Touch sensing method and associated circuit

• US 8,674,968 B2
• Filed: 01/20/2010
• Issued: 03/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ili Technology Corp. (MediaTek, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MStar Semiconductor Incorporated (MediaTek, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lin, Tsung-Fu, Chen, Tso Min, Hsieh, Yi Cheng, Hung, Guo-Kiang
• Primary Examiner(s): Hicks, Charles V
• Application Number:
  US12/690,678
• Publication Number:
  US 20100117987A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,518 Days
• Field of Search: 345/204
• US Class Current: 345/204
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0233 Improving the luminance or brightness uniformity across the screen
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/064 by time modulation of the brightness of the illumination source
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3406 Control of illumination source illumination devices structurally associated with liquid crystal cells G02F1/1336

Abstract

A touch sensing method and associated circuit are provided. In one aspect, a touch control circuit includes a first current source, a second current source, a plurality of switches, a hysteresis comparator, a frequency divider and a flip-flop. The switches are couple to a plurality of external contact points. The hysteresis comparator is coupled to a first reference comparison voltage and a second reference comparison voltage. Each of the external contact points is selectively coupled to an input terminal of the hysteresis comparator through the switches. The first current source and the second current source are coupled to the input terminal of the hysteresis comparator to generate a sensing voltage. The hysteresis comparator compares the sensing voltage with the first reference comparison voltage and the second reference comparison voltage to generate a hysteresis comparison output to control the first current source or the second current source.

Claims

1. A display controller fabricated on a semiconductor substrate, comprising:

a touch control circuit configured to detect whether a contact point is touched; and

a pulse width modulation (PWM) circuit coupled to the touch control circuit and a lighting module, the PWM circuit configured to generate a PWM signal that controls operations of the lighting module,

wherein the touch control circuit is configured to receive an image synchronous signal, and

wherein, in response to receiving the image synchronous signal, the touch control circuit is configured to trigger the PWM circuit to generate the PWM signal.

2. The display controller as claimed in claim 1, wherein the image synchronous signal is a horizontal synchronous signal, a vertical synchronous signal, or an output horizontal synchronous signal.

3. The display controller as claimed in claim 1, wherein the touch reset signal is aligned with the image synchronous signal.

4. The display controller as claimed in claim 3, wherein the touch control circuit receives the image synchronous signal to provide the synchronous signal to the PWM circuit, which then generates the PWM signal to align with the synchronous signal.

5. The display controller as claimed in claim 1, wherein the PWM signal is aligned with the image synchronous signal.

6. The display controller as claimed in claim 1, wherein the touch control circuit is coupled to an external contact plate.

7. The display controller as claimed in claim 6, wherein the external contact plate comprises a plurality of light emitting diodes, and wherein the touch control circuit controls emissions of the light emitting diodes.

8. The display controller as claimed in claim 1, wherein the touch control circuit asserts a touch reset signal, and wherein a frequency of the touch reset signal is proportional to a frequency of the image synchronous signal.

9. The display controller as claimed in claim 1, wherein the lighting module is a backlight that comprises a plurality of light emitting diodes.

10. A touch sensing method applied to a display controller fabricated on a semiconductor substrate, the method comprising:

receiving, by a touch control circuit, an image synchronous signal;

providing, by the touch control circuit in response to receiving the image synchronous signal, a synchronous signal to a pulse width modulation (PWM) circuit coupled to the touch control circuit;

controlling, by the PWM circuit, operations of a lighting module in response to receiving the synchronous signal from the touch control circuit; and

determining, by the touch control circuit, whether a contact point is touched.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the image synchronous signal is a horizontal synchronous signal, a vertical synchronous signal, or an output horizontal synchronous signal.

12. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

asserting, by the touch control circuit, a touch reset signal, wherein the touch reset signal is aligned with the image synchronous signal.

13. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the synchronous signal is aligned with the image synchronous signal.

14. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

generating a control sequence to control emissions of a plurality of light emitting diodes on a contact plate when it is determined that the contact point is touched.

15. A touch control circuit as an integrated part of a display controller, the touch control circuit comprising:

a first current source configured to receive and operate according to a control signal;

a second current source configured to receive and operate according to the control signal;

a plurality of switches coupled to a plurality of external contact points; and

a hysteresis comparator, coupled to a first reference comparison voltage and a second reference comparison voltage, and selectively coupled to one of the external contact points through the switches, the hysteresis comparator having an input terminal coupled to the first current source and the second current source to generate a sensing voltage, the hysteresis comparator configured to compare the sensing voltage with the first reference comparison voltage and the second reference comparison voltage to generate a hysteresis comparison output as the control signal to control operations of the first current source and the second current source.

16. The circuit as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

a frequency divider that divides a frequency of the hysteresis comparison output and generates a frequency-divided signal; and

a flip-flop coupled to the frequency divider to sample the frequency-divided signal to generate a sampling output.