The present invention relates to a control-point sensing panel, and more particularly to a two-dimensional control-point sensing panel. The present invention also relates to a design method of a control-point sensing panel.
Based on working principles, commercially available touch panels are generally classified into resistive-type touch panels and capacitive-type touch panels. When a user touches or approaches the surface of the capacitive-type touch panel with his finger or a control object, the capacitance of the capacitive-type touch panel changes accordingly. A touch position can be located by sensing and calculating the capacitance change. A conventional two-dimensional capacitive-sensing touch panel is mainly constituted of two sets of sensing pads respectively arranged horizontally and vertically, and the two sets of sensing pads are isolated at their intersected parts with insulating material so that capacitors are formed. A two-dimensional capacitive-sensing touch panel is a mainstream among current capacitive-sensing touch panels because it can detect multiple touch points at the same time so as to meet the demand on multipoint touch sensing in the market.
Since capacitors of the conventional two-dimensional capacitive-sensing touch panel are formed by isolating the two sets of sensing pads with insulating material at the intersections of the two sets of sensing pads, complex procedures are involved, and thus relatively high cost would be inevitable. Furthermore, since it is necessary to increase the amount of sensing pads and decrease areas of the sensing pads in order to improve the sensing resolution of the conventional two-dimensional type capacitive-sensing touch panel, a large amount of sensing pins would be required for a driving circuit, and thus the hardware cost would increase.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to pursue high performance without increasing cost.
In an aspect of the present invention, a control-point sensing panel for sensing a control point thereon in response to an action of a control object comprises: a substrate; M*N first sensing electrodes formed on a surface of the substrate; a first signal input/output terminal set including M signal input/output terminals, each of which is at least electrically connected to N of the first sensing electrodes in parallel; M*N second sensing electrodes formed on the surface of the substrate; and a second signal input/output terminal set including N signal input/output terminals, each of which is at least electrically connected to M of the second sensing electrodes; wherein the first sensing electrodes and the second sensing electrodes are formed on the same plane, and form M*N electrode juxtaposition zones at intersections of the first and second sensing electrodes, and each of the electrode juxtaposition zones has a width being 0.5˜4.5 times the tip width of the control object.
In an embodiment, the sensing panel further comprises N sets of M signal lines, wherein the M signal lines in each set respectively coupled to the M first sensing electrodes in the same column, and the N signal lines, each selected from one of the N sets and corresponding to one of the N first sensing electrodes in the same row, are electrically connected in parallel to a corresponding one of the M signal input/out terminals in the first signal input/output terminal set.
In an embodiment, the N sets of signal lines pass through respective columns of wiring zones, each of which is disposed between adjacent two of the electrode juxtaposition zones.
In an embodiment, the sensing panel further comprises a non-wiring region where dummy transparent wires are formed.
In an embodiment, the first sensing electrode and the second sensing electrode respectively include a plurality of sub-electrodes, and the sub-electrodes of the first sensing electrode and the sub-electrodes of the second sensing electrode are coplanar and alternately allocated in the electrode juxtaposition zones.
In an embodiment, at least one of the electrode juxtaposition zones has a width smaller than the tip width of the control object, and the effective area of the sub-electrodes of the first sensing electrode or the second sensing electrode decreases along a specified direction.
In another aspect of the present invention, a control-point sensing panel for sensing a control point thereon in response to an action of a control object comprises: a substrate defined thereon M*N sensing cells; M*N first sensing electrodes formed on a surface of the substrate; a first signal input/output terminal set including M signal input/output terminals, each of which is at least electrically connected to N of the first sensing electrodes in parallel; M*N second sensing electrodes formed on the surface of the substrate; and a second signal input/output terminal set including N signal input/output terminals, each of which is at least electrically connected to M of the second sensing electrodes in series; wherein the first sensing electrodes and the second sensing electrodes are formed on the same plane, and form M*N electrode juxtaposition zones in the M*N sensing cells at intersections of the first and second sensing electrodes, respectively, and each of the electrode juxtaposition zones has an area being ⅓˜½ times the area of the corresponding sensing cell.
In a further aspect of the present invention, a control-point sensing panel for sensing a control point thereon in response to an action of a control object comprises a substrate; M*N first sensing electrodes formed on a surface of the substrate; a first signal input/output terminal set including M signal input/output terminals, each of which is at least electrically connected to N of the first sensing electrodes in parallel; M*N second sensing electrodes formed on the surface of the substrate; and a second signal input/output terminal set including N signal input/output terminals, each of which is at least electrically connected to M of the second sensing electrodes in series; wherein the first sensing electrodes and the second sensing electrodes are formed on the same plane, and form M*N electrode juxtaposition zones at intersections of the first and second sensing electrodes, and a clearance between every two adjacent ones of the electrode juxtaposition zones is 0.5˜1.5 times the tip width of the control object.
A yet further aspect of the present invention relates to a design method of a control-point sensing panel executable by a digital data processing device to define an electrode layout structure. The control-point sensing panel is used for sensing a control point thereon in response to an action of a control object. The method comprises: inputting a size of a substrate where the electrode layout structure is to be formed, and a tip width of the control object; and acquiring the electrode layout structure according to the size of the substrate and the tip width of the control object, wherein the electrode layout structure includes M*N first sensing electrodes; M*N second sensing electrodes; a first signal input/output terminal set including M signal input/output terminals, each of which is at least electrically connected to N of the first sensing electrodes in parallel; and a second signal input/output terminal set including N signal input/output terminals, each of which is at least electrically connected to M of the second sensing electrodes in series. The first sensing electrodes and the second sensing electrodes are formed on the same plane, and form M*N electrode juxtaposition zones in M*N sensing cells at intersections of the first and second sensing electrodes, respectively.
Preferably, each of the electrode juxtaposition zones has a width being 0.5˜4.5 times the tip width of the control object, and/or a clearance between every two adjacent ones of the electrode juxtaposition zones is 0.5˜1.5 times the tip width of the control object and/or each of the electrode juxtaposition zones has an area being ⅓˜½ times the area of the corresponding sensing cell.
It is to be noted that the term “intersections” does not specifically mean that the first and second sensing electrodes are physically connected to each other but principally indicates that the first and second sensing electrodes are close enough to each other there.
The invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, in which:
The invention will now be described more specifically with reference to the following embodiments. It is to be noted that the following descriptions of preferred embodiments of this invention are presented herein for purpose of illustration and description only. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to the precise form disclosed.
Please refer to
An electrode layout structure of the control-point sensing panel according to an embodiment of the present invention is schematically illustrated in
Please refer to
The signal lines and signal input/output terminals may both formed on the substrate 90, e.g. glass substrate. Alternatively, it is also feasible to have the signal lines extend outside the substrate, for example to a printed circuit board where the signal input/output terminals are formed. The design is flexible to comply with practical requirement.
The control-point sensing method executed by the above-described control-point sensing panel will be described hereinafter. The matrix of sensing cells of the control-point sensing panel are electrically connected to a voltage signal processor 180 and a charge/discharge signal generator 190 (see
In Step 101, the charge/discharge signal generator 190 has a first charge/discharge signal and a second charge/discharge signal respectively inputted through at least two sets of signal transmitting lines selected among the M signal transmitting lines 11˜1M and then the voltage signal processor 180 receives a first voltage signal and a second voltage signal, which are generated corresponding to the first charge/discharge signal and the second charge/discharge signal, respectively, through at least two sets of signal receiving lines selected among N signal receiving lines during a first time period. For example, the two sets of signal transmitting lines can be adjacent signal transmitting lines 12, 13, while the two sets of signal receiving lines can be adjacent two signal receiving lines 22, 23. The first charge/discharge signal can be a charge signal rising from 0V to 3V (refer to
Next, in Step 102, the charge/discharge signal generator 190 has a third charge/discharge signal and a fourth charge/discharge signal respectively inputted through the same sets of signal transmitting lines, and then the voltage signal processor 180 receives corresponding third voltage signal and fourth voltage signal respectively through the same sets of signal receiving lines during a second time period. That is, the two sets of signal transmitting lines are the adjacent signal transmitting lines 12, 13, while the two sets of signal receiving lines are the adjacent two signal receiving lines 22, 23. In this step, the third charge/discharge signal is a discharge signal falling from 3V to 0V (refer to
Next, in Step 103, the voltage signal processor 180 generates a characteristic value of a selected one of the electrode juxtaposition zones defined by the four sets of signal lines according to the first voltage difference value or its equivalent function value and the second voltage difference value or its equivalent function value. For example, the characteristic value of the selected electrode juxtaposition zone defined by the adjacent signal transmitting lines 12, 13 and the adjacent signal receiving lines 22, 23 is generated. For example, the characteristic value of the electrode juxtaposition zone P22 can be defined as the difference obtained by subtracting the second voltage difference value or its function value from the first voltage difference value or its function value. The characteristic value associated with the selected electrode juxtaposition zone would correlate to the coupling capacitance generated when a finger or a control object touches or approaches the signal transmitting line and the signal receiving line defining the selected electrode juxtaposition zone.
The voltage signal processor 180 repeats the above-mentioned steps 101˜103 for all the other sets of signal transmitting lines and all the other sets of signal receiving lines, e.g. adjacent signal transmitting lines and the adjacent signal receiving lines, to generate a plurality of characteristic values, thereby obtaining a characteristic value array A[p, q]. Afterwards, the characteristic value array A[p, q] can be used to estimate position information of one or more control points on the control-point sensing panel in a subsequent step, wherein each control point is a position to which a finger or other control object approaches on the sensing panel. When it is determined that all the required steps for obtaining corresponding characteristic values of all the positions or all preset positions have been performed in Step 104, then the method proceeds to Step 105.
In Step 105, the position information of one or more control points on the sensing panel are estimated according to data pattern of the characteristic value array A[p, q]. The control point is a position to which a finger or other control object touches or approaches on the capacitive-type panel. Step 105 can be performed in a control circuit chip, which includes the voltage signal processor 180, of the sensing panel. Alternatively, the characteristic value array A[p, q] can be transmitted to an information processing system where the sensing panel is applied, for example, a notebook computer, a tablet computer etc. In this example, Step 105 is executed in the information processing system. The details of the above-mentioned technology will be described hereinafter with reference to
Furthermore, if a finger (or a conductor) approaches or contacts the window 200 substantially at a position 9 as shown in
An analysis is then performed according to the data pattern of the characteristic value array A[p, q]. Position information of one or more control point on the sensing panel can be estimated in Step 104. The control point is a position which a finger approaches or contacts on the sensing panel. For example, if there is no finger approaching or contacting the sensing panel, all of the data recorded into the characteristic value array A[p, q] as obtained in the scanning steps during a preset time period are 0. On the other hand, if a finger is approaching or contacting an a common region defined by a signal transmitting line and a signal receiving line, e.g. the electrode juxtaposition zone defined by X0 and Y0, of the sensing panel, the characteristic value corresponding to the specified position and eight characteristic values corresponding to eight surrounding positions form a 3*3 data array, e.g. the array as shown in
In addition, when a part of the characteristic value array A[p, q] has a data pattern as shown in any one of
The examples of the charge/discharge signals shown in
Since the position detection is performed with two adjacent signal transmitting lines and two adjacent signal receiving lines, it is necessary to provide dummy signal lines 10, 20 as shown in
Further, please refer to
In addition, please refer to
The matrix of sensing cells 900 of the control-point sensing panel may alternatively work with another example of the voltage signal processor 180, as illustrated in
Further, in Step 102, the charge/discharge signal generator 190 has a third charge/discharge signal and a fourth charge/discharge signal respectively inputted through the two sets of signal transmitting lines and then the voltage signal processor 180 receives a third voltage signal and a fourth voltage signal, which are generated corresponding to the third charge/discharge signal and the fourth charge/discharge signal, respectively, through the two sets of signal receiving line. For example, the two sets of signal transmitting lines can be adjacent signal transmitting lines 12, 13, while the two sets of signal receiving lines can be adjacent two signal receiving lines 22, 23. The third charge/discharge signal can be a discharge signal falling from 3V to 0V (refer to
In addition, adjacent two signal lines are used as examples for description in the above embodiments. However, in other embodiments of the invention, two sets or more of signal transmitting lines can also be selected from M signal transmitting lines to respectively input a charge/discharge signal, and correspondingly generated voltage signals can be received respectively by two sets or more of signal receiving lines selected from N signal receiving lines. Each set of signal transmitting lines can be consisted of a single signal transmitting line or a plurality of signal transmitting lines, and the two sets of signal transmitting lines can be not adjacent, but with other signal transmitting lines disposed therebetween. Of course, each set of signal receiving lines can also be consisted of a single signal receiving line or a plurality of signal receiving lines, and the two sets of signal receiving lines can be not adjacent, but with other signal receiving lines disposed therebetween. Sensitivity and area for sensing can be increased by using a plurality of signal transmitting lines or a plurality of signal receiving lines to form each set of the signal transmitting lines or signal receiving lines, so that an proximity of a control object without a direct touch to the sensing panel can be sensed. In addition, according to another embodiment of the invention, two sets or more of signal transmitting lines can also be selected from N signal transmitting lines to respectively input a charge/discharge signal, and correspondingly generated voltage signals can be received respectively by two sets or more of signal receiving lines selected from M signal receiving lines. This can be realized by simply using a multiplexer (not shown) to change the line connections. Further, the voltage signal processor 180 can also be constituted by two or more analog/digital converters or a single-bit comparator, and the two or more analog/digital converters can be disposed on different chips. Since this is a common modification of the circuit design, is will not be further described here.
Please refer to
In a case that the width of a sensing cell 900 is much larger than the tip width of the finger or the control object, e.g. 2.5˜3 times or more, the uniform distribution of electrodes might be disadvantageous in the sensing capability of the sensing panel. Therefore, another exemplified configuration of the sensing electrodes 901 and 902 is proposed with reference to
With the layout mentioned above, two-dimensional sensing matrix can be accomplished without forming an additional insulating layer, and equivalent capacitance between signal transmitting lines and signal receiving lines would become inessential. In practice, they can effectively function at capacitances C11˜Cmn of about 100 fF-10 pF. This shows that the invention achieves a considerable improvement as compared to prior arts which can only function effectively at 1-5 pF.
Since the sensing operation according to the present invention is performed for at least two lines, the resolution of the invention can be increased to two times at two dimensions, and the overall resolution can be increased to four times under the same wiring density. Therefore, in the control-point sensing panel according to the present invention, a satisfactory sensing effect can be achieved without allocating the electrode juxtaposition zones densely. In other words, the electrode juxtaposition zone 93 may be significantly smaller than the sensing cell 900, as shown in
For assuring of satisfactory sensing capability, the width W2 of the electrode juxtaposition zone 93 and the width W3 of the wiring zone 94 preferably correlate to the tip width of the control object, e.g. a finger, a palm or a sensing pen. As known to those skilled in the art, different control objects are suitable for different panel sizes. For example, while palm sensing may be more suitable for large-size panels than small-size panels, pen sensing may be more suitable for small-size panels than large-size panels. Therefore, according to the present invention, once the tip width of the most suitable control object for a specified panel is determined, proper layout structures of the specified panel, including the width W1 of the sensing cell 900, the width W2 of the electrode juxtaposition zone 93 and the width W3 of the wiring zone 94, can be automatically derived.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the width W2 of the electrode juxtaposition zone 93 is about 0.5˜4.5 times, preferably 1˜2 times, more preferably equal to, the tip width of the control object in contact with the sensing panel. For example, the tip width of a finger is typically about 4 mm, the tip width of a sensing pen for smaller-area sensing is typically about 1˜2 mm, and the tip width of a palm for larger-area sensing is about 20 mm. Therefore, for different panel sizes using respectively suitable control objects, preferable widths W2 of the electrode juxtaposition zone 93 can be derived. For example, the tip width of a finger in contact with the panel is 4 mm, so the width W2 of the electrode juxtaposition zone 93 may be 4˜8 mm, preferably 4 mm. In another example that the tip width of a sensing pen in contact with the panel is 1˜2 mm, the width W2 of the electrode juxtaposition zone 93 may be 4.5˜5 mm. As for the sensing panel typically with a palm having a tip width 20 mm, the width W2 of the electrode juxtaposition zone 93 may be 20 mm.
In another embodiment of the present invention, which may be alternative or additional to the above embodiment associated with the condition of the width W2 of the electrode juxtaposition zone 93, the width W3 of the wiring zone 94, i.e. the clearance between two adjacent electrode juxtaposition zone 93, is particularly designed to be, but not limited to, ½˜⅘ the tip width of the control object, and is preferably ½˜ 3/2 and more preferably equal or close to the tip width of the control object. For example, the tip width of a finger is typically about 4 mm, the tip width of a sensing pen for smaller-area sensing is typically about 1˜2 mm, and the tip width of a palm for larger-area sensing is about 20 mm. Therefore, for different panel sizes using respectively suitable control objects, preferable widths W3 of the wiring zones 94 can be derived. For example, the tip width of a finger in contact with the panel is 4 mm, so the width W3 of the wiring zone 94 can be 2˜5 mm, preferably 4 mm. In another example that the tip width of a sensing pen in contact with the panel is 1˜2 mm, the width W3 of the wiring zone 94 may be 1˜1.5 mm. As for the sensing panel typically with a palm having a tip width 20 mm, the width W3 of the wiring zone 94 may be about 20˜30 mm.
According to the present invention, it is preferred that the width W1 of the sensing cell 900 further correlates to the width W2 of the electrode juxtaposition zone 93, the width W3 of the wiring zone 94 and/or the tip width of the control object. For example, if the tip width of a finger in contact with the panel is 4 mm, the width W1 of the sensing cell 900 may be 6˜13 mm, preferably 8 mm. In another example that the tip width of a sensing pen in contact with the panel is 1˜2 mm, the width W1 of the sensing cell 900 may be 6 mm. As for the sensing panel typically with a palm having a tip width 20 mm, the width W1 of the sensing cell 900 may be about 40 mm. Generally speaking, the width W1 of the sensing cell 900 may be about 1.5˜2.5 times the tip width of the control object. Alternatively or additionally, the width W1 of the sensing cell 900 may be about 1⅜˜ 3/2 times the width W2 of the electrode juxtaposition zone 93. Accordingly, the area of the electrode juxtaposition zone 93 is about 64/169˜ 4/9 times the area of the sensing cell 900, in spite ⅓˜½ times is feasible.
In view of the foregoing, the electrode layout structure of a control-point sensing panel can be automatically designed, for example by way of a computer or any other suitable digital data processing device, by inputting a size of the substrate where the electrode layout structure is to be formed and the tip width of the suitable control object, e.g. finger, palm, sensing pen or any other suitable control object. In response to the input data, an electrode layout structure can be derived by a software program under preset conditions. The electrode layout structure includes M*N first sensing electrodes, M*N second sensing electrodes, a first signal input/output terminal set, and a second signal input/output terminal set. The first signal input/output terminal set includes M signal input/output terminals, each of which is at least electrically connected to N of the first sensing electrodes in parallel. The second signal input/output terminal set includes N signal input/output terminals, each of which is at least electrically connected to M of the second sensing electrodes in series. The first sensing electrodes and the second sensing electrodes are formed on the same plane, and form M*N electrode juxtaposition zones respectively in M*N sensing cells disposed at intersections of the first and second sensing electrodes. Each of the electrode juxtaposition zones in the electrode layout structure is preset to have a width range being 0.5˜4.5 times of the tip width of the control object. Alternatively or additionally, the clearance between adjacent two electrode juxtaposition zones in the electrode layout structure is preset to be about 0.5˜1.5 times of the tip width of the control object. Preferably, the area of the electrode juxtaposition zone in the electrode layout structure is further preset to be about ⅓˜½ times the area of the sensing cell 900. Furthermore, in the design algorithm of the electrode layout structure, if the derived width of the electrode juxtaposition zone is larger than the tip width of the control object, the configuration of sub-electrodes as shown in
The sensing electrodes and wires, for example, can be implemented with transparent electrodes so as to be applicable to touch panel displays. For visual uniformity, transparent dummy wires 99 can be simultaneously formed as shown in
The M input/output terminals 1911˜191M and the N input/output terminals 921˜92N described above are signal transmitting lines and signal receiving lines, respectively. Alternatively, the M input/output terminals 1911˜191M may serve as signal receiving lines, while the N input/output terminals 921˜92N may serve as signal transmitting lines.
In summary, the embodiments of the invention provide a method and device for sensing a control point, which are applied to a sensing panel. Position information of a control point can be accurately sensed by the method and device without increasing the number of signal lines. While the invention has been described in terms of what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention needs not be limited to the disclosed embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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102145721 | Dec 2013 | TW | national |
The present application is a continuation-in-part application claiming benefit from a U.S. Patent Application bearing a Ser. No. 14/162,004 and filed Jan. 23, 2014, contents of which are incorporated herein for reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 14162004 | Jan 2014 | US |
Child | 14567097 | US |