal is demodulated with multiple demodulation frequencies to produce multiple demodulated values, each demodulated value including a composite value based on touch information of a plurality of locations of the touch sensor circuitry; and

calculating, based on a plurality of the demodulated values produced over a plurality of sequential applications of sets of stimulation signals, an amount of touch at each of the plurality of locations of the touch sensor circuitry.

24. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the method further comprises demodulating the sense signals by:

demodulating the received sense signal in each sense channel using a plurality of different demodulation frequencies, the different demodulation frequencies corresponding to different stimulation frequencies simultaneously applied to the drive lines of the touch sensor circuitry; and

accumulating the demodulated sense signals in each sense channel to generate the plurality of values.

25. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 24, the method further comprising generating demodulation frequencies for demodulating the received sense signals using one or more numerically controlled oscillators (NCOs).

26. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 23, the method further comprising storing the plurality of demodulated values, and computing and storing, for each of the plurality of sense lines, a drive line result for each drive line and each of the plurality of demodulation frequencies using the stored plurality of values demodulation values, each drive line result including the demodulated values produced when the drive line was stimulated with the stimulation frequency corresponding to the demodulation frequency.

27. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing program code for obtaining a plurality of values used to generate an image of touch from touch sensor circuitry, the touch sensor circuitry including a plurality of drive lines and sense lines, the program code for performing a method comprising:

simultaneously driving one or more drive lines with a first stimulation signal of a first frequency and a first phase, one or more drive lines with a second stimulation signal of the first frequency and a second phase, one or more drive lines with a third stimulation signal of a second frequency and the first phase, and one or more drive lines with a fourth stimulation signal of the second frequency and the second phase, wherein one stimulation signal is applied to each drive line;

receiving a sense signal from each of a plurality of the sense lines into a different sense channel of the touch sensor circuitry;

demodulating the sense signal received into each sense channel with a first demodulation signal of the first frequency and one of the first and second phases and a second demodulation signal of the second frequency and one of the first and second phases;

accumulating the sense signals demodulated with the first and second demodulation signals in each sense channel to generate a plurality of values representing the accumulated demodulated sense signals for each sense channel; and

storing the plurality of values for all sense channels.

28. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 27, the method further comprising simultaneously driving the plurality of drive lines with multiple unique distributions of the first, second, third, and fourth stimulation signals and storing multiple pluralities of values after applying each of the multiple unique distributions.

29. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28, the method further comprising, for each of the plurality of sense lines, computing and storing a drive line result for each drive line and each of the first and second frequencies using the stored multiple pluralities of values.

30. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 27, wherein the first and second frequencies are selected low noise frequencies.

31. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 27, the method further comprising obtaining the plurality of values during the vertical blanking phase of a liquid crystal display (LCD) adjacent to the touch sensor circuitry.