Touch panel and operating method for touch panel

This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 113110921, filed on Mar. 25, 2024. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.

The disclosure relates to a panel and an operating method for the panel, and particularly relates to a touch panel and an operating method for the touch panel.

A touch panel includes multiple touch electrodes. Generally, the touch panel determines whether the touch panel is touched in a power saving mode. When the touch panel is touched in the power saving mode, the touch panel enters a normal mode to perform a corresponding operation based on the user's touch.

It should be noted that the existing touch panel scans the touch electrodes row by row in the power saving mode. Therefore, the touch determination in the power saving mode may take a longer time for calculation. Besides, the aforementioned row-by-row scanning still consumes more power. In other words, in the power saving mode, the power saving performance of the touch panel is limited.

The disclosure provides a touch panel and an operating method for the touch panel, which are capable of shortening the calculation time for touch determination in the power saving mode and reducing the power consumption of the touch panel.

The touch panel according to an embodiment of the disclosure includes multiple touch areas and a sensing circuit. Adjacent touch areas among the multiple touch areas receive multiple touch drive signals with different frequencies. At least two non-adjacent touch areas have the same frequency and different phases. In a power saving mode, the touch panel simultaneously sends the multiple touch drive signals to the multiple touch areas within a time interval. The sensing circuit is coupled to the multiple touch areas. In the power saving mode, the sensing circuit receives multiple touch sensing signals from the multiple touch areas, determines whether the touch panel is touched according to at least one of the multiple touch sensing signals, and controls the touch panel to enter a normal mode in response to the touch panel being touched.

The operating method according to an embodiment of the disclosure is adapted for a touch panel. The operating method includes the following. In a power saving mode, the touch panel simultaneously sends multiple touch drive signals to multiple touch areas within a time interval. Adjacent touch areas among the multiple touch areas receive the multiple touch drive signals with different frequencies, and at least two non-adjacent touch areas have the same frequency and different phases. Multiple touch sensing signals are received from the multiple touch areas in the power saving mode. Whether the touch panel is touched is determined according to at least one of the multiple touch sensing signals. In response to the touch panel being touched, the touch panel is controlled to enter a normal mode.

Based on the above, the touch panel simultaneously sends multiple touch drive signals to multiple touch areas within a time interval in the power saving mode. Thus, the calculation time for touch determination in the power saving mode of the touch panel can be shortened. Moreover, non-adjacent touch areas have the same frequency and different phases. In the case where multiple touch drive signals are simultaneously provided to the corresponding touch areas, the touch sensing signals of adjacent touch areas do not interfere with each other.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the touch panel according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 A is a waveform diagram illustrating the touch drive signals for comparison.

FIG. 2 B is a waveform diagram illustrating the touch drive signals according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a waveform diagram illustrating the touch drive signals according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the sensing circuit according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating the touch panel according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operating method according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Some embodiments of the disclosure will be described in detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. Regarding the reference numerals used in the following description, identical reference numerals shown in different drawings will be regarded as identical or similar components. Nevertheless, these embodiments are only a part of the disclosure, and do not disclose all possible implementations of the disclosure. More precisely, these embodiments are only examples within the scope of the claims.

Referring to FIG. 1 , FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the touch panel according to an embodiment of the disclosure. In this embodiment, a touch panel 100 may be a touch panel with a self-capacitance sensing function and/or a mutual-capacitance sensing function. The touch panel 100 includes touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 and a sensing circuit 110 . In a power saving mode, the touch panel 100 simultaneously sends multiple touch drive signals to the touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 within a time interval. Therefore, within the same time interval in the power saving mode, the touch area TCR 1 receives a touch drive signal STD 1 in the power saving mode. The touch area TCR 2 receives a touch drive signal STD 2 in the power saving mode. The touch area TCR 3 receives a touch drive signal STD 3 in the power saving mode. The touch area TCR 4 receives a touch drive signal STD 4 in the power saving mode.

In this embodiment, at least two non-adjacent touch areas have the same frequency and different phases. For example, the touch area TCR 1 and the touch area TCR 3 are separated by the touch area TCR 2 . In other words, the touch area TCR 2 is located between the touch area TCR 1 and the touch area TCR 3 . The touch area TCR 1 is not adjacent to the touch area TCR 3 . The touch area TCR 2 and the touch area TCR 4 are separated by the touch area TCR 3 . In other words, the touch area TCR 3 is located between the touch area TCR 2 and the touch area TCR 4 . The touch area TCR 2 is not adjacent to the touch area TCR 4 . The touch drive signal STD 1 and the touch drive signal STD 3 have the same first frequency F 1 . The touch drive signal STD 1 and the touch drive signal STD 3 have different phases. The touch drive signal STD 2 and the touch drive signal STD 4 have the same second frequency F 2 . The second frequency F 2 is different from the first frequency F 1 . The touch drive signal STD 2 and the touch drive signal STD 4 have different phases.

In this embodiment, the sensing circuit 110 is coupled to the touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 . In the power saving mode, the sensing circuit 110 receives touch sensing signals STS 1 to STSn from the touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 . In the power saving mode, the sensing circuit 110 determines whether the touch panel 100 is touched according to at least one of the touch sensing signals STS 1 to STSn. In response to the touch panel 100 being touched, the sensing circuit 110 controls the touch panel 100 to enter a normal mode.

It is worth mentioning that the touch panel 100 simultaneously sends the touch drive signals STD 1 to STD 4 to the touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 within a time interval in the power saving mode. Thus, the calculation time for touch determination of the touch panel 100 in the power saving mode can be shortened. Furthermore, non-adjacent touch areas have the same frequency and different phases. Thus, in the case where the touch drive signals STD 1 to STD 4 are provided to the corresponding touch areas simultaneously, the touch sensing signals of adjacent touch areas do not interfere with each other.

In this embodiment, the sensing circuit 110 converts at least one of the touch sensing signals STS 1 to STSn into a front-end signal SFE in the power saving mode. The sensing circuit 110 may generate an output signal SOUT by performing a demodulation operation on the front-end signal SFE based on the first frequency F 1 and the second frequency F 2 . In this embodiment, the touch area TCR 1 and the touch area TCR 3 are a first touch area group corresponding to the first frequency F 1 . The touch area TCR 2 and the touch area TCR 4 are a second touch area group corresponding to the second frequency F 2 . The output signal SOUT is correlated to the capacitance value result of the first touch area group and the capacitance value result of the second touch area group. Therefore, the sensing circuit 110 can determine whether the touch panel 100 is touched according to the capacitance value difference of the first touch area group and/or the capacitance value difference of the second touch area group.

Taking adjacent touch areas TCR 1 and TCR 2 as an example, generally, the current touch drive signals STD 1 and STD 2 have the same frequency. It should be noted that in the case where the touch drive signal STD 1 and the touch drive signal STD 2 are provided simultaneously in the power saving mode, when adjacent two of the touch area TCR 1 and the touch area TCR 2 are touched simultaneously, the capacitance values of the touch area TCR 1 and the touch area TCR 2 change in the same way. Therefore, in the case where the touch drive signal STD 1 and the touch drive signal STD 2 are provided simultaneously in the power saving mode, when adjacent two of the touch area TCR 1 and the touch area TCR 2 are touched simultaneously, the capacitance value difference between the touch area TCR 1 and the touch area TCR 2 does not change. The output signal SOUT cannot indicate that the touch panel 100 is touched. In this embodiment, among adjacent touch areas TCR 1 and TCR 2 , the second frequency F 2 is different from the first frequency F 1 . When adjacent two of the touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 are touched simultaneously, the output signal SOUT can still indicate that the touch panel 100 is touched. For example, when the user's finger touches the boundary between the touch area TCR 1 and the touch area TCR 2 , based on the demodulation operation, the output signal SOUT can indicate that both the touch area corresponding to the first frequency F 1 and the touch area corresponding to the second frequency F 2 are touched.

In this embodiment, the touch panel 100 further includes a selection circuit 120 . Multiple input terminals of the selection circuit 120 respectively receive one of the touch sensing signals STS 1 to STSn. An output terminal of the selection circuit 120 is coupled to the sensing circuit 110 . The selection circuit 120 provides the touch sensing signals STS 1 to STSn to the sensing circuit 110 sequentially in a time-division manner. In some embodiments, the selection circuit 120 provides the touch sensing signals STS 1 to STSn to the sensing circuit 110 simultaneously.

In this embodiment, the touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 have substantially the same area. However, the disclosure is not limited thereto.

In this embodiment, in the normal mode, the sensing circuit 110 determines whether the touch panel 100 is touched according to at least one of the touch sensing signals STS 1 to STSn. In the normal mode, when the touch panel 100 is not touched, the sensing circuit 110 restarts timing. When the touch panel 100 is not touched in a set time duration, the sensing circuit 110 controls the touch panel 100 to return from the normal mode to the power saving mode. In this embodiment, the set time duration is settable.

Referring to FIG. 1 , FIG. 2 A , and FIG. 2 B , FIG. 2 A is a waveform diagram illustrating the touch drive signals for comparison. FIG. 2 B is a waveform diagram illustrating the touch drive signals according to an embodiment of the disclosure. In FIG. 2 A , during the time intervals T 1 to T 4 in the power saving mode, the touch drive signals STS 1 ′ to STS 4 ′ are provided to the touch area TCR 1 and the touch area TCR 2 . During the time intervals T 5 to T 8 , the touch drive signals STS 5 ′ to STS 8 ′ are provided to the touch area TCR 3 and the touch area TCR 4 . The frequencies of the touch drive signals STS 1 ′ to STS 8 ′ are the same. The waveforms of the touch drive signals STS 1 ′ to STS 8 ′ may be different. In FIG. 2 B , the touch drive signals STS 1 to STS 4 for the touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 may be provided to the touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 during the time interval T 1 of the power saving mode, and may not be provided during the time intervals T 2 to T 7 of the power saving mode. Therefore, the power consumption of the touch panel 100 in the power saving mode can be reduced, compared to FIG. 2 A .

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 , FIG. 3 is a waveform diagram illustrating the touch drive signals according to an embodiment of the disclosure. In this embodiment, the touch drive signal STD 1 and the touch drive signal STD 3 have the first frequency F 1 , and are inverted with respect to each other. As mentioned above, the sensing circuit 110 can determine whether the touch panel 100 is touched according to the capacitance value difference of the first touch area group and/or the capacitance value difference of the second touch area group. Therefore, in the first touch area group corresponding to the first frequency F 1 , when the touch area TCR 1 is touched, the touch area TCR 3 (that is, the inversion area of the touch area TCR 1 ) may provide a reference capacitance value. On the other hand, when the touch area TCR 3 is touched, the touch area TCR 1 (that is, the inversion area of the touch area TCR 3 ) may provide a reference capacitance value. In this way, the capacitance value difference of the first touch area group can be obtained. The capacitance value difference of the first touch area group is equal to the absolute value of the capacitance difference between the capacitance value of the touch area TCR 1 and the capacitance value of the touch area TCR 3 (that is, |Cmb 1 −Cmb 3 |).

Similarly, the touch drive signal STD 2 and the touch drive signal STD 4 have the second frequency F 2 , and are inverted with respect to each other. Therefore, in the second touch area group corresponding to the second frequency F 2 , when the touch area TCR 2 is touched, the touch area TCR 4 (that is, the inversion area of the touch area TCR 2 ) may provide a reference capacitance value. On the other hand, when the touch area TCR 4 is touched, the touch area TCR 2 (that is, the inversion area of the touch area TCR 4 ) may provide a reference capacitance value. In this way, the capacitance value difference of the second touch area group can be obtained. The capacitance value difference of the second touch area group is equal to the absolute value of the capacitance difference between the capacitance value of the touch area TCR 2 and the capacitance value of the touch area TCR 4 (that is, |Cmb 2 −Cmb 4 |).

In this embodiment, the second frequency F 2 is higher than the first frequency F 1 . In some embodiments, the second frequency F 2 may be lower than the first frequency F 1 .

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 4 , FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the sensing circuit according to an embodiment of the disclosure. In this embodiment, the sensing circuit 210 includes a front-end circuit 211 , demodulation circuits 212 _ 1 and 212 _ 2 , filter circuits 213 _ 1 and 213 _ 2 , determination circuits 214 _ 1 and 214 _ 2 , and a logic circuit 215 . The front-end circuit 211 generates the front-end signal SFE according to at least one of the touch sensing signals STS 1 to STSn.

In this embodiment, the touch sensing signals STS 1 to STSn received by the front-end circuit 211 are respectively correlated to the capacitance value Cmb 1 of the touch area TCR 1 , the capacitance value Cmb 2 of the touch area TCR 2 , the capacitance value Cmb 3 of the touch area TCR 3 , and the capacitance value Cmb 4 of the touch area TCR 4 . For example, when the touch area TCR 2 is touched, the capacitance value Cmb 2 is changed. Consequently, the touch sensing signals STS 1 to STSn are changed. The waveform of the front-end signal SFE is also changed. In this embodiment, the front-end signal SFE is an analog modulated signal.

Furthermore, the front-end circuit 211 includes an operational amplifier OPA and a resistor R. An inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier OPA receives at least one of the touch sensing signals STS 1 to STSn. A non-inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier OPA receives a reference voltage VREF. An output terminal of the operational amplifier OPA is configured to output the front-end signal SFE. The resistor R is coupled between the inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier OPA and the output terminal of the operational amplifier OPA. In this embodiment, the front-end circuit 211 is implemented by a subtractor. Therefore, at the first frequency F 1 , the front-end signal SFE is correlated to the capacitance value difference of the first touch area group (that is, |Cmb 1 −Cmb 3 |). At the second frequency F 2 , the front-end signal SFE is correlated to the capacitance value difference of the second touch area group (that is, |Cmb 2 −Cmb 4 |).

In this embodiment, the demodulation circuit 212 _ 1 is coupled to the front-end circuit 211 . The demodulation circuit 212 _ 1 demodulates the front-end signal SFE into a first front-end signal SFE 1 based on the first frequency F 1 . The first front-end signal SFE 1 corresponds to the touch result of the touch area TCR 1 and the touch area TCR 3 . In other words, the first front-end signal SFE 1 is correlated to the capacitance value difference of the first touch area group (that is, |Cmb 1 −Cmb 3 |). The demodulation circuit 212 _ 2 is coupled to the front-end circuit 211 . The demodulation circuit 212 _ 2 demodulates the front-end signal SFE into a second front-end signal SFE 2 based on the second frequency F 2 . The second front-end signal SFE 2 corresponds to the touch result of the touch area TCR 2 and the touch area TCR 4 . In other words, the second front-end signal SFE 2 is correlated to the capacitance value difference of the second touch area group (that is, |Cmb 2 −Cmb 4 |).

In this embodiment, the filter circuit 213 _ 1 is coupled to the demodulation circuit 212 _ 1 . The filter circuit 213 _ 1 receives the first front-end signal SFE 1 and filters out noise at frequencies other than the first frequency F 1 from the first front-end signal SFE 1 . The filter circuit 213 _ 2 is coupled to the demodulation circuit 212 _ 2 . The filter circuit 213 _ 2 receives the second front-end signal SFE 2 and filters out noise at frequencies other than the second frequency F 2 from the second front-end signal SFE 2 .

In this embodiment, the determination circuit 214 _ 1 receives the first front-end signal SFE 1 and provides a first determination signal SD 1 according to the comparison result between the first front-end signal SFE 1 and a first capacitance threshold CV 1 . The determination circuit 214 _ 2 receives the second front-end signal SFE 2 and provides a second determination signal SD 2 according to the comparison result between the second front-end signal SFE 2 and a second capacitance threshold CV 2 .

The logic circuit 215 is coupled to the determination circuit 214 _ 1 and the determination circuit 214 _ 2 . The logic circuit 215 performs a logic operation on the first determination signal SD 1 and the second determination signal SD 2 to generate the output signal SOUT. The sensing circuit 210 determines whether the touch panel 100 is touched according to the output signal SOUT.

In this embodiment, after the demodulation operation based on the first frequency F 1 , the first front-end signal SFE 1 is correlated to the absolute value CA 1 of the first capacitance difference between the capacitance value Cmb 1 of the touch area TCR 1 and the capacitance value Cmb 3 of the touch area TCR 3 (that is, CA 1 =|Cmb 1 −Cmb 3 |). After the demodulation operation based on the second frequency F 2 , the second front-end signal SFE 2 is correlated to the absolute value CA 2 of the second capacitance difference between the capacitance value Cmb 2 of the touch area TCR 2 and the capacitance value Cmb 4 of the touch area TCR 4 (that is, CA 2 =|Cmb 2 −Cmb 4 |). When the absolute value CA 1 of the first capacitance difference is greater than the first capacitance threshold CV 1 or the absolute value CA 2 of the second capacitance difference is greater than the second capacitance threshold CV 2 , the sensing circuit 210 determines that the touch panel 100 is touched.

In this embodiment, when the absolute value CA 1 of the first capacitance difference is greater than the first capacitance threshold CV 1 , the determination circuit 214 _ 1 provides the first determination signal SD 1 with a first logic value. When the absolute value CA 1 of the first capacitance difference is less than or equal to the first capacitance threshold CV 1 , the determination circuit 214 _ 1 provides the first determination signal SD 1 with a second logic value. The first logic value may be, for example, a high logic value. The second logic value may be, for example, a low logic value. When the absolute value CA 2 of the second capacitance difference is greater than the second capacitance threshold CV 2 , the determination circuit 214 _ 2 provides the second determination signal SD 2 with the first logic value. When the absolute value CA 2 of the second capacitance difference is less than or equal to the second capacitance threshold CV 2 , the determination circuit 214 _ 2 provides the second determination signal SD 2 with the second logic value. Therefore, the logic circuit 215 performs an OR logic operation on the first determination signal SD 1 and the second determination signal SD 2 to generate the output signal SOUT. The sensing circuit 210 determines that the touch panel 100 is touched in the power saving mode according to the first logic value of the output signal SOUT. The sensing circuit 210 determines that the touch panel 100 is not touched in the power saving mode according to the second logic value of the output signal SOUT. In this embodiment, the logic circuit 215 may be implemented by an OR gate, but the disclosure is not limited thereto.

In some embodiments, the first logic value may be, for example, a low logic value. The second logic value may be, for example, a high logic value. Therefore, the logic circuit 215 may be implemented by a NAND gate. The sensing circuit 210 determines that the touch panel 100 is touched in the power saving mode according to the first logic value of the output signal SOUT. The sensing circuit 210 determines that the touch panel 100 is not touched in the power saving mode according to the second logic value of the output signal SOUT.

In some embodiments, based on design requirements, the filter circuit 213 _ 1 and the filter circuit 213 _ 2 may be omitted.

Referring to FIG. 5 , FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating the touch panel according to an embodiment of the disclosure. In this embodiment, a touch panel 200 includes touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 , a sensing circuit 110 , a selection circuit 120 , and buffers BF 1 to BF 4 . The operations of the touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 , the sensing circuit 110 , and the selection circuit 120 have been clearly described in the embodiments of FIG. 1 to FIG. 4 , so the description will not be repeated here.

In this embodiment, input terminals of the buffer BF 1 and the buffer BF 3 receive the touch drive signal STD 1 and the touch drive signal STD 3 with the first frequency F 1 . An output terminal of the buffer BF 1 is coupled to the touch area TCR 1 , and an output terminal of the buffer BF 3 is coupled to the touch area TCR 3 . Input terminals of the buffer BF 2 and the buffer BF 4 receive the touch drive signal STD 2 and the touch drive signal STD 4 with the second frequency F 2 . An output terminal of the buffer BF 2 is coupled to the touch area TCR 2 , and an output terminal of the buffer BF 4 is coupled to the touch area TCR 4 . The touch drive signal STD 1 and the touch drive signal STD 3 are inverted with respect to each other. The touch drive signal STD 2 and the touch drive signal STD 4 are inverted with respect to each other. Therefore, the buffer BF 1 and the buffer BF 2 are implemented by followers or unity-gain buffers, respectively. The buffer BF 3 and the buffer BF 4 are implemented by inverters, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6 , FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operating method according to an embodiment of the disclosure. An operating method S 100 is applicable to the touch panel 100 . In this embodiment, the operating method S 100 includes steps S 110 to S 140 . In step S 110 , in the power saving mode, the touch panel 100 simultaneously sends the touch drive signals STD 1 to STD 4 to multiple touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 within a time interval. Adjacent touch areas among the touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 receive the touch drive signals with different frequencies. At least two non-adjacent touch areas among the touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 have the same frequency and different phases.

In step S 120 , the sensing circuit 110 receives the touch sensing signals STS 1 to STSn from the touch areas TCR 1 to TCR 4 in the power saving mode. In step S 130 , the sensing circuit 110 determines whether the touch panel 100 is touched according to at least one of the touch sensing signals STS 1 to STSn. In response to the touch panel 100 being touched, the sensing circuit 110 controls the touch panel 100 to enter the normal mode from the power saving mode in step S 140 . In response to the touch panel 100 being not touched, the operating method S 100 returns to step S 110 . In this embodiment, the details of implementation of step S 110 to step S 140 have been clearly described in the embodiments of FIG. 1 to FIG. 4 , so the description will not be repeated here.

Furthermore, the operating method S 100 is also applicable to the touch panel 200 as shown in FIG. 5 .

In summary, the touch panel includes a first touch area, a second touch area, a third touch area, and a fourth touch area. The third touch area and the first touch area are separated by the second touch area. The fourth touch area and the second touch area are separated by the third touch area. The second frequency is different from the first frequency. Therefore, in the case where multiple touch drive signals are provided to the corresponding touch areas, the touch sensing signals of adjacent touch areas do not interfere with each other. Thus, the calculation time for touch determination in the power saving mode of the touch panel can be shortened. Moreover, the power consumption of the touch panel in the power saving mode can be reduced.

Although the disclosure has been described with reference to the above embodiments, they are not intended to limit the disclosure. Those skilled in the art may make modifications and changes without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Therefore, the scope of protection of the disclosure shall be defined by the appended claims.