Apple Inc.

Karan S Jain

Supratik Datta

Nandita Venugopal

Eng Eow Goh

Asif Hussain

Reuben J Williams

Clark Everett Waterfall

Christiaan A Ligtenberg

Ehsan Khajeh

Wing Kong Low

Blake R Marshall

Reza Nasiri Mahalati

Wesley William Zuber

Henry N Tsao

Ashwin Kumar Asoka Kumar Shenoi

Izhar Bentov

Wei Lin

Brian Michael King

Parin Patel

Benjamin A Cousins

Lee M Panecki

Andrew W Joyce

Nathan K Gupta

Nicole M Wells

Stephen Theodore Schooley

Arash Akhavan Fomani

Meng Chi Lee

Chia Chi Wu

Travis N Owens

Hao Dong

George Ho Yin Mak

Daniel P Kumar

William P Yarak, Iii

Ross D Arriens

Gang Ning

Jenna Dancy

Mei Zhang

Da Yu

Zhou Lu

Julia C Canning

Ho Hyung Lee

Jeffrey M Weisse

Zhiyuan Sun

Santosh Pokhrel

Timothy C Wulff

Deepak Sharma

Chun-Chih Chang

Chengrui Zhang

Michael Sipper

Sung Yul Chu

Disclosed herein is a touch sensor panel that includes a substrate that includes a bending portion, and a plurality of electrodes formed in a first layer on a first surface of the substrate, the plurality of electrodes forming first electrodes and second electrodes and the plurality of electrodes defining an active area for touch sensing. The touch sensor panel further includes a plurality of routing traces formed in the first layer on the first surface of the substrate in a border area outside the active area and formed from the first material (copper), a plurality of bridges formed in a second layer, the plurality of bridges connecting groups of the plurality of electrodes to form the first electrodes and formed from a second material (silver), and sensing circuitry connected to the substrate and to the plurality of routing traces at a location after the bending portion.

Touch sensor panel with reduced dimensions and cross-coupling

A case for an electronic device can include a case body including an exterior surface and an interior surface, the interior surface being positioned opposite the exterior surface. The case can additionally include a button body positioned at least partially within the case body between the exterior surface and the interior surface, the button body being movable inward and outward relative to the case body along an axis of button travel. The case can further include a biasing structure having a contact surface configured to contact the button body, the biasing structure configured to bias the button body toward the interior surface along the axis of button travel.

Computing device case

Touch input devices are provided with the capability of sensing a capacitive load in a two-dimensional array while also being able to sense deflection or movement of the input device in multiple different locations under an input pad. A touch input device can beneficially be used in a remote control device and can be used with multiple input buttons or platforms overlaying multiple capacitive touch input regions on a capacitive touch sensor substrate. Movement and position of a capacitive load can be tracked and calculated via output signals from a set of electrodes or other capacitance sensors with irregular shapes, with inconsistent distances from the capacitive load, and which are positioned below variable materials and material compositions. Thus, tracking gestures and taps can be detected using the capacitance sensing devices, and deflection input can be detected using switches or other actuators situated under the capacitance sensing devices.

Continuous touch input over multiple independent surfaces

An earphone comprising: a device housing that defines an interior cavity within the device housing; an acoustic port formed through a wall of the device housing; an audio driver disposed within the device housing and aligned to emit sound through the acoustic port; a user input region disposed along an exterior surface of the device housing; a flex circuit disposed within the interior cavity, the flex circuit including a first portion bonded at a first location to an inner surface of the device housing directly beneath the user-input region, a second portion bonded at a second location to an inner surface of the device housing spaced apart from the first location, and a third portion extending between the first and second portions; a force pixel disposed within the interior cavity and mounted to the first portion of the flex circuit below the user input region; a plurality of touch pixels disposed within the interior cavity between the force pixel and the user input region; sensor control circuitry disposed within the interior cavity and mounted to the second portion of the flex circuit; and a wireless antenna disposed within the interior cavity defined by the device housing.

Portable wireless listening device

Touch electrode architectures for reducing the occurrence of negative pixels in mutual capacitance touch sensor panels that are caused by poorly grounded objects are disclosed. A touch electrode architecture can utilize mutual capacitance unit cells, each of which include a drive electrode, a sense electrode, and one or more ground bars. The one or more ground bars can provide an increased capacitive path to ground for a poorly grounded finger, which can result in a larger reduction in mutual capacitance between the drive and sense electrodes, improving touch detection. In addition, the increased capacitive coupling between the object and ground reduces the amount of charge that couples back onto nearby sense electrodes, which can reduce the negative pixel that can occur at those electrodes and reduce the number of touch detection errors. The one or more ground bars can be formed in the same layer as the drive electrode.

Apparatus to reduce negative pixel from capacitive touch

Touch-based input devices, such as a stylus, can receive tactile input from a user. The tactile input functions can be performed by a touch sensor, such as a capacitive sensing device. A touch sensor can be integrated into a stylus in a low profile form. Tactile input can be received at the user's natural grip location. Furthermore, the stylus can effectively distinguish between tactile inputs from a user and disregard sustained tactile inputs that are provided while the user simply holds the stylus at the user's natural grip location.

Touch-based input for stylus

A two dimensional touch sensor panel can be thermoformed or curved by another process to a three-dimensional touch sensor panel, and the three-dimensional touch sensor panel can be laminated to a three-dimension surface having a highly curved or spherical shape. In some examples, thermoforming a two-dimensional touch sensor panel into a three-dimensional touch sensor panel can result in strain of the touch electrodes, and can result in non-uniform three-dimensional touch electrodes (distortion of the two-dimensional touch electrode pattern). The strain can be a function of the curved touch-sensitive surface and/or process related mechanical strain from thermoforming. In some examples, a three-dimensional touch sensor panel can be formed with uniform area touch electrodes using a two-dimensional touch sensor panel pattern with non-uniform area touch electrodes in accordance with the strain pattern expected for a given curved surface and thermoforming technique.

Spherical or highly curved touch-sensitive surfaces

Continous touch input over multiple independent surfaces

Improving the accuracy of ultrasonic touch sensing via the reduction, elimination and/or rejection of parasitic ultrasonic reflections caused by unintended touches is disclosed. The adverse effects of these parasitic reflections can be mitigated by disrupting the symmetry of the true reflections (from the intended touch) and the parasitic reflections (from unintended touches) so that the true touch can be disambiguated from unintended touches. Identification of the true touch can then enable accurate touch localization.

Ultrasonic touch sensing parasitic wave rejection

Fabric touch-sensitive layers provided for electronic devices can absorb moisture, liquids or chemicals, which can cause drift in measurements of touch nodes formed in the fabric layer. In some examples, reference nodes formed in a fabric layer can be used to account for drift due to the absorption of moisture, liquids or chemicals. The reference nodes can be isolated from the effects of proximate or touching objects and from absorption of moisture, liquids or chemicals. The reference nodes can also be formed in a fabric layer having the same or similar properties as the fabric touch-sensitive layers. When measurements of touch nodes drift due to changes in absorption, the measurements can be adjusted based on measurements of reference nodes.

Absorption correction for fabric touch sensing layer

This disclosure relates to touch-sensitive mechanical keyboards and methods for detecting touch events and key depression events on the touch-sensitive mechanical keyboard. The keypad can include a plurality of domes, a plurality of key make electrodes, first touch electrodes, and second touch electrodes. The first touch electrodes may be located underneath the plurality of key make electrodes, and the second touch electrodes may not. Both touch electrodes can detect touch events based on self-capacitance sensing. A key depression event can cause the key make electrode to make electrical contact with a corresponding first touch electrode, creating a short circuit that may cause the measured signal to saturate. The keyboard can include a plurality of sensing circuits coupled to the key make electrodes, the first touch electrodes, and the second touch electrodes. The plurality of sensing circuits can be used to detect both touch events and key depression events.

Touch-sensitive mechanical keyboard with sensing circuits for touch events and key depression events

Components associated with receiving user touch input, receiving user force input, and providing haptic output interface are integrated into a unified input/output interface that includes a transducer substrate formed with a monolithic or multi-layer body having a number of electrodes disposed on surfaces thereof. Electrodes are selected by a controller to provide touch input sensing, force input sensing, and haptic output.

Unified input/output interface for electronic device

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Karan S Jain