Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

Parade Technologies, Ltd.

Monterey Research, LLC

Jonathan R Peterson

Cole D Wilson

Patrick N Prendergast

Dana Jon Olson

Thomas Fuller

Robert Michael Birch

Derek James Valleroy

David Gordon Wright

Timothy John Williams

Andriy Maharyta

Louis W Bokma

Massoud Badaye

Andrew Best

Kaveh Hosseini

Rajiv Singh

Andrew C Page

Benjamin James Avery

David Paul Funston

A contact's interaction with a sensing array is subject to several external and internal stimuli which may impact a processing unit's confidence in the characteristics of that interaction or the presence of the interaction itself. Fidelity of user action is greatly improved with a step-wise and holistic analysis of a contact on an array of capacitance sensors, which allows for repetition of certain steps of processing or the entire operation if threshold confidence levels are not achieved.

System level filtering and confidence calculation

A method and apparatus to determine a plurality of regions, each of the plurality of regions having a detected change in sensor value that meets or exceeds a threshold value, fit a three dimensional shape to the plurality of regions, and determine a position of an object.

Methods and apparatus to detect a presence of a conductive object

Apparatuses and methods of peak detection are described. One method measures touch data on a sense array, the touch data represented as multiple cells. The method performs multiple different peak-detection schemes on each of the cells to generate a list of one or more possible peaks in the touch data. The method selects one or more actual peaks from the list. The actual peaks are used to determine locations of touches proximate to the sense array.

Peak detection schemes for touch position detection

An electronic system includes a processing device and a trellis pattern of conductors coupled to the processing device. The trellis pattern of conductors forms a multiple capacitors and the processing device is configured to sense a capacitance of each of the capacitors. A host is coupled to the processing device. The host includes decision logic to determine a state of the trellis pattern of conductors responsive to a signal that indicates a capacitance of one or more capacitors sensed by the processing device.

Touch sensor pattern

A capacitive sensor array may comprise a plurality of column sensor electrodes and a plurality of row sensor electrodes. The column sensor electrodes may be capacitively coupled with the row sensor electrodes to form a plurality of unit cells each including an intensity center identifying a location of greatest capacitance sensitivity between a row electrode and a column electrode. An axis of a set of row sensor electrodes may cross at least a portion of each row electrode in the set, and the intensity centers associated with the row electrodes in the set may be staggered on alternating sides of the axis. For each of the plurality of unit cells, a distance between the intensity center of the unit cell and a nearest intensity center of another unit cell at a perimeter of the unit cell may be at least 0.7 times the height of the unit cell.

Offset sensor pattern

A method and apparatus varying, by interval, a frequency of a drive signal applied to one electrode of each of a plurality of electrode pairs, select a frequency corresponding to the frequency of the drive signal, monitor changes in capacitance of each of the electrode pairs through receive signals at the selected frequency, from the other electrode of each of the plurality of electrode pairs; and determine a position of at least two objects, which are simultaneously on a touch device, according to the monitored capacitance changes.

Touch sensing

A method and apparatus determine a difference value, the determined difference value reflecting a difference between a plurality of presence values. In an embodiment, the method and apparatus perform an operation associated with the plurality of presence values, based on the determined difference value.

Methods and apparatus to perform a detection operation

An apparatus includes a touch screen panel including a sensing matrix arranged in a row-column format. The apparatus also includes a control device to scan the sensing matrix to detect a presence of multiple objects at least proximate to the touch screen panel. The control device can identify rows and columns of the sensing matrix that correspond to the presence of the multiple objects. The control device can orthogonally multiplex the identified rows and columns into one or more row-column pairs. The control device can scan at least one of the row-column pairs to detect locations of the multiple objects relative to the touch screen panel.

Multi-touch ghost discrimination

Embodiments described herein provide capacitive sensor arrays. The capacitive sensor arrays include a plurality of column sensor elements arranged in a plurality of columns and a plurality of row sensor elements arranged in a plurality of rows. The plurality of rows and the plurality of columns are arranged such that each of the row sensor elements is at least partially within a gap between adjacent ones of the column sensor elements. A capacitance between a first portion of one of the columns and an adjacent first portion of one of the rows is greater than a capacitance between a second portion of one of the columns and an adjacent second portion of one of the rows.

Capacitive sensor array with pattern variation

A method and apparatus determine a plurality of regions, each of the plurality of regions having a detected change in capacitance value that meets or exceeds a threshold value. In an embodiment, the method and apparatus fit a shape to the plurality of regions and determine another region, the other region being within the fitted shape and not having the detected change in capacitance value that meets or exceeds the threshold value. The method and apparatus may assign an assigned change in capacitance value to the other region.

A capacitive sensor array includes a second sensor element intersecting a first sensor element to form an intersection associated with a unit cell. The second sensor element includes, within the unit cell: a first primary trace crossing the unit cell and a second primary trace crossing the unit cell, a first secondary trace connecting the first primary trace and the second primary trace, and a first tertiary trace branching away from the first secondary trace between the first primary trace and the second primary trace. An area of the first sensor element is greater than an area of the second sensor element within the unit cell.

A method and apparatus determine a plurality of attribute values of a first detected presence, determine another plurality of attribute values of a second detected presence, and associate the first detected presence with the second detected presence based on the plurality of attribute values and the other plurality of attribute values.

Methods and apparatus to associate a detected presence of a conductive object

An example apparatus includes a sensing area including a sensor matrix, a first conductor and a second conductor. The first conductor is coupled to a first sensor of the sensor matrix and is configured to be coupled to a sensing module. The second conductor is coupled to a second sensor of the sensor matrix and is configured to be coupled to the sensing module. In embodiments, the first sensor consumes a first area, the second sensor and a length of the first conductor reside within a second area that is smaller than or equal to the first area consumed by the first sensor, and the length of the first conductor is routed between an edge of the sensing area and the second sensor.

Touch sensor conductor routing

Apparatuses and methods of calculating a touch orientation of a touch data measured on a sense array. One method calculates the touch orientation by determining a major axis length of the touch, determining a maximum width of the touch in a first axis, and calculating an inverse trigonometric function using the maximum width and the major axis length. Another method calculates the touch orientation by determining a centroid position of the touch and a touch outline of the touch, calculating perimeter distances between the centroid position and the touch outline, and calculating the orientation using the largest distance value of the calculated perimeter distances and the centroid position. Another method calculates the touch orientation by calculating eigenvalues and eigenvectors.

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Everett, WA, United States of America

Jonathan R Peterson