Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

Elo Touch Solutions, Inc.

Silicon Light Machines Corporation

Yansun Xu

Brian Todoroff

Steven Sanders

John Frame

Jahja I Trisnadi

Ke-Cai Zeng

Gazi Naser Ali

Brett Alan Spurlock

Clinton Carlisle

Joel Christopher Kent

Khalid Azim

Jinghui Mu

Agha Ahsan

Kyu Tak Son

Robert Williams

Robert J Lang

Pulkit Shah

Eric N Mann

Steve Sanders

Gopalakrishnan Perur Krishnan

Jonathan Young

Shankar Subramani

Jeffry C Bailey

Huy Tae

Chunguang Xia

KeCai Zeng

Gazi Ali

Embodiments improve projected-capacitive (PCAP) touchscreen performance for applications subject to water contamination. Embodiments include: increased separation between indium-tin-oxide (ITO)/silver connection of an electrode terminus and routing traces, and increased separation between electrostatic discharge (ESD) lines and sensor guard lines. Embodiments may include methods for rejecting false touches from self-capacitance readout mode measurements due to long water drops/rivulets on a touchscreen including peak ratios and locations of peaks on perimeter electrodes. Some embodiments include an optically clear adhesive layer between a first transparent substrate including a first ITO coating forming a first set of electrodes, and a second transparent substrate including a second ITO coating forming a second set of electrodes. The first transparent substrate may include non-solid trace shields that overlay on routing traces of the second transparent substrate; and the second transparent substrate may include non-solid trace shields that overlay on routing traces of the first transparent substrate.

Water immune projected-capacitive (PCAP) touchscreen

System, method, and computer program product embodiments are provided for a projected capacitive (PCAP) touch system that includes a touchscreen and two or more touch controller application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) communicatively coupled to the touchscreen, where connections between receiver (and/or driver) circuits of the two or more touch controller ASICs and touchscreen electrodes are interleaved. The two or more touch controller ASICs do not exchange raw mutual capacitance or self capacitance data during a measurement frame. Further, a processor may be coupled to the two or more touch controller ASICs, and may determine final touch coordinates based on all subsets of coarse touch coordinate data from each of the two or more touch controller ASICs. Embodiments also include determining each subset of coarse touch coordinate data based on a shape of a touch rather than a two-dimensional square or rectangular region of the touchscreen.

Large PCAP screen with multiple touch controller ASICs with interleaved connections

System, method, and computer program product embodiments are provided that can support touch interaction on a projective capacitive (PCAP) display system in the presence of water contamination. According to an embodiment, a system includes a touchscreen coupled to a controller. The controller determines the presence of water contamination on the touchscreen, and obtains measurements during a mixed-mode measurement frame that includes a self-mode measurement and a mutual-mode measurement. Based on the measurements obtained, the controller determines a touch on the touchscreen in the presence of the water contamination on the touchscreen. In some embodiments, the self-mode measurement includes measurements collected at a both lower and a higher drive frequency, the higher drive frequency may be in the frequency range of 100 kHz to 500 kHz. In another embodiment, the self-mode measurement includes simultaneously measuring both horizontal-electrodes and vertical-electrodes.

PCAP with enhanced immunity to water contaminants

Large PCAP screen with multiple touch controller ASICS with interleaved receiver connections

System, method, and computer program products are provided that can support touch interaction from multiple users on a large scale projective capacitive (PCAP) display system, such as a gaming table. According to some embodiments, a system includes a touchscreen coupled to a controller. The controller adjusts performance of the touchscreen through dynamically setting a controller parameter to support altered touch reporting in a first area of the touchscreen compared to a second area of the touchscreen. The controller enables touch detection for the first area according to performance characteristics needed for an application operating in the second area. Some embodiments include the controller identifying a user associated with the first area, where the controller receives and analyzes a watermarked touch signal from the first area that includes a touch signal and a unique signal, detects an associated touch location, and detects the unique signal associated with the user.

Identifying multiple users on a large scale projected capacitive touchscreen

System, method, and computer program products are provided that can support touch interaction from multiple users on a large scale projective capacitive (PCAP) display system, such as a gaming table. According to an embodiment, a system includes a touchscreen coupled to a controller. The controller adjusts performance of the touchscreen through dynamically setting a controller parameter to support altered touch reporting in a first area of the touchscreen compared to a second area of the touchscreen. The controller enables touch detection for the first area according to performance characteristics needed for an application operating in the second area. An altered touch reporting area may be a fast scan area or a slow scan area. In addition, enrichment data areas may include at least one of a fast scan area, a slow scan area, or an area of a touchscreen during a full scan.

Supporting multiple users on a large scale projected capacitive touchscreen

Optical navigation sensors and methods are provided for use in an input device. In one embodiment, the input device comprises: (i) a button configured to in a first mode of operation of the input device receive user input when a surface of the button is pressed; (ii) an optical navigation sensor (ONS) configured to in a second mode of operation of the input device illuminate an object in proximity to the surface of the button and to sense and provide input related to motion of the object; and (iii) means for disabling input from the ONS in the first mode of operation. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Optical navigation sensor and method

Optical navigation modules and methods of operating the same to sense relative movement between the optical navigation module and a tracking surface are provided. In one embodiment, the optical navigation module comprises: (i) a light source to illuminate at least a portion of a surface relative to which the optical navigation module is moved; (ii) an integrated circuit (IC) including a photo-detector array (PDA) to detect a light pattern propagated onto the PDA from the surface, and a signal processor to translate changes in the light pattern propagated onto the PDA into data representing motion of the optical navigation module relative to the surface; and (iii) a substrate to which the light source and IC are mounted, the substrate including an aperture in a light path between the surface and the PDA. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Optical navigation module with capacitive sensor

Embodiments of optical navigation modules (ONM) and methods of operating the same to block auto-movement due to ambient light are described. Generally, the method includes: (i) collecting a plurality of PD signal samples from a photodiode (PD) in an optical navigation module (ONM); (ii) determining a peak-to-peak variation (&#x394;PD) in the plurality of PD signal samples; (iii) comparing the peak-to-peak variation (&#x394;PD) to a specified threshold peak-to-peak variation (&#x394;PD); and (iv) if &#x394;PD is less than &#x394;PD, suppressing reporting of motion data derived from signals from a photodetector array (PDA) in the ONM to block auto-movement in an output from the ONM. Other embodiments are also described.

Adaptive ambient light auto-movement blocking in optical navigation modules

A hybrid sensor module and methods of operating the same are provided. In one embodiment, the hybrid sensor module includes: (i) a touch sensor configured to sense motion of an object in proximity to a surface of the touch sensor; (ii) an optical navigation sensor (ONS) configured to illuminate the object through the surface of the touch sensor and to sense motion of the object based on light returned from the object; and (iii) a controller electrically coupled to the touch sensor and the ONS to process the sensed motion of the object and to generate an output signal in response to the sensed motion, wherein the controller is configured to dynamically adjust a tracking resolution of the hybrid sensor module based on a characteristic of the sensed motion. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Hybrid sensor module

Finger navigation methods, devices and systems are disclosed. In one embodiment the system comprises a light source configured to radiate a light beam towards a tactile surface. The system also comprises a photo detector module configured to sense speckle beams emitted by a target surface navigating the tactile surface in response to light hitting the target surface. The system further comprises a processor configured to track a movement of the target surface with respect to the tactile surface based on output from the photo detector module and a conductor structure for capacitive sensing of the target surface with respect to the tactile surface. The conductor structure is configured to determine a plurality of navigational functionalities based on the capacitive sensing of the target surface with respect to the tactile surface, including at least one of single click, double click, and scrolling.

Current sensor output measurement system and method

A dual protocol input device for use with a host system is provided. In one embodiment, the input device comprises a chip with a number of semiconductor devices integrally formed thereon, including: an optical navigation sensor (ONS) to sense movement of the ONS relative to a surface; a wired protocol block to communicate data from the ONS to the host system by a wired communication protocol; a wireless protocol block to communicate data from the ONS to the host system by a wireless communication protocol; and a micro-controller coupled to the ONS, the wired protocol block and the wireless protocol block, to switch the input device between the wireless communication protocol and the wired communication protocol.

Dual protocol input device

An optical navigation apparatus including a package incorporating a light source and a single die of silicon. The single die of silicon includes a photodiode array configured at the detection plane to receive the speckle pattern of the scattered light from the collection optics, circuitry configured to process signals from the photodiode array to determine changes in position of the apparatus relative to the tracking surface, analog circuitry configured to control and drive current through the light source, interface circuitry configured to communicate position data by outputting the position data via a data interface, a microcontroller comprising a processor core and memory for storing computer-readable code and data, and a system bus configured to communicate instructions and data between the microcontroller and said digital, analog, and interface circuitries. Other embodiments, aspects and features are also disclosed.

Optical navigation system using a single-package motion sensor

An optical navigation system and method are provided. In one embodiment, the method includes: (i) generating for a first group of photosensitive elements a first quasi-sinusoidal signal at a first time, and a second quasi-sinusoidal signal at a second time in response to motion of light received thereon in a first direction; (ii) computing from the first and second quasi-sinusoidal signals a phase angle change; and (iii) computing from the first and second quasi-sinusoidal signals a radius value. Other embodiments are also described.

Circuit and method for determining motion with redundant comb-arrays

A circuit and method are provided to control the strength of signals from an array of photo-detectors (PDs) in an optical navigation sensor. The circuit includes a number of transimpedance-amplifiers (TIAs) each coupled to an output of at least one PD to receive a current signal therefrom and generate a signal in response thereto. A controller coupled to outputs of the TIAs receives the signals and executes an algorithm to adjust gain of a signal processor coupled to the array. In one embodiment, the signal processor includes differential transimpedance-amplifiers (DIFF-TIAs) each including inputs coupled to receive current signals from the array, and the controller outputs a control signal to adjust a time over which the DIFF-TIAs and the TIAs integrate the current signals. Optionally, the signal processor includes gain-amplifiers coupled to the DIFF-TIAs and TIAs, and the controller outputs a signal to adjust gain thereof.

Growing community of inventors

Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Yansun Xu