Apple Inc.

Parade Technologies, Ltd.

Monterey Research, LLC

Alexandre Gourevitch

Oleksandr Karpin

Igor Kravets

Christophe Blondin

Oleksandr Hoshtanar

Ashray Vinayak Gogte

Peter G Vavaroutsos

Sumant Ranganathan

Martin Paul Grunthaner

Albert Lin

Vladimir Korobov

Moshe H Malkin

Christopher J Butler

Massoud Badaye

Isaac W Chan

Xiaoqi Zhou

Robert Leo Sheridan

Prathit Bugnait

Warren S A Rieutort-Louis

Vipul Chawla

Seyed Mohammad Navidpour

A plurality of metallic components (e.g., conductive rods) can be included within an insulator layer of a touch sensor panel. The metallic components included within the insulator layer can be electrically floating. The metallic components can increase a signal coupling strength across the thickness of the insulator layer. In some examples, the metallic components can have a uniform spacing and uniform physical dimensions. In some examples, the metallic components can provide increased signal coupling in areas directly above touch sensitive regions of underlying touch sensor electrodes. In some examples, the metallic components can pass through the insulator in a straight line that is normal to opposing surfaces of the insulator layer. In some examples, the metallic components can be flared or otherwise pass through the insulator along a path that is not straight and/or not orthogonal to opposing surfaces of the insulator layer.

Conductive components in an insulator layer of a touch sensor stackup

A touch sensor panel is disclosed. In some examples, the touch sensor panel includes drive electrodes and sense electrodes, wherein the drive electrodes and sense electrodes form touch nodes. In some examples, touch nodes include differently-sized drive and/or sense electrodes, and changes to the size or quantity of reference or floating electrodes disposed within the drive and/or sense electrodes are used to substantially balance the areas of the drive and/or sense electrodes in a given touch node.

Rectangular touch node design for metal mesh on-cell technology

Errors in touch signals due to grip and finger coupling to routing traces can be compensated. In some examples, reference traces can be provided to measure a signal contribution from a user's grip to routing traces. In some examples, shielding electrodes can be provided to reduce fringing field coupling between a user's grip and routing traces that are missing a neighboring trace. In some examples, a global correction for finger to trace coupling can be performed based on stored matrices that characterize cross-coupling between touch sensor electrodes in a touch sensor electrode array. In some examples, a determined touch location can be used to apply localized matrix correction to a subset of touch sensor electrodes in the touch sensor electrode array. In some examples, correction for multiple touch locations can be corrected in a specified order to avoid compensating for crosstalk effects of a single touch sensor electrode multiple times.

Compensation techniques for grip and finger coupling to routing traces in a touch sensor panel

A touch sensor panel is disclosed. In some examples, the touch sensor panel comprises a first layer including a plurality of drive lines including drive electrodes, wherein the drive lines are configured to be coupled to drive circuitry during touch sensing on the touch sensor panel. In some examples, the first layer includes a plurality of sense lines including sense electrodes, wherein the sense lines are configured to be coupled to sense circuitry during the touch sensing on the touch sensor panel. In some examples, the first layer includes a plurality of first shielding electrodes, wherein the first shielding electrodes are disposed between the drive electrodes and the sense electrodes. In some examples, the touch sensor panel comprises a second layer, different than the first layer, including one or more bridges electrically coupling at least two of the first shielding electrodes together.

Single layer touch sensor panel architecture

Electrode configurations for reducing wobble error for a stylus translating on a surface of a touch sensor panel is disclosed. Electrodes associated with a more linear signal profile can correlate to lower wobble error. In some examples, electrodes can be configured such that the signal profile associated with each electrode is spread to be wider, and thus, more linear. In some configurations, electrodes can include two or more bars extending along the length of the electrode with each bar electrically connected to one another at one or both ends. Bars can be of non-uniform width or spacing. Some configurations can include a 'split bar,' which can divide a bar lengthwise in order to improve optical uniformity. In some examples, electrodes can include projections which can interleave with corresponding projections in adjacent electrodes.

Multi-bar capacitive sense electrode

A capacitive sensor array may include a plurality of row sensor electrodes and a column sensor electrode capacitively coupled with each of the plurality of row sensor electrodes to form a plurality of unit cells. For each row sensor electrode, a unit cell that is associated with the column sensor electrode and the row sensor electrode comprises an area where a capacitance between the column sensor electrode and the row sensor electrode is greater than any other capacitance between the column sensor electrode and a different row sensor electrode. The capacitive sensor array further includes a first plurality of dummy electrodes, where each of the first plurality of dummy electrodes is capacitively coupled with the column sensor electrode and two adjacent row sensor electrodes of the plurality of row sensor electrodes.

Sensor pattern with signal-spreading electrodes

Techniques for designs of single-layer touch sensors are described herein. In an example embodiment, a device comprises a sensor array. The sensor array comprises first plurality of electrodes and second plurality of electrodes that are interleaved without intersecting each other within a touch-sensing area in a single layer on a substrate of the sensor array. A first electrode (of the first or second plurality) comprises at least two shaped portions. The two shaped portions may be disposed across at least a portion of a given second electrode from each other, or may be disposed between two or more portions of the given second electrode. The two shaped portions of the first electrode are routed in different directions on the substrate and are coupled to each other outside of the touch-sensing area of the sensor array.

SLIM sensor design with minimum tail effect

A sensor array that has first electrodes, second electrodes and third electrodes formed from a single layer of conductive material and interleaved without intersecting one another, in which each first electrode is coupled with at least one of the second electrodes via a mutual capacitance. Some of the third electrodes are disposed between the first electrodes and the second electrodes. All electrodes are interleaved without intersecting one another.

Single layer touchscreen with ground insertion

An embodiment of a capacitive sensor array may comprise a first set of sensor electrodes each comprising one or more large subelements and a second set of sensor electrodes each comprising one or more small subelements. In one embodiment, each of the small subelements may be smaller than any of the large subelements, and the first set of sensor electrodes and the second set of sensor electrodes are formed from a single layer of conductive material. In one embodiment, the surface area of the capacitive sensor array may be divisible into a grid of N&#xd7;M unit cells, wherein each of the N&#xd7;M unit cells contains one of the large subelements and k of the small subelements, where k is greater than or equal to 2.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Alexandre Gourevitch