Synaptics Corporation

Blackberry Corporation

Synaptics Incorpoated

Derek Solven

Tracy Scott Dattalo

Jonathan Losh

Joseph Kurth Reynolds

David Hoch

Tyler Moore

John Weinerth

Matthew A Stevenson

Nickolas Fotopoulos

Katayoun Goudarzi

Mihai M Bulea

Robert J Bolender

Sanjay Mani

Renuka Vidyut Shenoy

Adam L Schwartz

Ying Wang

Robert James Lowles

James Alexander Robinson

David A Sobel

Vladan Petrovic

Arnett Ryan Weber

Shubha Ramakrishnan

Kuo-Feng Tong

Yun Seok Choi

Sang Chul Han

Vijay Venkatesh Mahalingam

Earl Peng

A sensor driver comprises a receiver and an interference mitigation element. The receiver is configured to acquire a resulting signal from a sensor electrode. The interference mitigation element is communicatively coupled with the receiver and is configured to receive interference data, generate an interference estimate from the interference data and a transfer function, and communicate the interference estimate to the receiver. The interference estimate removes charge from a resulting signal, mitigating effects of interference within the resulting signal.

Display interference mitigation

A system and method for capacitive sensing comprise acquiring first capacitive sensor data and second capacitive sensor data from a plurality of sensor electrodes, and determining positional information from one or more input objects based on the first capacitive sensor data and the second capacitive sensor data. The plurality of sensor electrodes are driven with transcapacitive sensing signals for capacitive sensing during one or more transcapacitive sensing blocks to acquire the first sensor data. Further, the plurality of sensor electrodes are operated for absolute capacitive sensing during one or more absolute capacitive sensing blocks to acquire the second capacitive sensor data.

System and method for generating corrected sensor data

An input device including a sensing region is disclosed. The input device includes: sensor circuitry configured to: operate, during a first timeslot, electrodes as a first cluster; and operate, during a second timeslot, the electrodes as a second cluster, where the electrodes are aligned with an axis, and where at least one of the electrodes operates as a transmitter in the first cluster and as a receiver in the second cluster; and determination circuitry configured to: determine a first set of signal values associated with a first set of electrodes in the first cluster; determine a second set of signal values associated with a second set of electrodes in the second cluster; and generate a profile for the sensing region based on the first set of signal values and the second set of signal values, where the profile reflects an input object in the sensing region.

Capacitive sensing acquisition schemes

A processing system includes a sensor module configured to receive first and second signals from first and second sensor electrodes, respectively, and generate a combination signal. The processing system further includes a determination module configured to determine, using the first sensor electrode, an absolute capacitive coupling to an input object; determine, using the first and second sensor electrodes, a transcapacitive coupling; determine a ratio of the absolute to transcapacitive coupling; determine, using the combination signal, in absence of a predetermined low ground mass state, and when the ratio fails to exceed a predetermined threshold, first positional information regarding a location of the input object; and determine, when the ratio fails to exceed the predetermined threshold and in presence of the predetermined low ground mass state, second positional information regarding the location of the input object in the sensing region using an absolute capacitive scan.

Transcapacitive and absolute capacitive sensing profiles

A system and method for capacitive sensing comprise acquiring first capacitive sensor data and second capacitive sensor data from a plurality of sensor electrodes, and determining positional information from one or more input objects based on the first capacitive sensor data and the second capacitive sensor data. The plurality of sensor electrodes are driven with transcapacitive sensing signals for capacitive sensing during one or more transcapacitive sensing blocks to acquire the first sensor data. Each of the transcapacitive sensing signals is based on a respective one of a plurality of codes. Further, the plurality of sensor electrodes are operated for absolute capacitive sensing during one or more absolute capacitive sensing blocks to acquire the second capacitive sensor data.

Sensor electrodes are coupled, in a first configuration, to input channels of a processing system. The sensor electrodes are used to acquire a measurement of current. In a second configuration that is different from the first configuration, the sensor electrodes are coupled to the input channels. The sensor electrodes in the second configuration are used to acquire a capacitive resulting signal. Positional information is determined using the current measurement and the capacitive resulting signal.

Electrode combining for noise determination

Transmitter axis projection for capacitive sensing is disclosed. Transmitter axis projection includes having processing system. The processing system includes sensor circuitry configured to be coupled to transmitter electrodes and receiver electrodes. The sensor circuitry is configured to drive the transmitter electrodes with first transmitter signals and receive first resulting signals from the receiver electrodes, and drive only a first subset of the receiver electrodes with second transmitter signals and receive second resulting signals with the transmitter electrodes. The processing system further includes processing circuitry connected to the sensor circuitry and configured to partition the receiver electrodes into the first subset of receiver electrodes and a second subset of receiver electrodes, and generate a transmitter axis projection from the second resulting signals.

Transmitter axis projection construction for capacitive sensing

A processing system for reducing background capacitance associated with a touch surface. The processing system includes: transmitter circuitry that drives a transmitter electrode of the touch surface with a waveform; receiver circuitry that detects input in a sensing region of the touch surface based on a resulting signal from a receiver electrode of the touch surface; and offset reduction circuitry connected to the receiver circuitry that: subtracts, prior to completion of an integration period of the waveform, a first plurality of charge associated with background capacitance from the resulting signal using a capacitor; executes a first reload of the capacitor prior to completion of the integration period of the waveform; and subtracts, prior to completion of the integration period of the waveform, a second plurality of charge associated with background capacitance from the resulting signal using the capacitor after the first reload.

Reducing background capacitance associated with a touch surface

A method and related processing system and input device are disclosed for power consumption optimization using interference measurements. The method comprises applying, within a predefined first low-power operational mode, a first set of values for at least one predefined sensing parameter and corresponding to a first power consumption level; acquiring, within the first low-power operational mode, a first interference measurement using the plurality of sensor electrodes; transitioning, upon determining the first interference measurement exceeds a first interference threshold value, into a predefined high-power operational mode; and applying, within the high-power operational mode, a second set of values for the at least one predefined sensing parameter and corresponding to a second power consumption level greater than the first power consumption level.

Power consumption optimization using interference measurements

A processing system, including: a sensor module that: receives, in a first sensing modality, first resulting signals from electrodes in a sensing region; and receives, in a second sensing modality, second resulting signals from a subset of receiver electrodes; and receiver hardware channels that process the second resulting signals, where the number of receiver electrodes exceeds the number of hardware channels; and a determination module that: measures a first plurality of capacitive changes based on the first resulting signals; determines, based on the first plurality of capacitive changes, the section of the sensing region in which an input object is located; selects the subset of the receiver electrodes corresponding to the section; measures a second plurality of capacitive changes based on the second resulting signals; and determines a position of the input object within the section based on the second plurality of capacitive changes.

Selective receiver electrode scanning

Hybrid force sensing includes acquiring absolute capacitance measurements of the absolute capacitance of at least one frame side electrode, acquiring mutual capacitance measurements of the mutual capacitance between the at least one frame side electrode and at least one display side electrode. Hybrid force sensing further includes determining an absolute capacitance derived force from the absolute capacitance measurements, determining a mutual capacitance derived force from the mutual capacitance measurements, and combining the absolute capacitance derived force and the mutual capacitance derived force to obtain a combined force. Hybrid force sensing further includes performing an action based on the combined force.

Hybrid force measurement

A circular, single-layer sensor electrode pattern for input devices, such as wearable devices, is described. The sensor electrode pattern features transmitter electrodes and receiver electrodes tiled in alternating fashion, such that each receiver electrode is surrounded by transmitter electrodes. The individual sensor electrodes of the described pattern are designed to provide a substantially uniform electrode area size across the sensor. Additionally, the sensor electrode pattern is arranged to be symmetric across both horizontal and vertical axes. The provided characteristics of the sensor electrode pattern leads to a sensor structure having uniform absolute capacitive sensing measurements for all sensor electrodes as well as uniform transcapacitive sensing measurements for all 'pixels.'

Circular outline single layer pattern

In a method of capacitive sensing, a first plurality of sensor electrodes of a sensor electrode pattern is coupled, in a first configuration, to input channels of a processing system. The sensor electrode pattern is associated with a sensing region. The first configuration of the first plurality sensor of electrodes is utilized to acquire a measurement of current. A noise environment is determined through analysis of the measurement of current. At least one subset of the first plurality of sensor electrodes is coupled, in a second configuration, to the input channels. The second configuration and the first configuration are different. The second configuration of the first plurality of sensor electrodes is utilized to acquire capacitive resulting signals.

Embodiments of the invention generally provide an input device that includes a plurality of sensing elements that are interconnected in desired way to acquire positional information of an input object, so that the acquired positional information can be used by other system components to control a display or other useful system components. One or more of the embodiments described herein, utilizes one or more of the techniques and sensor electrode array configuration disclosed herein to reduce or minimize the number of traces and/or electrodes required to sense the position of an input object within a sensing region of the input device.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Derek Solven