Touch sensing apparatus and sensing signal processing method thereof

• US 8,537,123 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2008
• Issued: 09/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AU Optronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: AU Optronics Corporation
• Inventors: Ho, Chen-Hsiang, Hsu, Yu-Min, Wang, Chih-Sung
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia, Prabodh M
• Application Number:
  US12/258,457
• Publication Number:
  US 20100039396A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,786 Days
• Field of Search: 345/55, 345154-178, 345/667, 178/18.03, 178/198.01, 715/702, 715/784, 715/234, 715/800, 715/252, 715/251, 340/635, 340/662, 340/604, 340/573.5, 340/540, 340/429, 340/566
• US Class Current: 345/173
• 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

Abstract

A touch sensing apparatus for accelerating a sensing signal processing operation is provided. The touch sensing apparatus includes a plurality of sets of horizontal sensing lines, a plurality of sets of vertical sensing lines, a plurality of processing circuits, and a plurality of sensing units. The plurality of sensing units output a plurality of sets of horizontal and vertical sensing signals via the plurality of sets of horizontal and vertical sensing lines respectively. Each processing circuit is coupled to corresponding sets of horizontal and vertical sensing lines. Furthermore, disclosed is a sensing signal processing method essentially including scanning the plurality of sets of horizontal sensing lines in synchronization for synchronously fetching the plurality of sets of horizontal sensing signals during a first interval, and scanning the plurality of sets of vertical sensing lines in synchronization for synchronously fetching the plurality of sets of vertical sensing signals during a second interval.

Claims

1. A touch sensing apparatus comprising:

a plurality of horizontal sensing lines disposed in a first direction;

a plurality of vertical sensing lines disposed in a second direction, wherein the plurality of horizontal sensing lines are divided into N sets of horizontal sensing lines, the plurality of vertical sensing lines are divided into N sets of vertical sensing lines, and the first direction is perpendicular to the second direction;

a plurality of sensing units, each of the sensing units electrically coupled to a corresponding horizontal sensing line and a corresponding vertical sensing line, each of the sensing units being utilized for generating a corresponding horizontal sensing signal and a corresponding vertical sensing signal; and

N sets of processing circuits, each processing circuit of the N sets of processing circuits electrically coupled to a corresponding set of horizontal sensing lines of the N sets of horizontal sensing lines and a corresponding set of vertical sensing lines of the N sets of vertical sensing lines;

wherein each processing circuit of the N sets of processing circuits respectively fetches and processes a horizontal sensing signal from a horizontal sensing line of the corresponding set of horizontal sensing lines at a first instant simultaneously;

wherein each processing circuit of the N sets of processing circuits respectively fetches and processes a vertical sensing signal from a vertical sensing line of the corresponding set of vertical sensing lines at a second instant simultaneously; and

wherein the first instant is different from the second instant and each of the N sets of horizontal sensing lines and each of the N sets of vertical sensing lines respectively have corresponding horizontal sensing lines and corresponding vertical sensing lines simultaneously transmitting signals to each of the N sets of processing circuit for processing sensing signals.

2. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sensing unit comprises a pressure sensing device or a light sensing device.

3. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 2, wherein the pressure sensing device is a capacitive pressure sensing device or a piezoelectric device.

4. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 2, wherein the light sensing device is a photo-diode or a photo-transistor.

5. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a first transmission interface electrically coupled to the N sets of processing circuits.

6. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 5, wherein the N sets of processing circuits generate at least one touch coordinate signal based on the horizontal sensing signals and the vertical sensing signals.

7. A sensing signal processing method for use in a touch sensing apparatus, the touch sensing apparatus comprising a plurality of processing circuits, a plurality of sets of horizontal sensing lines and a plurality of sets of vertical sensing lines, the sensing signal processing method comprising:

each processing circuit of the plurality of processing circuits respectively fetching and processing a horizontal sensing signal from a horizontal sensing line of a corresponding set of horizontal sensing lines at a first instant simultaneously; and

each processing circuit of the plurality of processing circuits respectively fetching and processing a vertical sensing signal from a vertical sensing line of the corresponding set of vertical sensing lines at a second instant simultaneously;

wherein the first instant is different from the second instant.

8. The sensing signal processing method of claim 7, wherein the first interval and the second interval are not overlapped between each other, and the first interval is prior to the second interval.

9. The sensing signal processing method of claim 7, wherein the first interval and the second interval are not overlapped between each other, and the second interval is prior to the first interval.

10. The sensing signal processing method of claim 7, further comprising:

generating at least one touch coordinate signal based on the horizontal sensing signals and the vertical sensing signals.

11. The sensing signal processing method of claim 10, further comprising:

forwarding the at least one touch coordinate signal to a host.

12. The sensing signal processing method of claim 7, further comprising:

delaying a preliminary scanning buffer time prior to the first interval and the second interval.