Patent Application
20120075233
The present invention relates generally to displays for an electronic device and more particularly to a device display with a touch sensor.
Electronic devices are increasingly using more sophisticated display technologies, including liquid crystal displays, electroluminescent diode displays, organic light emitting diode displays, bistable displays, etc. Some of these devices have displays adapted to be touch-sensitive in order to eliminate the need for many control buttons on the face of the device, and thereby allowing the use of a bigger display which is a desirable feature for users of the device.
For example, hand-held electronic devices can have display screens that incorporate touch-sensitive layers. Typically, such layers consist of electrically-conductive indium tin oxide that is deposited on a clear substrate and that is patterned to provide the touch-sensitive function. These patterned indium tin oxide layers can detect the proximity of a user's finger through resistive or capacitive changes. The advantage of such indium tin oxide touch screens is that they are optically transparent, and therefore can be utilized to detect a user's finger anywhere across the surface of a display screen. The disadvantage of such touch screens is that they are quite expensive at this time, and therefore are not cost effective for electronic devices that do not have a need for extensive touch-sensitivity functionality or that have a relatively low overall cost requirement.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device display with a touch sensor that is simpler and lower cost than an indium tin oxide touch screen, while still approximating its function.
The accompanying figures, where like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate views, together with the detailed description below, are incorporated in and form part of the specification, and serve to further illustrate embodiments of concepts that include the claimed invention, and explain various principles and advantages of those embodiments.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.
An apparatus is described that provides a device display with a touch sensor that is simpler and lower cost than an indium tin oxide touch screen, while still approximating its function. In particular, the present invention deploys custom capacitive sensors around the periphery of a display screen. The touch sensors are easily provided on a circuit board using low-cost techniques. Although, the touch sensitivity of the sensors does not extend through the entire display area of the device, they are much lower cost than an indium tin oxide touch screen. In addition, different embodiments are presented that partially extend the touch sensors of the present invention into the display area.
Devices that use touch sensitive displays are known to refer to a wide variety of consumer electronic platforms such as cellular radiotelephones, user equipment, subscriber stations, access terminals, remote terminals, terminal equipment, cordless handsets, gaming devices, personal computers, and personal digital assistants, and the like, all referred to herein as devices. Each device comprises a processor that can be further coupled to a keypad, a speaker, a microphone, a display, and other features, as are known in the art and therefore not shown. The device can also include a capacitive touch controller to operate the custom touch sensors, in accordance with the present invention. It should be recognized that the controller can be a stand-alone module or can be incorporated into the processor.
The figures show various assemblies adapted to support the inventive concepts of the embodiments of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will recognize that these figures do not depict all of the equipment necessary for the device and display to operate but only those components particularly relevant to the description of embodiments herein. For example, the device can include separate processors, controllers, communication interfaces, transceivers, memories, etc. In general, components such as processors, controllers, memories, and interfaces are well-known. For example, processing and controlling units are known to comprise basic components such as, but not limited to, microprocessors, microcontrollers, memory cache, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and/or logic circuitry.
Those skilled in the art are aware of the many design and development techniques available to configure a processor and a controller that implement the touch-sensitive control of a display. Therefore, the entities shown represent a known system that has been adapted, in accordance with the description herein, to implement various embodiments of the present invention. Furthermore, those skilled in the art will recognize that aspects of the present invention may be implemented in and across various physical components and none are necessarily limited to single platform implementations. It is within the contemplation of the invention that the operating requirements of the present invention can be implemented in software, firmware or hardware, with the function being implemented in a software processor (or a digital signal processor) being merely an option.
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The circuit board 16 can be a standard printed circuit board, made of a known epoxy or FR4 composite for example, or a flexible circuit, made of known Kapton® tape material for example. The circuit board 16 includes a plurality of conductive (e.g. metal) sensor electrodes 18, which are configured with the circuit board 16 to provide strategically-placed custom sensors 36, to touch-sensitize peripheral regions of the display 100 in accordance with the present invention. In particular, the electrodes are disposed around the display aperture of the circuit board. In practice, the present invention also includes a capacitive touch controller (see 32 in
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Advantageously, the present invention provides a touch sensor for a device display that is simpler and lower cost than an indium tin oxide touch screen, while still approximating its function. In particular, the present invention deploys custom capacitive sensors around the periphery of a display screen. The touch sensors are easily provided on a circuit board using low-cost techniques. These touch sensors can be partially extend into the display area.
In the foregoing specification, specific embodiments have been described. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of present teachings.
The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential features or elements of any or all the claims. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments made during the pendency of this application and all equivalents of those claims as issued.
Moreover in this document, relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “has”, “having,” “includes”, “including,” “contains”, “containing” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by “comprises . . . a”, “has . . . a”, “includes . . . a”, “contains . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains the element. The terms “a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless explicitly stated otherwise herein. The terms “substantially”, “essentially”, “approximately”, “about” or any other version thereof, are defined as being close to as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, and in one non-limiting embodiment the term is defined to be within 10%, in another embodiment within 5%, in another embodiment within 1% and in another embodiment within 0.5%. The term “coupled” as used herein is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly and not necessarily mechanically. A device or structure that is “configured” in a certain way is configured in at least that way, but may also be configured in ways that are not listed.
It will be appreciated that some embodiments may be comprised of one or more generic or specialized controllers of processors such as microprocessors, digital signal processors, customized processors and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and unique stored program instructions (including both software and firmware) that control the one or more processors to implement, in conjunction with certain non-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of the method and/or apparatus described herein. Alternatively, some or all functions could be implemented by a state machine that has no stored program instructions, or in one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), in which each function or some combinations of certain of the functions are implemented as custom logic. Of course, a combination of the two approaches could be used.
Moreover, an embodiment can be implemented as a computer-readable storage medium having computer readable code stored thereon for programming a computer (e.g., comprising a processor) to perform a method as described and claimed herein. Examples of such computer-readable storage mediums include, but are not limited to, a hard disk, a CD-ROM, an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, a ROM (Read Only Memory), a PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory), an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) and a Flash memory. Further, it is expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example, available time, current technology, and economic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein will be readily capable of generating such software instructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation.
The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.
