Multi-touch sensor patterns and stack-ups

• US 8,629,841 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Issued: 01/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Degner, Brett William, Staton, Kenneth Lawrence, Hotelling, Steve Porter, Choi, Shin John
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisen, Alexander
• Assistant Examiner(s): Patel, Sanjiv D
• Application Number:
  US12/242,613
• Publication Number:
  US 20090273570A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,932 Days
• Field of Search: 345163-166, 345173-178, 200/600, 178 1801- 2004
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1692 the I/O peripheral being a secondary touch screen used as control interface, e.g. virtual buttons or sliders
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04107 Shielding in digitiser, i.e. guard or shielding arrangements, mostly for capacitive touchscreens, e.g. driven shields, driven grounds
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04111 Cross over in capacitive digitiser, i.e. details of structures for connecting electrodes of the sensing pattern where the connections cross each other, e.g. bridge structures comprising an insulating layer, or vias through substrate
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03543 Mice or pucks G06F3/03541 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04164 Connections between sensors and controllers, e.g. routing lines between electrodes and connection pads
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0443 using a single layer of sensing electrodes
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/047 using sets of wires, e.g. crossed wires

Abstract

Capacitive multi-touch sensor panels in which both row and column traces may be formed on a single conducting surface are disclosed. These stack-ups may be made thinner and more flexible allowing them to be particularly well-suited for curved or other non-flat touch sensor panels, such as those that might be present on a mouse or other device designed to be grasped by a user'"'"'s hand. Curved sensor panel arrays that may be formed from flat substrates are also disclosed. These sensor panel configurations may include channels around the periphery of the array. These channels allow the flat array to lie flat when applied to a curved surface, such as the inside of the curved surface. The pattern of the touch sensor elements may be adjusted across the array to avoid the channels.

Claims

1. A touch sensor array comprising:

at least one conducting layer forming touch sensor traces comprising a plurality of row traces and a plurality of column traces disposed in an active region of the touch sensor array;

a webbed ground plane having a webbed pattern disposed in at least the active area, wherein the webbed pattern;

has a plurality of openings aligned with respect to the touch sensor traces,

is grounded, and

is distinct from the at least one conducting layer;

a routing layer, distinct from the at least one conducting layer forming the touch sensor traces, the routing layer having routing lines aligned with respect to the active region of the touch sensor array, the routing lines disposed with respect to the webbed pattern such that the routing lines follow the webbed pattern, the routing layer distinct from the webbed ground plane; and

wherein the webbed ground plane is disposed between the routing layer and the at least one conducting layer and shields the touch sensor traces from the routing lines.

2. The touch sensor array of claim 1, wherein the at least one conducting layer comprises a first conducting layer having one of the plurality of row traces or the plurality of column traces disposed thereon and a second conducting layer having the other of the plurality of row traces or the plurality of column traces disposed thereon.

3. The touch sensor array of claim 1, wherein the plurality of row traces or the plurality of column traces have a comb pattern.

4. The touch sensor array of claim 1, wherein the at least one conducting layer comprises a first layer and wherein one of the plurality of row traces and the plurality of column traces are arranged on the first layer in pairs of opposing and spaced apart comb pattern configurations having opposing fingers facing one another;

and

the other of the plurality of row traces and the plurality of column traces arranged on the first layer and comprising cross elements substantially perpendicularly disposed with respect to the opposing fingers of the comb pattern configurations.

5. The touch sensor array of claim 4, wherein the other of the plurality of row traces and the plurality of column traces further has a plurality of conductors arranged perpendicular to the cross elements.

6. The touch sensor array of claim 5, the cross elements being disposed between the spaced apart comb pattern configurations and the plurality of conductors being arranged perpendicular to the cross elements are disposed between and parallel to the opposing fingers of the comb pattern configurations;

and

wherein the cross elements are continuous elements extending across the first layer of the touch sensor array.

7. The touch sensor array of claim 1, wherein the at least one conducting layer is a single conducting layer with the plurality of row and column traces disposed substantially on the single layer, and the single conducting layer has one or more vias routing ones of the column or row traces to at least one different layer.

8. The touch sensor array of claim 7, wherein the different layer is an insulating layer and the vias are positioned to prevent electrical contact between the column and row traces.

9. The touch sensor array of claim 7, wherein one of a plurality of row traces and a plurality of column traces are arranged in pairs of opposing and spaced apart comb pattern configurations having opposing fingers facing one another;

and

the other of the plurality of row traces and the plurality of column traces comprising cross elements arranged between the pairs of opposing fingers and substantially perpendicularly disposed with respect to the opposing fingers on the comb pattern configurations.

10. The touch sensor array of claim 9, wherein the other of the plurality of row traces and the plurality of column traces further has a plurality of conductors arranged perpendicular to the cross elements.

11. The touch sensor array of claim 10, wherein the conductors arranged perpendicular to the cross elements are disposed between and parallel to the opposing fingers of the comb pattern configurations;

and

wherein the cross elements are continuous elements extending across the single conducting layer of the touch sensor array.

12. The touch sensor array of claim 1, wherein the first conducting layer comprise conducting ink.

13. The touch sensor array of claim 1, wherein the array comprising one or more channels configured to allow the array to conform to a curved surface.

14. The touch sensor array as recited in claim 11, wherein the at least one different layer comprises the webbed ground plan having vias therein to prevent the routed ones of the column or row traces from coming in contact with the webbed ground plane.

15. The touch sensor array of claim 7, wherein the at least one different layer comprises the webbed ground plan having vias therein to prevent the routed ones of the column or row traces from coming in contact with the webbed ground plane.

16. The touch sensor array of claim 8, wherein the at least one different layer comprises the webbed ground plan having vias therein to prevent the routed ones of the column or row traces from coming in contact with the webbed ground plane.

17. The touch sensor array of claim 9, wherein each pair of opposing and spaced apart comb pattern configuration substantially overlaps one web opening.

18. A multi-touch mouse comprising a touch sensor array, the touch sensor array comprising:

at least one conducting layer forming touch sensor traces comprising a plurality of row traces and a plurality of column traces disposed in an active region of the touch sensor array;

a webbed ground plane having a webbed pattern disposed in at least the active area, wherein the webbed pattern;

has a plurality of openings aligned with respect to the touch sensor traces,

is grounded, and

is distinct from the at least one conducting layer;

a routing layer, distinct from the at least one conducting layer forming the touch sensor traces, the routing layer having routing lines aligned with respect to the active region of the touch sensor array, the routing lines disposed with respect to the webbed pattern such that the routing lines follow the webbed pattern, the routing layer distinct from the webbed ground plane; and

wherein the webbed ground plane is disposed between the routing layer and the at least one conducting layer and shields the touch sensor traces from the routing lines.

19. The multi-touch mouse as recited in claim 18, wherein the one or more layers comprises a first layer and the mouse further comprises:

one of a plurality of row traces or column traces arranged on the first layer in pairs of opposing and spaced apart comb pattern configurations having opposing fingers facing one another; and

the other of the plurality of row traces or column traces arranged on the first layer and comprising a plurality of cross elements substantially perpendicularly disposed with respect to the opposing fingers on the comb pattern configurations, with each cross element having perpendicularly disposed traces corresponding to the opposing fingers of the comb pattern configuration; and

wherein the cross elements are continuous elements extending across the first layer of the sensor arrays.

20. A touch sensor array comprising:

a first conducting layer comprising a plurality of rows of row elements, a plurality of columns of column elements, and column traces that connect the plurality of columns of column elements;

a second conducting layer comprising one or more groups of row traces, each group having a plurality of row traces having a first portion that extends continuously along a column direction across plural rows of row elements and a second portion that extends along a row direction for connection to ones of the row elements within the plurality of rows, each first portion overlying row elements on the first conducting layer such that the row elements of the first conducting layer shield the first conducting layer from the first portions; and

one or more channels disposed in the first and second conducting layers and extending from a periphery portion of the array to a predetermined distance toward, but not extending to, the center of the array from the periphery portion.

21. The touch sensor array of claim 20, wherein the touch sensor array is configured for use on a curved surface.

22. The touch sensor array of claim 20, wherein the one or more channels are configured to allow the array to conform to a curved surface.

23. The touch sensor array of claim 20, wherein the plurality of row elements comprise row elements of different shapes and the plurality of column elements comprise column elements of different shapes.

24. The touch sensor array of claim 20, wherein the second conducting layer further comprises a ground plane.

25. A multi-touch mouse comprising a touch sensor array, the touch sensor array comprising:

a first conducting layer comprising a plurality of rows of row elements, a plurality of column elements, and column traces that connect the plurality of columns of column elements; and

a second conducting layer comprising one or more groups of row traces, each group having a plurality of row traces having a first portion that extends continuously along a column direction across plural rows of row elements and a second portion that extends along a row direction for connection to ones of the elements within the plurality of rows, each first portion overlying row elements on the first conducting layer such that the row elements of the first conducting layer shield the first conducting layer from the first portions.

26. The multi-touch mouse of claim 25, wherein the touch sensor array is configured for use on a curved surface.

27. The multi-touch mouse of claim 25, wherein the array comprising one or more channels configured to allow the array to conform to a curved surface of the multi-touch mouse, the one or more channels extending from a periphery portion of the array to a predetermined distance toward, but not extending to, the center of the array from the periphery portion.

28. The multi-touch mouse of claim 25, wherein the plurality of row elements comprise row elements of different shapes and the plurality of column elements comprise column elements of different shapes.

29. The multi-touch mouse of claim 25 wherein the second conducting layer further comprises a ground plane.