TWI467456B - Touch panel - Google Patents

Description

Touch panel

The present invention relates to touch systems and, in particular, to techniques for improving the accuracy of sensing results in the edge regions of touch panels.

With the advancement of technology, the operation interface of various electronic products has become more and more humanized in recent years. For example, through the touch screen, the user can directly operate the program on the screen with a finger or a stylus, input a message/text/pattern, and save the trouble of using an input device such as a keyboard or a button. In fact, the touch screen usually consists of a sensing panel and a display disposed behind the sensing panel. The electronic device determines the meaning of the touch according to the position touched by the user on the sensing panel and the picture presented by the display at that time, and performs the corresponding operation result.

The existing capacitive touch technology can be divided into two types: self-capacitance and mutual-capacitance. Compared with the mutual-capacitive touch panel, the self-capacitive touch panel can be realized by a simple single-layer electrode structure, and has the advantages of low cost, and thus is widely used in low-order electronic products. Figure 1 (A) is an example of a conventional self-contained touch panel. A plurality of triangular electrodes (e.g., electrodes E1, E3) and a plurality of rhombic electrodes (e.g., electrodes E2, E4, E5) are disposed in the sensing region 100 indicated by the dashed box. Each of the electrodes in the figure is each connected to a sensor (not shown). Taking the case where the user touches the area of the electrode E2 as an example, the capacitance detected by the sensor connected to the electrode E2 changes; accordingly, the subsequent control circuit can determine that the user touch occurs at the position where the electrode E2 is located. .

The aforementioned inductor is disposed outside the sensing area 100. Figure 1 (B) presents a conventional wiring example. As shown in FIG. 1(B), for the electrodes located at the edge of the sensing area, such as the electrode E1 and the electrode E2, the connecting line 11 for connecting the electrode E1 to the inductor and the connecting line 12 connecting the electrode E2 to the inductor are both Can be directly connected to the corresponding sensor. In contrast, the connecting line 13 for connecting the electrode E5 to the inductor comprises a plurality of sections: the connecting line 13 first traverses the gap between the electrodes E2 and E4, and then traverses the gap between the electrodes E2 and E3, and then is connected to the phase. Corresponding sensor. It will be understood that all of the electrodes (e.g., electrodes E4, E5) that are not adjacent to the edge of the sensing region 100 must pass through more complex traces to connect to the sensors located outside of the sensing region 100.

In practice, in order to improve the sensing resolution, the gap between adjacent electrodes is as small as possible. The above-mentioned connecting lines that must pass through one or more gaps undoubtedly force the electrode gap to be designed to be wider. Some gaps must even accommodate multiple cable crossings. Since the connecting line that passes through the narrow gap often needs to be fabricated by using a photomask, the production cost of the touch panel is greatly increased.

On the other hand, since the material of the connecting wire is usually metal which is also affected by the user's touch, the connecting line passing through the gap may cause the control circuit to misjudge the position of the touch. For example, if the user touches between the electrodes E2 and E4, the connecting line 13 passing through the gap between the electrodes E2 and E4 is also affected, and the sensor connected to the electrode E5 detects the amount of capacitance change. In the case where the detection result of the sensor connected to the electrode E5 is also taken into consideration, it is apparent that an error occurs in the position at which the touch is determined by the control circuit.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention proposes a new electrode shape/configuration for a touch panel. By adopting a suitably configured parallelogram electrode, the connection line crossing the electrode gap can be completely avoided or greatly reduced, thereby solving the previous problem. The problem of low sensing resolution caused by the configuration of the connection line in the technology, high production cost problem, and the problem of misjudging the location of the touch.

According to an embodiment of the invention, a touch panel includes a plurality of electrodes constituting a sensing area and located in the same plane. The sensing area has a first boundary and a second boundary perpendicular to each other. The plurality of electrodes includes a parallelogram electrode having two first sides parallel to the first boundary and two second sides not parallel to the first boundary and the second boundary

According to an embodiment of the invention, a touch panel includes a plurality of inductors, a plurality of connecting lines, and a plurality of electrodes. One end of each connection line is connected to one of the plurality of sensors. The plurality of electrodes are connected to the plurality of connecting lines to form a sensing area and are located in the same plane. The sensing area has a first boundary and a second boundary perpendicular to each other, and the plurality of electrodes have a plurality of gaps. The plurality of electrodes includes a parallelogram electrode having two first sides that are parallel to the first boundary and two second sides that are not parallel to the first boundary and the second boundary. The plurality of electrodes are disposed in such a manner that a portion of the plurality of connecting lines traverse the number of the plurality of gaps is optimized.

The advantages and spirit of the present invention will be further understood from the following detailed description of the invention.

According to an embodiment of the invention, a touch panel is provided, wherein the electrode shape/configuration is as shown in FIG. 2(A). The electrodes of the plurality of columns in the same plane constitute the sensing area 200. Each column electrode in this embodiment each contains two parallelogram electrodes and two right triangle electrodes. Taking the first column electrode 21 located at the uppermost portion of the screen as an example, the right-angled triangular electrode 21A, the parallelogram-shaped electrode 21B, the parallelogram-shaped electrode 21C, and the right-angled triangular electrode 21D are included from left to right.

As can be seen from FIG. 2(A), the sensing region 200 has a first boundary 210 and a second boundary 220 that are substantially perpendicular to each other. The parallelogram electrodes 21B, 21C each have two sides parallel to the first boundary 210, and the other two sides of the parallelogram electrodes 21B, 21C are not parallel to the first boundary 210 nor parallel to the second boundary 220. The oblique side of the right-angled triangular electrode 21A is parallel to one side of the parallelogram electrode 21B. The oblique side of the right-angled triangular electrode 21D is parallel to one side of the parallelogram electrode 21C.

Hereinafter, the electrodes 21A to 21D and 22A to 22D in FIG. 2(A) are redrawn in FIG. 2(B) to present an example of wiring suitable for the touch panel. As shown in Fig. 2(B), the connecting line for connecting the eight electrodes to the corresponding inductor hardly has to pass through the electrode gap, so that the number of connecting lines crossing the electrode gap is optimized. The connecting lines (connecting lines L1A, L1D, L2A, L2D) corresponding to the electrodes (for example, the electrodes 21A, 21D, 22A, 22D) of the first boundary 210 adjacent to the sensing area 200 may each extend to the left or right side of the sensing area 200. Parallelogram electrodes (e.g., electrodes 21B, 21C, 22B, 22C) located in the center of the sensing region 200 each have a sharp corner Adjacent to the left or right boundary 210 of the sensing area 200. As shown in FIG. 2(B), the connection line L1B extends leftward from the upper left corner of the electrode 21B, the connection line L1C extends rightward from the lower right corner of the electrode 21C, and the connection line L2B extends leftward from the upper left corner of the electrode 22B. The connecting line L2C extends rightward from the lower right corner of the electrode 22C. The wiring pattern presented in Figure 2 (B) can be applied to each column of electrodes in Figure 2 (A).

The shape/configuration of the electrodes and the wiring manner thereof obviously avoid the connection line crossing the electrode gap, and optimize the number of the connection lines crossing the electrode gap, thereby solving the problem of low sensing resolution caused by the configuration of the connection line in the prior art, and high manufacturing cost problem. And the problem of misjudging the location of the touch.

The shape/configuration of the electrode according to another embodiment of the present invention is as shown in FIG. The main difference between this embodiment and the previous embodiment is that the number of parallelogram electrodes in each column electrode is more than two. Taking the second column electrode 32 calculated from above as an example, the connecting lines corresponding to the right-angled triangular electrodes 32A, 32E may each extend to the left or right side of the sensing region 200. The connecting line corresponding to the parallelogram electrode 32B may extend leftward from the upper left corner of the parallelogram electrode 32B; the connecting line corresponding to the parallelogram electrode 32D may extend rightward from the lower right corner of the parallelogram electrode 32D. Only the connecting line of the parallelogram electrode 32C located at the center should extend leftward or rightward across the electrode gap. Compared to the prior art (all the electrodes that do not directly adjoin the edge of the sensing area, that is, the connecting line that traverses the electrode gap), the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3 can still reduce the wiring complexity considerably and reduce the electrode gap.

As can be seen from the embodiment of Figure 3, the number of parallelogram electrodes in each column of electrodes The amount is not limited to two (it can also be one in practice). The designer of the touch panel can determine the number of electrodes in each column of electrodes based on the size of the panel or the total number of sensors (which are closely related to the cost of the hardware). The advantage of having each column electrode contain only two parallel four-sided electrodes is that each electrode has at least one corner that is fairly close to the boundary of the sensing region. Further, the height of each column electrode is not limited to those shown in the drawings.

It should be noted that the shape/configuration of the electrode proposed by the present invention can be applied not only to a self-capacitive touch panel but also to a mutual-capacitive touch panel.

In the case where the application environment is a self-capacitive touch panel, the self-capacitive touch panel may further include N sensors and a controller in addition to the electrodes and the connection lines. N is a positive integer greater than 1, which is the total number of electrodes in the sensing region. For the embodiment shown in Figure 2 (A), N is equal to 40. Each of the sensors corresponds to and is connected to an electrode for detecting the amount of change in capacitance generated by the electrode. The controller calculates the location of the touch according to the following equation: Where x represents a coordinate at which the touch occurs in a first direction (eg, horizontal direction X), and y represents a coordinate at which the touch occurs in a second direction (eg, vertical direction Y), i being in the range of 1 to N The integer index between the two, C _i represents the change in capacitance measured by the i- th sensor, X _i represents the centroid of the electrode connected to the i- th sensor in the first direction, and Y _i represents the i- th sensor The center of gravity of the connected electrode in the second direction.

In the case where the application environment is a mutual-capacitive touch panel, each electrode in the touch panel according to the present invention can be switched to be a driving electrode in turn. Taking the electrode shape/arrangement presented in FIG. 2(A) as an example, when the electrode 21A is set as the driving electrode, the electrode 21B and the electrode 22B having adjacent parallel sides to the electrode 21A can be set as the receiving electrode. Subsequently, when the electrode 21B is set as the drive electrode, the electrodes 21A, 21C, and 22C which are adjacent to the electrode 21B are set as the receiving electrode. The positioning principle is similar to the conventional diamond-shaped electrode mutual-capacity touch panel.

As described above, the present invention proposes a new electrode shape/configuration for a touch panel. By using a suitably arranged parallelogram electrode, the connection line crossing the electrode gap can be completely avoided or greatly reduced to optimize the complex number. The number of the connecting lines traversing the complex gap can solve the problem of low sensing resolution caused by the connection line configuration in the prior art, high manufacturing cost problem, and misjudging the location of the touch.

The features and spirit of the present invention will be more apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiments. Instead, its purpose is to cover all kinds of changes. And equivalent arrangements are within the scope of the patent scope of the invention as claimed.

100‧‧‧ Sensing area

E1~E5‧‧‧Rear Electrode

11, 12, 13‧‧‧ connecting lines

200‧‧‧ Sensing area

210‧‧‧ first border

220‧‧‧ second border

21, 22, 32‧‧‧electrode columns

21A~21D, 22A~22D, 32A~32E‧‧‧ electrodes

L1A, L1B, L1C, L1D, L2A, L2B, L2C, L2D‧‧‧ connection lines

Figure 1 (A) shows an example of electrode configuration in a current self-capacitive touch panel; Figure 1 (B) shows an example of a corresponding connection line.

Figure 2 (A) is a schematic view of the shape/configuration of the electrode according to an embodiment of the present invention; and Figure 2 (B) is an example of the corresponding connection wiring.

Figure 3 is a schematic view of the shape/configuration of an electrode in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

200‧‧‧ Sensing area

210‧‧‧ first border

220‧‧‧ second border

21, 22‧‧‧electrode columns

21A~21D, 22A~22D‧‧‧ electrodes

Claims (10)

A touch panel includes: a plurality of electrodes forming a sensing area and located in a same plane, the sensing area having a first boundary and a second boundary perpendicular to each other, the plurality of electrodes comprising: a parallelogram electrode having the same a first side parallel to a boundary, and two second sides not parallel to the first boundary and the second boundary; a right-angled triangular electrode having a beveled edge and a right-angled edge, the beveled edge and the parallelogram electrode The two second sides are parallel, and the right angle side is parallel to the second boundary; wherein each of the plurality of column electrodes comprises at least one parallelogram electrode and two right triangle electrodes. The touch panel of claim 1, wherein the number of the at least one parallelogram electrode of each of the plurality of electrodes is two. The touch panel of claim 1, further comprising N sensors and a controller, wherein N is a positive integer greater than one, the N sensors are used to detect the generated by the plurality of electrodes The amount of capacitance change, the controller calculates a touch occurrence position according to the following equation: Where x represents the coordinate at which the touch occurs in a first direction, y represents a coordinate at which the touch occurs in a second direction, i is an integer index ranging from 1 to N, and C _i represents the ith The amount of change in capacitance measured by the sensor, X _i represents the centroid of the electrode connected to the i- th sensor in the first direction, and Y _i represents the electrode to which the i- th sensor is connected in the second direction Center of gravity coordinates. The touch panel of claim 1 is self-contained or self-contained. The touch panel of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of inductors and a controller, each of the plurality of electrodes being a driving electrode at a time point, and the plurality of electrodes adjacent thereto being a plurality of receiving electrodes, The complex sensor is configured to detect the amount of mutual capacitance change generated by the plurality of receiving electrodes. A touch panel includes: a plurality of sensors; a plurality of connecting lines, one end of each connecting line is connected to one of the plurality of sensors; and a plurality of electrodes connected to the plurality of connecting lines, the plurality of electrodes forming a sensing area and located on the same plane The sensing region has a first boundary and a second boundary perpendicular to each other, the plurality of electrodes having a plurality of gaps, the plurality of electrodes comprising: a parallelogram electrode having two first sides parallel to the first boundary, and a two-sided, non-parallel to the second boundary of the first boundary and the second boundary, having a beveled edge and a right-angled edge, the beveled edge being parallel to the two second sides of the parallelogram electrode, the right angle Parallel to The second boundary; wherein the plurality of electrodes are disposed in such a manner that a portion of the plurality of connecting lines pass through the plurality of gaps is optimized, and each of the plurality of electrodes includes at least one parallelogram electrode and two right angles Triangle electrode. The touch panel of claim 6, wherein the number of the at least one parallelogram electrode of each of the plurality of electrodes is two. The touch panel of claim 6, wherein the number of the plurality of sensors is N, N is a positive integer greater than one, and the N sensors are used to detect a change in capacitance generated by the plurality of electrodes. Quantity, a controller calculates a touch occurrence position according to the following equation: Where x represents the coordinate at which the touch occurs in a first direction, y represents a coordinate at which the touch occurs in a second direction, i is an integer index ranging from 1 to N, and C _i represents the ith The amount of change in capacitance measured by the sensor, X _i represents the centroid of the electrode connected to the i- th sensor in the first direction, and Y _i represents the electrode to which the i- th sensor is connected in the second direction Center of gravity coordinates. The touch panel of claim 6 is self-contained or self-contained. The touch panel of claim 6, wherein each of the plurality of electrodes is a driving electrode at a time point, and the plurality of electrodes adjacent thereto are a plurality of receiving electrodes, wherein the plurality of sensors are used to detect the plurality of electrodes The amount of change in mutual capacitance generated by the receiving electrode.