Synaptics Corporation

Tom R Vandermeijden

Guozhong Shen

Tetsuo Tanemura

Ching-Hsung Wang

Joseph Kurth Reynolds

Adam L Schwartz

Samuel Toba

Petr Shepelev

Kirk Hargreaves

Jeffrey Alan Small

Joel C Jordan

Doug Krumpelman

Koji Kokubu

Igor Polishchuk

Robert J Bolender

Jeffrey Lukanc

Nickolas Fotopoulos

Masaaki Shiomura

Umha Mahesh Srinivasan

Christopher Weber

Erol Eryilmaz

Divya Laguduvan

Timothy J Vehling

Sam Toba

Michael Cornstock

Fabrice Dayan

A method of capacitive sensing includes obtaining a capacitive touch profile from multiple receiver electrodes disposed in a sensing region of an input device and obtaining an active pen profile, different from the capacitive touch profile, from the multiple receiver electrodes. The method also includes adjusting, using the capacitive touch profile, the active pen profile to obtain a corrected active pen profile and determining a position of an active pen in the sensing region, using the corrected active pen profile.

Correcting touch interference for active pen

A method for determining a state of a foldable device is provided. The foldable device comprises: a first set of electrodes located in a first portion of the foldable device; a second set of electrodes located in a second portion of the foldable device; a display device configured to display information to a user; and a processing system configured to: drive the first set of electrodes to generate a plurality of sensing signals that are detectable by the second set of electrodes; obtain a plurality of resulting signals associated with the plurality of sensing signals via the second set of electrodes; determine a state of the foldable device based on the plurality of resulting signals; and change one or more settings of the display device based on the determined state.

Closure detection for foldable devices

A system and method for capacitive sensing using an input device are provided. The input device includes a display, a touch sensor and a processing system. The touch sensor has a plurality of transmitter electrodes with a first subset of positive transmitter electrodes driven by a positive sensing signal and a second subset of negative transmitter electrodes driven by a negative sensing signal. Each positive transmitter electrode spatially alternates with a negative transmitter electrode of the second subset of negative transmitter electrodes. The touch sensor includes a plurality of receiver electrodes arranged in differential pairs. Each differential pair includes a positive receiver electrode coupled to at least one of the first subset of positive transmitter electrodes and a negative receiver electrode coupled to at least one of the second subset of negative transmitter electrodes. The processing system transmits the positive sensing signal and the negative sensing signal, and receives a first resulting signal from the positive receiver electrode and a second resulting signal from the negative receiver electrode. The first resulting signal and the second resulting signal are combined to mitigate noise.

System and method for parallel touch sensing

A capacitive input device includes sensing electrodes configured to form a capacitive coupling with auxiliary device electrodes of an attached auxiliary device. The auxiliary device electrodes transmit data signals to the sensing electrodes via the capacitive coupling. The capacitive input device also includes processing circuitry configured to decode the data signals received via the capacitive coupling to obtain decoded data.

Capacitive communication channel for auxiliary devices

A system for determining a fold angle of a foldable device, the system including a plurality of electrodes and a processing system, wherein the processing system is configured to obtain transcapacitance measurements via a subset of the plurality of electrodes; obtain absolute capacitance measurements via the subset of the plurality of electrodes; and determine the fold angle of the foldable device based on the transcapacitance measurements and the absolute capacitance measurements.

Capacitive detection of fold angle for foldable devices

A system for determining a fold angle of a foldable device includes a plurality of electrodes and a processing system. The plurality of electrodes includes at least one first electrode and at least one second electrode, wherein the at least one second electrode is farther from a fold line of the foldable device than the at least one first electrode. The processing system is configured to: obtain at least one first absolute capacitance measurement via the at least one first electrode and at least one second absolute capacitance measurement via the at least one second electrode; and determine a fold angle of the foldable device based on the at least one first absolute capacitance measurement and the at least one second absolute capacitance measurement.

A system for determining a fold angle of a foldable device includes a plurality of electrodes and a processing system. The processing system is configured to: determine a first detected temperature at a first time; obtain baseline reference absolute capacitance measurements associated with the first detected temperature and associated with a known fold angle of the foldable device; determine a second detected temperature at a second time later than the first time; obtain absolute capacitance measurements associated with the second detected temperature at the second time; generate updated baseline reference absolute capacitance measurements based on the obtained capacitive measurements associated with the second detected temperature at the second time; obtain absolute capacitance measurements at a third time later than the second time; and determine the fold angle of the foldable device based on the absolute capacitance measurements obtained at the third time and the updated baseline reference absolute capacitance measurements.

A processing system includes sensor circuitry and processing circuitry. The sensor circuitry is configured to, using the sensor electrodes, obtain capacitive measurements of a sensing region, and obtain a resistance measurement of the sensing region. The processing circuitry is coupled to the sensor circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to determine a location of an input object using the capacitive measurements of the sensing region and determine a force value based on the resistance measurement and the location of the input object. Determining the force value mitigates a temperature variation of the sensing region affecting the resistance measurement. The processing circuitry is further configured to report the force value.

Using electrical resistance to estimate force on an electrode during temperature changes

A method is provided. The method comprises: providing, by a control system of an input device, one or more first beacon signals to an input object; based, at least in part, on force data from the input object, detecting, by the control system, noise interference associated with providing at least one of the one or more first beacon signals to the input object; based, at least in part, on detecting the noise interference, altering, by the control system, a timing schedule for providing one or more subsequent beacon signals; and providing, by the control system, the one or more subsequent beacon signals to the input object based, at least in part, on the timing schedule.

System and method for mitigating and/or avoiding noise for input devices and input objects

Low ground mass mitigation for pens includes sensing circuitry configured to transmit, during a first frame, a beacon signal on a first subset of sensing electrodes, the first subset being along a first axis of an input device, transmit, during a second frame, the beacon signal on a second subset of the sensing electrodes, the second subset being along the first axis and different from the first subset, and receive a pen signal transmitted responsive to the beacon signal. The processing circuitry is configured to detect a location of a capacitive pen using the pen signal.

Low ground mass mitigation for pens

Embodiments described herein include an input device and associated processing system for sensing force applied by input objects. The input device comprises a display device comprising a plurality of layers formed as a display stack, the display stack including a top surface. The input device further comprises one or more strain gauges disposed within the display stack and configured to detect force applied to the top surface, and a processing system configured to perform display updating using the display device and to perform force sensing using the one or more strain gauges.

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Los Gatos, CA, United States of America

Tom R Vandermeijden