Patent Application
20150331507
In many electronic devices, such as portable communication devices, touch panel displays (touch screen) present information to a user and also receive input from the user. A touch screen offers intuitive inputting for a computer or other data processing devices. It is especially useful in portable communication devices where other input devices, such as a keyboard and a mouse, are not easily available. There are many different types of touch sensing technologies, including capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave. All of these technologies sense the position of touches on a screen.
A capacitive touch panel may be used, for example, in mobile devices such as personal digital assistants (PDA), smartphones, and tablets. New designs of mobile devices with the capacitive touch panels typically aim to increase the size of the visual displays while reducing the overall sizes of these devices. Accordingly, designers of mobile devices with the capacitive touch panels have to be creative in finding locations for housing other components in the devices. For example, one or more antennas may have to be located in the vicinity of a capacitive touch panel. A current solution forms a metalized border area around a conductive transparent layer (for example, an Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) layer) of the touch panel and removes a portion of the metalized border area that is unused by electrodes in order to house an antenna. Hence, the antenna in this solution is housed on the ITO and the antenna may only be housed in a predefined section (i.e., a section unused by electrodes) in the metalized border. This solution therefore restricts placement of the antenna on the metalized border and its placement of the antenna on the ITO may affect radiation performance and isolation.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for embedding radiated elements in the touch panel.
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.
Some embodiments are directed to apparatuses and methods for embedding radiated elements in the touch panel. The touch panel includes a plurality of layers including at least one conductive layer and at least one silver layer. The plurality of layers is configured as a stack up configuration. The touch panel also includes a border region around the perimeter of each of the at least one conductive layer and the at least one silver layer. The border region is configured to function as an electro static discharge protector and any portion of the border region is configured to house any configuration of a set of antennas.
Touch panel 100 may be used in, for example, mobile communication devices of varying dimensions. Non-limiting examples of the mobile communication devices may include portable or handheld devices such as personal digital assistants (PDA), smartphones, tablets, and the equivalents thereof Therefore, the sizes of the touch panels in different communication devices may vary based on the specific dimensions of each communication device.
Touch surface layer 102 may be an insulator such as glass. First transparent thin-film conductor 104 and second transparent thin-film conductor 110 may be a thin layer of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO). First layer of transparent thin-film conductor 104 may also be referred to herein as ITO layer 104 or conductive ITO layer 104 and second layer of transparent thin-film conductor 110 may also be referred to as ITO layer 110 or conductive ITO layer 110. The patterns on the ITO layers 104 and 110 form a grid of capacitors, wherein electric fields of the capacitors are projected through top surface layer 102. Accordingly, when a position on top surface layer 102 is touched with a touching element, for example, a finger or stylus, the touching element couples with the electric fields and this coupling changes the capacitance of capacitors in the vicinity of the touching element. An algorithm associated with touch panel 100 converts the changes in capacitance into a location along the X and Y axis of the capacitive touch panel.
In addition to the ITO layers, touch panel 100 may also include layers of silver (i.e., layers 106 and 112) under each of ITO layers 104 and 110. ITO layer 104, silver layer 106, and ITO layer 110 and silver layer 112 may be used as a ground plane. A metalized border region 116 made of, for example, a strip of silver ink, may also be added around the perimeter of touch panel 100 to protect against electro static discharge. The strip of silver ink added around the perimeter of touch panel 100 allows for electro static discharge through the strip and prevents damage associated with electro static discharge through the ITO layers. Accordingly, border region 116 may be positioned around the perimeter of ITO layer 104, ITO layer 110, silver layer 106 and silver layer 112. In addition to functioning as an electro static discharge protector, in accordance with some embodiments, any portion of border region 116 may be configured to house any configuration of a set of antennas, wherein any and/or all portions of border region 116 may be used to house any configuration of one or more antennas in a set of antennas. In other words, configurations of one or more antennas may be housed in any and/or all portions of border region 116.
The antenna structure housed on border region 116 may be, for example, a slot antenna configuration. The layers of touch panel 100 may be aligned (i.e., the layers may be stacked-up) so that the same antenna pattern (also referred to herein as a first antenna pattern) is incorporated in one or more layers of touch panel 100. Each of ITO layer 104, silver layer 106, and ITO layer 110 and silver layer 112 may be coated on an optical substrate (dielectric material). During the slot fabrication on border region 116, clearance may be provided (by, for example, masking) at each of ITO layer 104, silver layer 106, and ITO layer 110 and silver layer 112. Accordingly, a slot shaped in border region 116 goes across the touch panel layers (stack-up) such that the slot includes only dielectric material and does not include any ITO, at ITO layer 104 and ITO layer, or metal, at silver layer 106, and silver layer 112.
The layers of touch panel 100 may also be aligned so that one or more layers of touch panel 100 may have a selective antenna pattern. In other words, the same clearance is maintained across the layers in order to generate a desired antenna pattern across the stack-up of the layers. Border region 116 may also be used to house other antenna configurations, for example, a wireless antenna configuration, although such a configuration may not be optimal because touch panel 100 may be close to a printed circuit board and/or a chassis on the communications device.
There may be no direct galvanic connection between silver layers 106 and 112. Hence, the feeding points 204 and 208 perform separately at each silver layer as shown at
In each of the antennas shown in
Processing unit 503 may include an encoder/decoder 511 with an associated code read only memory (ROM) 512 for storing data for encoding and decoding voice, data, control, or other signals that may be transmitted or received by device 500. Processing unit 503 may further include a microprocessor 513 coupled, by the common data and address bus 517, to the encoder/decoder 511, a character ROM 514, a random-access memory (RAM) 504, and a static memory 516. The character ROM 514 may store code for decoding or encoding data such as control, request, or instruction messages, channel change messages, and/or data or voice messages that may be transmitted or received by device 500. The processing unit 503 may also include a digital signal processor (DSP) 519, coupled to the speaker 520, the microphone 521, and the common data and address bus 517, for operating on audio signals received from one or more of the communications unit 502, the static memory 516, and the microphone 521.
Communications unit 502 may also include a wired network connection. Communications unit 502 may also include an (radio frequency) RF interface 509 configurable to communicate with network components, and other user equipment within its communication range. Communications unit 502 may include one or more broadband and/or narrowband transceivers 508, such as an Long Term Evolution (LTE) transceiver, a Third Generation (3G) (3GGP or 3GGP2) transceiver, an Association of Public Safety Communication Officials (APCO) Project 25 (P25) transceiver, a Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) transceiver, a Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) transceiver, a WiMAX transceiver perhaps operating in accordance with an IEEE 802.16 standard, and/or other similar type of wireless transceiver configurable to communicate via a wireless network for infrastructure communications.
Communications unit 502 may also include one or more local area network or personal area network transceivers such as wireless local area network transceiver perhaps operating in accordance with an IEEE 802.11 standard (e.g., 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11ad), or a Bluetooth transceiver. The transceivers may be coupled to a combined modulator/demodulator 510 that is coupled to the encoder/decoder 511.
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 processors (or “processing devices”) 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.
