Apple Inc.

Steve Porter Hotelling

Brian Richards Land

John Z Zhong

Christoph Horst Krah

Brian Quentin Huppi

Joshua A Strickon

Duncan Robert Kerr

Wayne Carl Westerman

John Greer Elias

Wei Chen

Wei Hsin Yao

Andrew Bert Hodge

Willem Den Boer

Jonathan P Ive

Imran A Chaudhri

Gregory N Christie

Brett W Degner

Bas Ording

Dinesh C Mathew

Victor H Yin

Chris A Ligtenberg

Bryan W Posner

Thomas W Wilson, Jr

Peteris K Augenbergs

Lynn Richard Youngs

Kuo-Hua Sung

Sean Erik O'Connor

Jeffrey L Robbin

Shih Chang Chang

Marduke Yousefpor

Benjamin B Lyon

Peter J Kennedy

Mark Arthur Hamblin

Thomas James Wilson

Lili Huang

Gus Pabon

Anthony Michael Fadell

Michael Nathaniel Rosenblatt

Martin Paul Grunthaner

Kenneth Lawrence Staton

Casey J Feinstein

Richard Wei Kwang Lim

John Benjamin Filson

Cameron P Frazier

Myra Mary Haggerty

Gordon C Cameron

Nima Parivar

Anthony M Faddell

Matthew Dean Rohrbach

Tang Yew Tan

Jeffrey Traer Bernstein

David Tupman

David T Amm

Omar Sze Leung

Andrew Nelthropp Lauder

Christopher Tenzin Mullens

Michael A Cretella

Shin John Choi

Brian Lynch

Troy Edwards

Larry Forsblad

Jan Moolsintong

John Tam

Joseph Edward Clayton

Kuo Sung

Doug Weber

Steve Zadesky

Scott A Brenneman

Sean Erik O'connor

A touch sensor panel having co-planar single-layer touch sensors fabricated on a single side of a substrate is disclosed. The drive and sense lines can be fabricated as column-like patterns in a first orientation and patches in a second orientation, where each column-like pattern in the first orientation is connected to a separate metal trace in the border area of the touch sensor panel, and all patches in each of multiple rows in the second orientation are connected together using a separate metal trace in the border area of the touch sensor panel. The metal traces in the border areas can be formed on the same side of the substrate as the patches and columns, but separated from the patches and column-like patterns by a dielectric layer.

Single-layer touch-sensitive display

Disclosed herein are liquid-crystal display (LCD) touch screens that integrate the touch sensing elements with the display circuitry. The integration may take a variety of forms. Touch sensing elements can be completely implemented within the LCD stackup but outside the not between the color filter plate and the array plate. Alternatively, some touch sensing elements can be between the color filter and array plates with other touch sensing elements not between the plates. In another alternative, all touch sensing elements can be between the color filter and array plates. The latter alternative can include both conventional and in-plane-switching (IPS) LCDs. In some forms, one or more display structures can also have a touch sensing function. Techniques for manufacturing and operating such displays, as well as various devices embodying such displays are also disclosed.

Touch screen liquid crystal display

A touch panel having a transparent capacitive sensing medium configured to detect multiple touches or near touches that occur at the same time and at distinct locations in the plane of the touch panel and to produce distinct signals representative of the location of the touches on the plane of the touch panel for each of the multiple touches is disclosed.

Multipoint touchscreen

Pre-stored no-touch or no-hover (no-event) sensor output values can initially be used when a sensor panel subsystem is first booted up to establish an initial baseline of sensor output values unaffected by fingers or other objects touching or hovering over the sensor panel during boot-up. This initial baseline can then be normalized so that each sensor generates the same output value for a given amount of touch or hover, providing a uniform response across the sensor panel and enabling subsequent touch or hover events to be more easily detected. After the initial normalization process is complete, the pre-stored baseline can be discarded in favor of a newly captured no-event baseline that may be more accurate than the pre-stored baseline due to temperature or other variations.

Storing baseline information in EEPROM

A touch surface device having improved sensitivity and dynamic range is disclosed. In one embodiment, the touch surface device includes a touch-sensitive panel having at least one sense node for providing an output signal indicative of a touch or no-touch condition on the panel; a compensation circuit, coupled to the at least one sense node, for generating a compensation signal that when summed with the output signal removes an undesired portion of the output signal so as to generated a compensated output signal; and an amplifier having an inverting input coupled to the output of the compensation circuit and a non-inverting input coupled to a known reference voltage.

Front-end signal compensation

Proximity based systems and methods that are implemented on an electronic device are disclosed. The method includes sensing an object spaced away and in close proximity to the electronic device. The method also includes performing an action in the electronic device when an object is sensed.

Proximity detector in handheld device

An electronic device display may have a color filter layer and a thin film transistor layer. A layer of liquid crystal material may be interposed between the color filter layer and the thin film transistor layer. A layer of polarizer may be laminated onto the surface of the color filter layer. Laser trimming may ensure that the edges of the polarizer are even with the edges of the color filter layer. The thin film transistor layer may have an array of thin film transistors that control pixels of the liquid crystal material in the display. Driver circuitry may be used to control the array. The driver circuitry may be encapsulated in a planarized encapsulant on the thin film transistor layer or may be mounted to the underside of the color filter layer. Conductive structures may connect driver circuitry on the color filter layer to the thin film transistor layer.

Methods for fabricating display structures

The use of multiple stimulation frequencies and phases is disclosed to detect touch events on a touch sensor panel in a low-power state. Simultaneously during every frame, a number of rows of the touch sensor panel can be driven with a positive phase of one or more stimulation signals, and the same number of different rows can be driven with the anti-phase of those same stimulation signals. Because the same number of rows are stimulated with the in-phase and anti-phase components of the one or more stimulation signals, the resulting charges injected into a given column cancel each other out. However, a touch event will create an imbalance, and a non-zero charge will be detected. The detection of the touch event can then trigger the system to wake up, activate a panel processor, and perform a full panel scan, where the location of the touch event can be identified.

Auto scanning for multiple frequency stimulation multi-touch sensor panels

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Steve Porter Hotelling