Single chip multi-stimulus sensor controller

• US 9,715,306 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2016
• Issued: 07/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Hotelling, Steven Porter, Yousefpor, Marduke, Wilson, Thomas James, Krah, Christoph Horst
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Jr., Kenneth B
• Application Number:
  US15/270,950
• Publication Number:
  US 20170010744A1
• Time in Patent Office: 308 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• 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 3/0445 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: G09G 5/18 Timing circuits for raster scan displays specially adapted for television H04N ; synchronisation between the display unit and other display units, videodisc player G09G5/12

Abstract

A multi-stimulus controller for a multi-touch sensor is formed on a single integrated circuit (single-chip). The multi-stimulus controller includes a transmit oscillator, a transmit signal section that generates a plurality of drive signals based on a frequency of the transmit oscillator, a plurality of transmit channels that transmit the drive signals simultaneously to drive the multi-touch sensor, a receive channel that receives a sense signal resulting from the driving of the multi-touch sensor, a receive oscillator, and a demodulation section that demodulates the received sense signal based on a frequency of the receive oscillator to obtain sensing results, the demodulation section including a demodulator and a vector operator.

Claims

1. A multi-touch controller comprising:

a transmit oscillator;

a transmit signal generator configured to generate a plurality of drive signals based on a frequency of the transmit oscillator;

a plurality of transmit channels configured to transmit the drive signals simultaneously to drive a plurality of touch sensors;

a plurality of receive channels configured to receive sense signals resulting from the driving of the plurality of touch sensors;

a receive oscillator; and

a demodulator configured to demodulate the received sense signals based on a frequency of the receive oscillator to obtain sensing results for the plurality of touch sensors.

2. The controller of claim 1, wherein the transmit oscillator and the receive oscillator are numerically controlled oscillators (NCOs) with envelope shaping.

3. The controller of claim 1, wherein the transmit signal generator includes:

a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), wherein formation of each alternating current (AC) drive signal of the plurality of drive signals includes a conversion from a corresponding digital signal by the DAC.

4. The controller of claim 3, further comprising one or more analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) configured to process the received sense signals with an update rate that is less than a sampling rate of the DAC of the transmit channels.

5. The controller of claim 1, further comprising:

a switching circuit operable to couple one drive signal of the plurality of drive signals from the transmit signal generator for transmission by a transmit channel of the plurality of transmit channels.

6. The controller of claim 5, wherein the switching circuit includes a multiplexer (MUX).

7. The controller of claim 5, wherein the plurality of drive signals includes:

a first stimulation signal having a first waveform at the frequency of the transmit oscillator; and

a second stimulation signal having second waveform that is an inversion of the first waveform.

8. The controller of claim 1, further comprising:

a stimulation memory configured to store stimulation parameters, wherein the plurality of drive signals are selected for transmission through the transmit channels based on the stimulation parameters.

9. The controller of claim 8, wherein the stimulation parameters include channel information specifying particular drive signals of the plurality of drive signals to transmit via the transmit channels during each of a plurality of steps in a scan of the plurality of touch sensors.

10. The controller of claim 1, wherein the demodulator is configured to demodulate the received sense signals to obtain composite measurements, each composite measurement corresponding to a receive channel and including a plurality of measurement data resulting from driving the plurality of touch sensors with a particular combination of drive signals.

11. The controller of claim 10, wherein the plurality of touch sensors is driven with a plurality of combinations of drive signals to obtain sets of composite measurements.

12. The controller of claim 11, further comprising a processor configured to process the sets of composite measurements based on the plurality of combinations of drive signals to obtain the plurality of measurement data.

13. The controller of claim 12, further comprising:

a decode memory configured to store decoding parameters, wherein the processor is configured to process the sets of composite measurements with the decoding parameters to obtain the plurality of measurement data.

14. The controller of claim 1, further comprising a processor configured to remove an offset from the received sense signal, wherein removing the offset comprises adjusting a magnitude of the received sense signals by different amounts for different particular combinations of drive signals driving the plurality of touch sensors.

15. A multi-touch controller comprising:

transmit circuitry configured to stimulate a touch sensor panel, the transmit circuitry including a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) configured to generate a plurality of drive signals and including a plurality of transmit channels;

receive circuitry configured to receive sense signals from the touch sensor panel, the receive circuitry including a plurality of receive channels; and

one or more processors capable of;

mixing a sense signal from the receive circuitry with a demodulation signal to obtain a set of composite measurements, where the sense signal includes a plurality of component signals resulting from driving the touch sensor panel with a combination of simultaneous drive signals; and

decoding the set of composite measurements to derive measurement data carried by the plurality of component signals, wherein the decoding is based on a plurality of values used to generate the combination of simultaneous drive signals.

16. The controller of claim 15, wherein each receive channel of the plurality of receive channels comprises:

a charge amplifier;

a filter coupled to the charge amplifier and configured to low-pass filter an output of the charge amplifier; and

an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) coupled to the filter and configured to covert an output of the filter to a digital signal.

17. The controller of claim 15, wherein each transmit channel of the plurality of transmit channels comprises:

an analog switching circuit; and

an output buffer coupled to an output of the analog switching circuit;

wherein the analog switching circuit is configured to receive a plurality of input signals including the plurality of drive signals generated by the DAC and couple a selected one of the plurality of input signals to an input of the output buffer.

18. The controller of claim 17, further comprising:

a stimulation memory configured to store stimulation parameters for each transmit channel and each scan step, wherein the selected one of the plurality of input signals is selected for a respective transmit channel and a respective scan step based on a respective stimulation parameter.

19. The controller of claim 15, further comprising:

a transmit oscillator;

wherein the transmit circuitry is configured to generate the plurality of drive signals at a frequency of the transmit oscillator.

20. The controller of claim 15, further comprising:

a receive oscillator;

wherein the demodulation signal is generated at a frequency of the receive oscillator.