HK1137822B - Touch screen liquid crystal display - Google Patents

Description

Touch screen liquid crystal display

Cross Reference to Related Applications

This application claims priority to each of the following applications, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety:

provisional U.S. patent application 60/804,361 filed on 9.6.2006;

provisional U.S. patent application 60/883,879 filed on 8.1.2007;

concurrently filed U.S. patent application 11/760,036 entitled "Touch Screen Liquid Crystal Display" (attorney docket No. 119-0107US 1);

concurrently filed U.S. patent application 11/760,049 entitled "Touch Screen Liquid Crystal Display" (attorney docket No. 119-0107US 2);

concurrently filed U.S. patent application 11/760,060 entitled "Touch Screen Liquid Crystal Display" (attorney docket No. 119-0107US 3); and

also filed is U.S. patent application 11/760,080 entitled "Touch Screen Liquid Crystal Display" (attorney docket No. 119-0107US 4).

This application is related to the following applications, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety:

U.S. patent application No. 11/367,749 entitled "Multi-functional Hand-helld device" filed 3.3.2006;

U.S. patent application 11/840,862 entitled "Multipoint Touch Screen" filed on 6.5.2004;

U.S. patent application No. 11/381,313 entitled "Multipoint Touch screen controller" filed on 2.5.2006;

U.S. patent application 11/367,749 entitled "Multi-functional Hand-held Device" filed 3/2006;

U.S. patent application 11/650,049 entitled "Double-Sided Touch Sensitive Panel with ITO Metal Electrodes" was filed on 3.1.2007.

Background

There are many types of handheld electronic devices today, each of which utilizes some type of user interface. The user interface may include an output device in the form of a display, such as a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), and one or more input devices that may be actuated mechanically (e.g., switches, buttons, keys, dials, joysticks, handles) or electronically (e.g., a touch pad or touch screen). The display may be configured to present visual information, such as text, multimedia data, and graphics, while the input device may be configured to perform operations such as issuing commands, making selections, or moving a cursor or selector in the electronic device.

Recently, work is being done to integrate various devices into a single handheld device. Further attempts have thus been made to integrate numerous user interface models and devices in a single unit. Touch screens may be used in such systems for practical and aesthetic reasons. In addition, a touch screen with multi-touch capability may also provide a number of advantages for such devices.

It has heretofore been recognized that touch screens, whether single-touch or multi-touch, can be produced by making a conventional LCD screen and disposing a substantially transparent touch sensing device in front of the screen. However, this incurs a number of disadvantages including high manufacturing costs.

Disclosure of Invention

According to one embodiment of the present invention, an integrated liquid crystal display touch screen is provided. The liquid crystal display may be based on in-plane switching (IPS). The touch screen may comprise a plurality of layers, wherein the plurality of layers comprises: a first substrate (e.g., a TFT plate or an array plate) having a display control circuit formed thereon, and a second substrate (e.g., a color filter plate) adjacent to the first substrate. The display control circuitry may comprise an electrode pair for each display sub-pixel. In addition, the touch screen may further include one or more touch sensing elements, wherein all of the touch sensing elements may be disposed between the substrates.

The touch sensing part disposed between the substrates may include touch driving electrodes and touch sensing electrodes. And these electrodes may also be display sub-pixel electrodes. Further, the touch sensing component disposed between the substrates may also include one or more switches configured to switch the electrodes between their display function and their touch function. The switch may include a thin film transistor. Display V_COMMay be used as touch drive signals. And the display data lines may be used as touch sensing lines. Alternatively, a plurality of metal sensing lines may be disposed on the first substrate. According to a particular embodiment, the display may be positioned with the second substrate or the first substrate closer to the user.

In another embodiment, provided is an electronic device incorporating an integrated LCD touch screen according to the above embodiments. The electronic device may take the form of a desktop computer, a tablet computer, and a notebook computer. Furthermore, the electronic device may also take the form of a handheld computer, personal digital assistant, media player, and mobile telephone. In some embodiments, one or more of the above may be included in a device, such as a mobile phone and a media player.

Drawings

The invention may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a multipoint sensing device.

Fig. 2 illustrates a plurality of contact patches on a multipoint sensing system.

Fig. 3 illustrates a simplified schematic diagram of a mutual capacitance circuit.

FIG. 4 illustrates a process for operating a multipoint sensing device.

Fig. 5 illustrates a representative layout of LTPS transflective (transmissive) sub-pixels.

Fig. 6 illustrates a simplified model of LTPS as viewed from the top and sides.

Fig. 7 illustrates a circuit diagram of a sub-pixel, and shows on which glass substrates the respective elements are fabricated.

Fig. 8 illustrates a basic process flow for manufacturing an LCD.

Fig. 9 illustrates a completed small-sized LCD module.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of a touch screen LCD with separate touch driver and LCD driver chips.

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of a touch screen LCD with an integrated LCD and touch driver chip.

Fig. 12 illustrates a basic stack (staekup) of the touch screen LCD.

FIG. 13 illustrates an alternative embodiment of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 14 illustrates one electrode pattern.

FIG. 15 illustrates a stack-up diagram embodiment of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 16 illustrates a touch pixel circuit of the touch screen LCD shown in fig. 15.

FIG. 17 illustrates a touch sensing layer protected by a plastic cover.

FIG. 18 illustrates an output column and a set of interconnected output gates for a region of a touch screen.

Fig. 19 illustrates a layout of touch pixels of the touch screen LCD.

FIG. 20 illustrates a stack-up diagram of one embodiment of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 21 illustrates a touch sensor array.

FIG. 22 illustrates the physical implementation of concepts A and B in top and side views with cable routing (cabling) and subsystem placement.

FIG. 23 illustrates a high-level block diagram showing a possible architecture of a bottom glass element.

Fig. 24 illustrates elongated conductive dots.

FIG. 25 illustrates a high level block diagram of a touch/LCD driver integrated circuit.

Fig. 26 illustrates a flexible printed circuit for use in connection with various LCD embodiments described herein.

Fig. 27 illustrates processing for display updating and touch scanning performed simultaneously.

FIG. 28 illustrates power onV_CSTA touch drive option.

FIG. 29 illustrates drive-V_CSTA touch drive option.

FIG. 30 illustrates the use of touch driving for touch sensing and LCD V_COMThe electrical model in the case of both modulations.

FIG. 31 illustrates the conversion of V_STMConnected to the Cst line on both sides by a conductive dot.

Fig. 32 illustrates a manufacturing process flow of the touch screen LCD.

FIG. 33 illustrates the use of V_COMThe single line inversion (one line inversion) of (a) as the touch stimulus signal.

FIG. 34 illustrates a stack-up diagram of an alternative embodiment of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 35 illustrates a flow of a manufacturing process of the touch screen LCD.

Fig. 36 illustrates an embodiment in which a touch driving layer is replaced with a conductive black matrix (black matrix).

Fig. 37 illustrates a circuit diagram of an embodiment of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 38 illustrates a stack-up diagram of a touch screen LCD.

FIG. 39 illustrates row-by-row updating of display pixels of a touch screen LCD.

FIG. 40 illustrates a touch sensing process for a set of touch sensitive display lines in a touch screen LCD.

FIG. 41 illustrates a process of detecting touch activity for three pixels located in different areas of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 42 illustrates a circuit diagram of another embodiment of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 43 illustrates a stack diagram of the embodiment shown in fig. 42.

FIG. 44 illustrates an embodiment in which the touch sensing layer is replaced with a conductive black matrix.

FIG. 45 illustrates a stack-up diagram of another embodiment of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 46 illustrates a top view of the embodiment shown in fig. 55.

Fig. 47 illustrates another embodiment of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 48 illustrates an equivalent circuit of the embodiment of fig. 47.

FIG. 49 illustrates waveforms that may be used for the touch sensing process of the embodiments of FIGS. 47-48.

FIG. 50 illustrates further aspects of the touch screen integration of the embodiment of FIG. 47.

FIG. 51 illustrates another embodiment of a touch screen LCD.

FIG. 52 illustrates waveforms that may be used for the touch sensing process of the embodiments of FIGS. 51 and 53.

Fig. 53 illustrates an equivalent circuit of the embodiment of fig. 51.

FIG. 54 illustrates further aspects of touch screen integration for the embodiment of FIG. 51.

Fig. 55 illustrates a stack-up diagram of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 56 illustrates a process of updating the touch screen LCD.

FIG. 57 illustrates a stack-up diagram for a touch screen LCD embodiment.

FIG. 58 illustrates a stack-up diagram for a touch screen LCD embodiment.

FIG. 59 illustrates an exemplary LCD display divided into three regions that can be independently updated or touch scanned.

Fig. 60 illustrates an update and touch scan process of a touch screen LCD having three areas.

Fig. 61 illustrates an electrode layout of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 62 illustrates circuit elements of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 63 illustrates a snapshot of an update apparatus of a touch screen LCD.

FIG. 64 illustrates how metal lines and gaps in ITO can be completely or partially hidden behind a black matrix.

Fig. 65 illustrates a stack-up diagram of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 66 illustrates a touch screen LCD segmented into three regions.

Fig. 67 illustrates a process for performing display update and touch scan in the touch screen LCD.

FIG. 68 illustrates a wiring and ITO layout for segmenting a touch screen LCD into three regions.

FIG. 69 illustrates a top view and a cross-sectional view of an area of a touch screen LCD containing guard traces.

FIG. 70 illustrates a top view and a cross-sectional view of an area of a touch screen LCD that does not include guard traces.

FIG. 71 illustrates an exemplary display area containing six touch pixels and their signal connections.

FIG. 72 illustrates a stack-up diagram for another embodiment of a touch screen LCD.

FIG. 73 illustrates a stack-up diagram for another embodiment of a touch screen LCD.

FIG. 74 illustrates highlighting V for a touch screen LCD_COMCircuit diagram of signal coupling.

FIG. 75 illustrates an exemplary display.

FIG. 76 illustrates a possible scan pattern for a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 77 illustrates a circuit diagram for the embodiment of fig. 79.

FIG. 78 illustrates a segmented ITO layer.

FIG. 79 illustrates a stack-up diagram for another embodiment of a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 80 illustrates a combined wiring and stack diagram for the embodiment of fig. 79.

FIG. 81 illustrates a physical implementation of the embodiment of FIG. 79.

Fig. 82 illustrates an LCD unit of a planar conversion type.

Fig. 83 illustrates an electrode arrangement for the planar conversion type LCD unit.

Fig. 84 illustrates a circuit diagram for an embodiment of an IPS-based touch screen LCD.

Fig. 85 illustrates a stack diagram corresponding to fig. 84.

FIG. 86 illustrates a stack-up diagram for another embodiment of an IPS-based touch screen LCD.

Fig. 87 illustrates a physical model for concept F, namely an embodiment of an IPS based touch screen LCD.

Fig. 88 illustrates a stack diagram corresponding to the embodiment of fig. 87.

FIG. 89 illustrates a side view of an all glass touch screen LCD.

FIG. 90 illustrates a side view of a touch screen LCD including plastic layers.

FIG. 91 illustrates a touch screen having multiple plastic layers.

Fig. 92 illustrates a touch screen with PET layers patterned on both sides and with connections through the PET layers.

FIG. 93 illustrates a combination PET/glass touch screen.

Fig. 94 illustrates a touch screen LCD device assembly.

FIG. 95 illustrates a touch screen LCD with a touch layer patterned inside a transparent glass housing.

FIG. 96 illustrates a patterned PET substrate that can be used in conjunction with a touch screen LCD.

Fig. 97 illustrates a flexible printed circuit bonded to the PET substrate of fig. 96.

Fig. 98 illustrates the cover affixed to the assembly of fig. 97.

FIG. 99 illustrates a simplified diagram of an on-glass level shifter/decoder chip.

Diagram 100 illustrates a modified touch/LCD driver and peripheral transistor circuitry.

FIG. 101 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a fully integrated touch/LCD driver.

Fig. 102 illustrates an application of a touch screen LCD.

FIG. 103 illustrates a block diagram of a computer system incorporating a touch screen.

FIG. 104 illustrates form factors for various electronic devices and computer systems that may be used in conjunction with a touch screen LCD according to the present invention.

Fig. 105 illustrates IPS LCD subpixels that form multiple touch sensing columns by connection.

Fig. 106 illustrates IPS LCD subpixels connected to form multiple touch-sensing rows.

Fig. 107 illustrates an IPS LCD integrating a touch sensing process.

Detailed Description

To enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention, a description is now given of the invention as provided in the context of a particular application and its requirements. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the claims.

Background for LCD and touch sensing

Disclosed herein are techniques for integrating touch sensing technology into a liquid crystal display.

As is known to those skilled in the art, an LCD includes a plurality of layers, the most basic of which are a top glass, liquid crystals, and a bottom glass. The top and bottom glasses may be patterned to provide a boundary for the cell containing liquid crystal for a particular display pixel. The top and bottom glasses may also be patterned with layers of different conductive materials and thin film transistors to enable the orientation of the liquid crystal to be manipulated by changing the voltage across the liquid crystal cell, thereby controlling the pixel color and brightness.

As described in the applications incorporated by reference, for touch surfaces, particularly transparent touch surfaces with multi-touch capabilities, the surface may be formed from a series of layers. The series of layers may include at least one substrate, such as glass, and a plurality of touch sensitive electrodes may be disposed on the substrate. For example, a mutual capacitance arrangement may include a plurality of drive electrodes and a plurality of sense electrodes separated by a non-conductive layer such as glass. The capacitive coupling between the drive and sense electrodes may be affected when a conductive object, such as a user's finger, is in proximity. Such changes in capacitive coupling can be used to determine the location, shape, size, motion, identification, etc. of a particular touch. The operation of a computer or other electronic device may then be controlled by interpreting these parameters. The following self-capacitance means are also known to the person skilled in the art.

By integrating the layered structure of the LCD and the touch sensor, various benefits can be realized. The integration may include combining or interleaving the above-described hierarchical structures. Furthermore, the integration may also include dual uses (e.g., one for touch functionality and another for display functionality) to omit redundant structures and/or to discover specific layers or structures. Doing so may allow certain layers to be omitted, thereby reducing the cost and thickness of the touch screen LCD, as well as simplifying the manufacturing process. Currently, a variety of different devices are possible, and some of these will be described in further detail herein.

In particular, various embodiments of integrated touch screen LCDs will be discussed below. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the detailed description given herein with respect to the appended drawings is illustrative rather than exhaustive and that numerous variations to the embodiments are possible. Further, while many of the embodiments disclosed relate to devices with multi-touch capabilities, numerous teachings can be applied to single-touch displays as well.

1.1 Multi-touch sensing

With the multi-touch sensing apparatus shown in FIG. 1, multiple simultaneous or nearly simultaneous touch events can be identified. The multi-touch sensing device 100 can detect and monitor multiple touch attributes (including, for example, identity, location, velocity, size, shape, and magnitude) that occur on the touch-sensitive surface 101 at the same time, near the same time, at different times, or over a period of time. The touch sensitive surface 101 may provide a plurality of sensor points, coordinates or nodes 102 that function in a substantially independent manner from each other and represent different points on the touch sensitive surface. The sensing points 102 may be located in a grid or pixel array where each sensing point is capable of producing a signal simultaneously. The sensing points 102 may be considered as mapping the touch sensitive surface 101 to a coordinate system, such as a cartesian or polar coordinate system.

For example, the touch sensitive surface may take the form of a tablet or a touch screen. To produce a touch screen, a substantially transparent conductive medium, such as Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), may be used. The number and configuration of sensing points 102 may vary. Generally, the number of sensing points 102 depends on the desired resolution and sensitivity. In touch screen applications, the number of sensing points 102 may also depend on the desired transparency of the touch screen.

Signals generated on the nodes 102 of the multi-touch sensor 101 may be used to generate a touch image at a particular point in time using a multi-touch sensing device similar to that described in detail below. For example, each object (e.g., finger, stylus, etc.) in contact with or near the touch-sensitive surface 101 may generate a contact footprint area 201 as shown in FIG. 2. Each contact footprint area 201 may cover several nodes 102. Covered nodes 202 may detect objects while the remaining nodes 102 may not. A pixilated image of the touch surface plane (which may be referred to as a touch image, multi-touch image, or proximity image) may thus be formed. The signals of each contact footprint area 201 may be clustered together. Each contact footprint area 201 may include high and low points based on the amount of touch at each point. The shape of the contact footprint area 201 and the high and low points inside the image may be used to distinguish contact footprint areas 201 that are close to each other. Furthermore, the current image may also be compared with a previous image in order to determine how the object moves over time and to determine how corresponding operations should be performed in the host device accordingly.

There are a wide variety of different sensing technologies that can be used in conjunction with these sensing devices, including resistive, capacitive, optical sensing devices, and the like. In a capacitance-based sensing device, as an object approaches the touch-sensitive surface 101, a small capacitance is formed between the object and the sensing point 102 near the object. By detecting the change in capacitance caused by this small capacitance at each sensing point 102, and by recording the location of the sensing point, the sensing circuit 103 can detect and monitor multiple touch activities. The capacitive sensing node can be based on either self capacitance or mutual capacitance.

In self-capacitance systems, the capacitance of the sensing point "itself" is measured relative to some reference, such as ground. The sensing points 102 may be spatially separated electrodes. These electrodes may be coupled to drive circuitry 104 and sense circuitry 103 by conductive traces 105a (drive lines) and 105b (sense lines). In some self-capacitance embodiments, a single conductive trace associated with each electrode may serve as both a drive line and a sense line.

In a mutual capacitance system, the "mutual" capacitance between a first electrode and a second electrode can be measured. In a mutual capacitance sensing device, these sensing points may be formed by intersections of patterned conductors forming spatially separated lines. For example, drive lines 105a can be formed on a first layer and sense lines 105b can be formed on a second layer 105b, whereby the drive and sense lines cross or "cross" each other at a sensing point 102. The different layers may be different substrates, different sides of the same substrate, or the same substrate side with a certain dielectric separation. Because of the separation between the drive and sense lines, there is a potential for a capacitive coupling node at each "intersection".

The arrangement of the drive and sense lines can vary. For example, in a Cartesian coordinate system (as shown), the drive lines may be formed in horizontal rows and the sense lines may be formed in vertical columns (or vice versa), thus forming a plurality of nodes that can be considered to have different x and y coordinates. Alternatively, in a polar coordinate system, the sense lines may be a plurality of concentric circles and the drive lines are radially extending lines (or vice versa), thus forming a plurality of nodes that can be considered to have different radial and angular coordinates. In either case, drive lines 105a can be connected to drive circuitry 104 and sense lines 105b can be connected to sense circuitry 103.

During operation, a drive signal (e.g., a periodic voltage) may be applied to each of the drive lines 105 a. Upon driving, charge applied to drive line 105a can be capacitively coupled to the intersecting sense line 105b through node 102. This causes a detectable, measurable current and/or voltage to be generated in the sense line 105 b. The relationship between the drive signal and the signal present on the sense line 105b can be a function of the capacitive coupling of the drive and sense lines, which, as described above, can be affected by an object in proximity to the node 102. As described in more detail below, sense line 105b may be sensed by one or more capacitive sensing circuits 103 and the capacitance at each node may be determined.

As described above, one drive line 105a at a time can be driven while the other drive lines are grounded. This process can be repeated for each drive line 105a until all drive lines have been driven and a (capacitance-based) touch image can be constructed from the sensed results. Once all of the lines 105a have been driven, the sequence may be repeated to construct a series of touch images. However, as described in U.S. patent application 11/619,466 entitled "Simultaneous sensing Arrangement" filed on 3.1.2007, multiple drive lines may also be driven substantially simultaneously or nearly simultaneously in certain embodiments of the invention.

Fig. 3 illustrates a simplified schematic diagram of a mutual capacitance circuit 300 corresponding to the above-described apparatus. Mutual capacitance circuit 300 may include drive line 105a and sense line 105b, which may be spatially separated, thereby forming capacitive coupling node 102. Drive line 105a may be electrically (i.e., conductively) coupled to drive circuit 104 represented by voltage source 310. Sense line 105b may be electrically coupled to capacitive sensing circuit 803. In some cases, both the driving line 105a and the sensing line 105b may include some parasitic capacitance 302.

As described above, if there is no conductive object near the intersection of drive line 105a and sense line 105b, the capacitive coupling at node 102 can remain fairly stable. But if a conductive object (e.g., a user's finger, stylus, etc.) is present near the node 102, the capacitive coupling (i.e., the local system's capacitance) will change. This change in capacitive coupling will change the current (and/or voltage) carried by the sense line 105 b. Capacitance sensing circuit 103 may record this change in capacitance and the position of node 102 and report this information in some form to processor 106 (fig. 1).

Referring to FIG. 1, the sensing circuit 103 can acquire data from the touch surface 101 and provide the acquired data to the processor 106. In some embodiments, the sensing circuit 103 may be configured to send raw data (e.g., capacitance array values corresponding to each sensing point 102) to the processor 106. In other embodiments, the sensing circuit 103 may be configured to process the raw data itself and deliver the processed touch data to the processor 106. In either case, the processor can then use the data it receives to control the operation of the computer system 107 and/or one or more applications running thereon. Various implementations along these lines are described in the above-referenced applications, and include various computer systems having touchpads and touchscreens.

In certain embodiments, sensing circuit 103 may include one or more microcontrollers, each of which may monitor one or more sensing points 102. These microcontrollers may be Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) that, in cooperation with firmware, monitor signals originating from the touch-sensitive surface 101, process the monitored signals, and report this information to the processor 106. The microprocessor may also be a Digital Signal Processor (DSP). In certain embodiments, sensing circuitry 103 may include one or more sensor ICs that measure the capacitance in each sense line 105b and report the measured values to processor 106 or a host controller (not shown) within computer system 107. Any number of sensor ICs may be used. For example, a sensor IC may be used for all lines, or multiple sensor ICs may be used for a single line or group of lines.

FIG. 4 illustrates a high level process 400 for operating a multi-touch sensing device similar to that described above. The process begins with block 401 in which a plurality of sensing points 102 are driven. After block 401, process flow may proceed to block 402 where the output of sensing point 102 may be read. For example, a capacitance value for each sensing point 102 can be obtained. After block 402, the process proceeds to block 403, where an image or other data form (one or more signals) of a touch at a certain time may be generated, which may then be analyzed to determine where an object touching or in proximity to the touch sensor is located. After block 403, the process may proceed to block 404, where the current image or signal may be compared to one or more past images or signals to determine a change in one or more of shape, size, position, orientation, velocity, acceleration, pressure, etc. for each object. Subsequently, using this information (at step 405), an action can be performed in the computer system 107, which can range from moving a pointer or cursor to complex gesture-based interactions.

1.2. Semi-transparent reflective LCD

A brief introduction to transflective LCDs is presented herein to help better understand the process of integrating touch sensing technology with transflective LCDs. A typical sub-pixel cell that can be found in a Low Temperature Polysilicon (LTPS) transflective LCD is outlined below.

1.2.1 Circuit Foundation

Fig. 5 shows a representative layout of an LTPS transflective sub-pixel 500. When a voltage representing a desired gray level is applied to the data bus 501, and when the select line 502 is asserted (assert), display information may be conveyed to the subpixel capacitor C_STAnd C_LC(not shown). The asserted level (assertion level) of the select line 502 may be close to the gate drive forward supply voltage. In the period when select line 502 is asserted, V_CST(and V not shown)_COM) The voltage across may be constant. All circuit components shown in fig. 5, including metal, polyethylene, active, oxide, and ITO, can be fabricated on the bottom glass of the LCD.

Fig. 6 shows a simplified model of a low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) LCD 600, including a top view 601 and a side view 602. Top view 601 shows V on bottom glass 608 in both display area 604 and non-display area 605_CSTPerspective view of a wire (routing)603 (see-through)h view). Side view 602 shows a cross-section of the display.

Each display line may include a value for V_CST606, and select traces (not shown). The selection tracks are connected to a gate driver circuit, also not shown, made of polysilicon thin film transistors (p-sitfts). V_CSTTraces 606 may extend from display edge to display edge and may be connected together as shown on the left. These V_CSTThe traces may also be connected to an ITO plane 609 on the top glass 610 by conductive dots 607. In general, V can be formed using four conductive points located at the four corners, respectively_COMPlane connected to V_COMDrive(V_COMDrive) 611. For simplicity, only one point 607 is shown in FIG. 6. V_CSTAnd the voltage of the top glass ITO 609 can be set from V_COMDrive setting, wherein the V_COMDrive may be provided by an LCD driver IC (not shown). In addition, V_CSTCan also be used with V_COMThe other Drive source than Drive 611 is connected.

Fig. 7 illustrates a circuit diagram 700 of a sub-pixel and shows on which glass substrate various components can be fabricated. The bottom glass 701 may be a substrate for integrating all the TFT pixel circuits 703. This may include select line drivers and control logic. The bottom glass may also serve as a substrate for Chip On Glass (COG) elements such as LCD drivers (not shown). Capacitor C_LCMay be located on top of the glass 702. The electrode 704 may be a counter electrode (counter electrode) covering the entire display area and formed to be connected to the bottom electrode 705 to cause C_LCThe ITO plane of (1). The upper electrode 704 may also contact V on the bottom glass 701_COMDrive 701 is connected, for example, by conductive points 706 (only one shown) at the four corners.

1.2.2.V_COM

By minimizing or eliminating the DC component of the voltage across the Liquid Crystal (LC), certain undesirable image artifacts may be reduced or eliminated. Thereby, the electric field across the LC can be periodically reversed while maintaining overall balance in both field directions. It is very difficult to achieve perfect field balance, which may result in small DC offsets that will produce unwanted image artifacts. To mask flicker caused by DC offset, one of several inversion schemes known to those skilled in the art may be utilized, such as dot inversion.

1.2.3 modulation V_COM

In some embodiments, it may be desirable to reduce the voltage range of the data driver. Thus, V can be adjusted_COMITO plane and V_CSTThe trace is modulated from ground to the supply rail to produce an AC voltage across the LC. However, doing so may limit the available inversion methods to frame and line types.

V_COMThe Drive requirements can be relatively simple: the voltage thereof may be kept constant until the charge transfer of a certain row of pixels is completed, thereby setting the gray value of the row of pixels. Once the display pixel is set, V is provided that the parasitic path to and from the sub-pixel is still small_COMDrive can be changed without significantly affecting the LC state.

1.2.4 constant V_COM

V_COMModulation may complicate the integration of touch sensing and LCD. Various techniques for overcoming these complexities will be discussed below. An alternative method of minimizing the DC component of the voltage across the liquid crystal may be utilized. One such alternative is described in "Low Power Driving Options for an AMLCD Mobile Display chip" by J.Hector and P.Buchschschacher, pages 695-697 of SID 02 Digest, which is incorporated herein by reference. This alternative method may allow V_COMIs maintained at a constant voltage without requiring a data driver of a large voltage range, and power consumption can be low. The use of constant V will be described hereinafter_COMVarious advantages of (1).

1.3LCD fabrication

The manufacture of LCD panels can be accomplished by using batch processes for large sheets of glass called mother-glass. Two pieces of mother glass may be used: may be color filter, black matrix and C_LCThe upper electrode of (a) provides the top mother glass of the substrate; and a bottom mother glass that can provide a substrate for the active matrix TFT array and the driver circuit.

A basic process flow 800 for manufacturing an LCD is shown in fig. 8. The two large sheets of mother glass, one for the top sheet of the LCD and one for the bottom, may be subjected to process steps 801 and 802, respectively, before being aligned (block 803), pressed together, and heated (block 804) to cure the seal between the top and bottom glass, thereby creating a stable panel structure. The large panel may then be diced and separated into smaller modules of desired size (block 805). The edges of the individual modules may be lapped (block 806) prior to filling the modules with liquid crystal (block 807). After filling, the module may be sealed (block 809). The polarizer and electronic components may be attached (block 809). At or near the end of the process, a Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) may be attached to its substrate.

A completed LCD module 900 is shown in fig. 9. The illustrated LCD module includes a Chip On Glass (COG) LCD driver 901 attached to a bottom glass 902, and further includes a Flex On Glass (FOG) Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC)903 attached to the bottom glass 902. The two elements may be electrically connected to the bottom glass pad and may be held in place using an Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive (ACA). The bottom glass 902 may extend beyond the top glass 904 to provide a support for mounting COG LCD drivers 901, FPCs 903, and other support elements. For a handheld device, the system processor backplane that manages data and provides control for the LCD may be placed below the backlight 906.

Additional elements to support touch sensing (e.g., FPC) may also be attached to the support 905. Further, other attachment points are equally possible. These details will be discussed below in connection with related embodiments.

1.4 Combined LCD and touch sensing

The overlay discussed herein may be better understood by combining the block diagrams of fig. 10 and 11. From the top, the touch sense electrodes 1001, 1101 may be deposited on top (user side) of the LCD top glass 1002, 1102. Touch drive electrodes 1003, 1103 may be patterned on the bottom side of the top glass 1002, 1102. Conductive dots 1004, 1104 may connect the driver electrodes 1003, 1103 to drivers 1005, 1105 also located on the bottom glass 1006, 1106. Supports 1007, 1107 on the bottom glass 1006, 1106 can house LCD driver chips 1008, 1108 and a touch sensor driver chip 1009, either butted together (fig. 10) or integrated into a single element (fig. 11). Finally, the FPC 1010, 1110 to which the holder is adhered may also be connected to the host device 1011, 1111.

2. Integration options

Some embodiments of an LCD integrated with touch sensing may include a top glass and a bottom glass. Display control circuitry may be formed on one and/or both of the two sheets of glass to affect the amount of light passing through the liquid crystal layer between the two glass sheets. The space between the outer edges of the top and bottom glass is referred to herein as a Liquid Crystal Module (LCM).

As shown in fig. 12, a typical LCD stack 1200 typically includes additional layers. In fig. 12, a hard-coated PMMA layer 1201 can protect the LCD polarizer 1202 and the top glass 1203, and a second polarizer 1205 can be included between the bottom glass 1204 and the backlight 1206.

The process of integrating touch sensing technology into an LCD can be implemented in a variety of technologies. For example, different touch sensing components and/or layers can be incorporated into an LCD display, where different embodiments can vary in display and/or manufacturing cost, display size, display complexity, display duration, display functionality, and image display quality. In some embodiments, the touch sensing capability is included within the LCD by integrating the touch sensing component on an LCD display outside of the LCM. In other embodiments, the touch sensing component can also be added both inside the LCM (e.g., between two glass layers) and outside the LCM. In other embodiments, only one set of touch sensing elements may be added inside the LCM (e.g., between two glass layers). Subsequent sections will describe several concepts for each of the embodiments described above.

2.1 touch sensing outside of liquid Crystal Module

By adding touch sensing components outside the LCM, it may allow for the addition of touch sensing capabilities to the LCD display while not affecting or having little impact on typical LCD manufacturing practices. For example, the touch sensing system and the LCD display system may be fabricated separately and integrated in a final step to form an LCD with touch sensing capabilities. Furthermore, by including the touch sensing part outside the LCM, it is also possible to allow the touch sensing part to be placed in a position close to a user touch area, whereby electrical interference between the display and the touch element can be reduced.

The following two embodiments, identified as concept C and concept N, may incorporate such external touch sensing elements.

2.1.1 concept C

One embodiment of the present invention is concept C, which uses the laminate shown in fig. 13, thereby allowing a touch function separate from the LCD. In concept C, two additional Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) layers (ITO 11301 and ITO 21302) may be patterned on top of a Color Filter (CF) plate (e.g., a top glass layer). These layers may be used for touch sensing and touch driving components of a touch sensor, which may be a mutual capacitance touch sensor. These ITO layers can be patterned into columns and/or rows (shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and described in the previous multi-touch sensing description) and can be separated by a dielectric, such as by a glass substrate or thin (e.g., 5-12 mm) SiO₂The layers are separated.

In some embodiments, visual artifacts may be reduced by optimizing the electrode pattern used in the touch member. For example, FIG. 14 illustrates a diamond electrode pattern that can reduce visual artifacts.

In concept C, an FPC carrying touch sensing data may be attached to the top surface of the top glass 1303.

2.1.2 concept N

One embodiment of the present invention is concept N, which may implement capacitive sensing using self-capacitive sensing on the outer surface of a Color Filter (CF) panel. Concept N may use the stack-up shown in fig. 15, where the touch sensing elements may be located on top of CF plate 1501 (top glass). By forming the TFT 1503 having two metal layers and the patterned ITO 1500 on the CF plate 1501 using, for example, the same LTPS process as the conventional TFT plate 1504 process, a concept N-based LCD can be constructed without changing the standard LCD process. Touch ITO layer 1500 may be patterned into a plurality of touch pixels 1612 (fig. 16). The touch ITO layer 1500 may be protected with a plastic cover (as shown in fig. 17), and the plastic cover may also serve as a surface to be touched by a user.

FIG. 16 illustrates a self-capacitance touch pixel circuit for concept N. Each ITO touch pixel 1612 may be connected to two TFTs, such as an input TFT 1604 and an output TFT 1608. Input TFT 1604 may charge ITO touch pixel 1612 and output TFT 1608 may discharge ITO touch pixel 1612. The amount of charge moved may depend on the capacitance of ITO touch pixel 1612, which may vary by the proximity of a finger. More details regarding self-capacitance touch sensing are described above and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,323,846 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Integrating Manual input" filed on 11/27/2001, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 16 and 18 for output column 1610 'C0' and output gate 1606 'R3', output column 1610 may be shared by touch pixels in the vertical direction and output gate 1606 may be shared by touch pixels in the horizontal direction. Fig. 19 shows a detailed layout of the touch pixels.

2.2 partially integrated touch sensing

Integrating touch sensing components inside the LCM can provide a number of advantages. For example, touch sensing components added inside the LCM may "reuse" an ITO layer or other structure that would otherwise be used only for display functions to provide touch sensing functionality. By incorporating touch sensing features into existing display layers, the total number of layers can also be reduced, reducing the display thickness and simplifying the manufacturing process.

The following embodiments may include touch sensing components inside and outside the LCM. Since integration of touch sensing components within the LCM can result in noise and interference between these two functions, the following designs can also include techniques that allow sharing of components while also reducing or eliminating the negative effects of electrical interference between the display and/or touch sensing on both outputs.

2.2.1 concept A

Concept a the base stack 2000 shown in fig. 20 can be used between the top glass and polarizer 2003, with an ITO sensing layer with multi-touch ("MT") capability (ITO1)2001 located on the user side of the top glass 2002. From the top, the touch sensing layer may include: ITO 12001 (an ITO layer that may be patterned into N sense (or drive) lines) and ITO 22004 (an ITO layer that may be patterned into M drive (or sense) lines). ITO 22004 can also act as V for LCD_COMAnd an electrode.

2.2.1.1 concept A: touch sensor electrode

The touch sensor electrode array may include two patterned ITO layers as shown in fig. 21 (left side). FIG. 21 is a simplified view of one possible implementation of touch sensor electrodes. The layer ITO 12101 closer to the viewer may be a touch output layer, which may also be referred to as a sense layer or sense line. Touch drive layer 2102 may be located on layer ITO 2. ITO2 may alsoTo form a capacitor C_LC(see fig. 7). Further, fig. 21 (right side) also shows details of the three sensing pixels 2103a, 2103b and 2103c and their associated capacitors. The sensing lines and the driving lines have a pitch of 5mm and a gap of 10 to 30 μm. The gap may be small enough to be invisible to the naked eye but still large enough to be easily etched with a simple proximity mask (the gap is exaggerated in the figure).

Fig. 22 shows one possible physical implementation of concept a, including a top view 2201 and a side view 2202 with respect to cabling and subsystem placement. A top view 2201 shows the approximate position of the FPC 2203 in a deployed state (discussed in more detail below). FIG. 14 illustrates only one implementation in which a separate touch level shifter/decoder COG may be used. Alternative architectures that minimize the number of discrete touch elements will be discussed below. For mechanical stability, the FPC may be bent, as shown in side view 2201, such that the pressure exerted at the T-tab (top connector) 2204 and B-tab (bottom connector) 2205 bond is minimized. FIG. 23 is a high level block diagram showing one possible architecture 2300 possessed by a primary bottom glass element, and a segmented ITO2 layer 2301 for touch sensing located on a top glass. For ITO2 on the top glass, each segment 2302 is connected to a corresponding pad on the bottom glass by a conductive dot 2303. Each pad on the bottom glass may be connected to a touch driver, as described below.

2.2.1.2 concept A: conductive point

Conductive dots at the corners of the LCD can be used to couple V_COMThe electrodes are connected to a drive circuit. Additional conductive points can be used to connect the touch drive lines to the touch drive circuitry. These points may have a sufficiently low resistance so as not to significantly increase the phase delay of the touch drive signal (discussed in more detail below). This may include limiting the conductive point resistance to 10 ohms or less. The conductive dot size may also be limited to reduce the required real estate.

As shown in fig. 24, elongated conductive dots 2401 may be used to reduce the requirements on dot resistance and real estate. The width of touch drive segment 2402 can be about 5mm, thereby providing a larger area to reduce the dot resistance.

2.2.1.3 concept A: flexible circuit and touch/LCD driver IC

A conventional display (e.g., fig. 9) may have an LCD driver Integrated Circuit (IC)901 for controlling the low-level operation of the display. The system host processor may exercise high level control over the display by sending commands and display data to the LCD driver 901. The multi-touch system may also have one or more driver ICs. An exemplary system with multi-touch capability is described in the incorporated reference, which includes three ICs, a multi-touch controller, an external level shifter/decoder, and a controller such as an ARM processor. The ARM processor may perform low-level control of the multi-touch controller and may then control the level shifter/decoder. The system host processor may perform advanced control over the ARM processor and receive touch data therefrom. In some embodiments, these drivers may be integrated into a single IC.

FIG. 25 shows an example high-level block diagram of a touch/LCD driver integrated circuit 2501. The IC has two main functions: 1) LCD control and update, and 2) touch scanning and data processing. These two functions can be integrated by an LCD driver portion 2502 for LCD control, an ARM processor 2503, and a multi-touch controller 2504 for touch scanning and processing. The touch circuitry may be synchronized with the LCD scan to avoid interference. Communication between the host and one of the LCD driver or ARM processor may be via host data and control bus 2505. A more fully integrated touch/LCD driver will be discussed below.

As shown in fig. 26, the FPC 2601 that brings together signals for the various touch and display layers may have three connector contacts, i.e., T-Tab 2602, B-Tab 2603, and host contact 2604. The T-tab may be connected to a sense line pad on the top glass. The T-tab trace 2605 may be connected to a corresponding pad on the B-tab 2603, and the B-tab 2603 may also be attached to the bottom glass. B-tab 2603 may also provide pass-through wiring 2606 from host connector 2604 to the touch/LCD driver IC, where host interface 2604 can connect a host to the touch/LCD driver IC. The FPC 2601 may also provide a substrate for each element 2607 supporting touch and LCD operations, and may be connected to the backlight FPC through two pads 2608.

The FPC 2601 may be a joint bonded to both the top and bottom glass. Alternatively, other bonding methods may be used.

2.2.1.4 concept A: touch drive integrated on bottom glass

The level shifter/decoder chip along with a separate voltage booster (e.g., 3V to 18V booster) may provide a high voltage drive circuit for touch sensing. In one embodiment, the touch/LCD driver IC may control the level shifter/decoder chip. Alternatively, the booster and/or the level shifter/decoder may be integrated in the touch/IC driver IC. For example, the integration may be achieved with a high voltage (18V) LTPS process. Doing so may allow the level shifter/decoder chip and the voltage booster to be integrated on the bottom glass periphery. Level shifter/decoder may also be provided for V, as described below_COMThe voltage of the touch drive is modulated.

2.2.1.5 concept A: and LCD V_COMShared touch drive

As described above, concept A can add an ITO layer to a standard LCD stackup, where the layer can function as a touch sensing line. The touch driving layer may be similar to LCD V, also denoted ITO2_COMAnd (4) plane sharing. For display operations, a standard video refresh rate (e.g., 60fps) may be used. For touch sensing, a rate of at least 120 times per second may be used. However, the touch scan rate may also be reduced to a lower rate that matches the display refresh rate, such as 60 scans per second. In some embodiments, it is desirable not to interrupt display refresh or touch scan. Thus, nowA scheme will be described that allows sharing of the ITO2 layer without slowing or interrupting display refresh or touch scanning (which may occur at the same or different rates).

The concurrent display update and touch scan processing is depicted in FIG. 27. Five multi-touch drive segments 2700, 2701, 2702, 2703, 2704 are shown in this example. Each touch drive segment may overlap M display rows. The display may be scanned at a rate of 60 frames per second while the multi-touch sensor array may be scanned at a rate of 120 times per second. The figure shows the temporal evolution of a display frame lasting 16.67 milliseconds. The currently updated display area should preferably not overlap with the active touch drive segment.

Print 2705 indicates where display lines are being updated. Print 2706 indicates an active touch drive segment. In the upper left corner of fig. 27, the first M/2 display lines may be refreshed at the beginning of the display frame. At the same time, touch drive segment 12701 can be driven for touch sensing. Moving to the right in the figure, at t ═ 1.67ms, the next image shows that the next M/2 display rows are being refreshed, while the touch drive segment 22702 can also be driven. After about 8.3 milliseconds of this mode (the second row start), each touch drive segment has been driven once and half of the display will have been refreshed. The entire touch array can be scanned again in the next 8.3 milliseconds, providing a scan rate of 120fps while the other half of the display is updated.

Since the display scan is typically done in row order, the touch drive segments can be driven out of order to avoid overlapping display and touch activity. In the example shown in FIG. 27, the touch drive sequence is 1, 2, 3, 4, 0 in the first 8.3 milliseconds, and 1, 2, 4,3, 0 in the second 8.3 millisecond cycle. The actual ordering may vary depending on the number of touch drive segments and the number of display rows. Thus, in general, it would be desirable if the touch drive usage sequence could be programmed. But for some special reasons a fixed sequence ordering may suffice.

Furthermore, it is also highly desirable (for image quality considerations) to have the active touch-driven segment away from the display area being updated. This is not illustrated in fig. 27, but is easily achieved when it is assumed that the number of touch driving segments is sufficient (e.g., 6 or more segments).

These techniques can effectively provide different refresh rates for the display and touch sensing components without requiring multiple circuits to support the high frequency display driver components.

2.2.1.6 concept A: v_CSTDriving options

As shown in FIG. 6, V_CSTAnd V_COMMay be connected together and thus can be commonly modulated to achieve a desired AC waveform across the LC. This is using V_COMModulation helps to achieve proper display refresh. In the process of mixing V_COMFor touch driving, it is not necessary to modulate V as well_CST. This process can be considered as the following open circuit V_CSTAnd (6) selecting options. However, if V is used_STMTo modulate V_CSTThen the touch driving signal V can be reduced_STMThe capacitive load on the touch panel capacitively loads, thereby causing the phase delay of the touch signal to decrease. And this process can be regarded as driving V as described below_CSTAnd (6) selecting options.

FIG. 28 illustrates an open circuit V_CSTAnd (6) selecting options. The bottom diagram 2802 illustrates how one touch drive segment 2803 can cover M display rows 2804. Touch drive segment 2803 on the top glass can be electrically connected to circuitry on the bottom glass by conductive dots 2805. At the edge of display 2806, there are M V's in the M rows below the touch drive segment_CSTThe wires may be connected together. The top diagram 2801 shows the sub-pixel basic circuit, where the sub-pixel has a separate storage capacitor C_ST. In the top diagram, area 2807 may represent M consecutive rows of subpixels covered by a single touch drive segment. As described above, for a specific touchIn the case of a drive/display group, display operation and touch sensing may occur at different times. When the display driver is ready to set the sub-pixel states in M rows, switches 2808, 2809 may turn V on_COMDrive2810 to M pieces of V_CSTLine 2804 is connected to touch drive segment (V)_COM)。V_COMThe Drive voltage may be set to ground or supply rail by the LCD driver depending on the inversion phase. Later, when this touch drive/display group is available for touch use, switches 2808, 2809 can connect the touch drive segment to V_STM2811, and from V_COMDrive2810 disconnect V_CSTThereby leaving it in the open state 2812.

FIG. 29 illustrates the driving V_CSTAnd (6) selecting options. The bottom diagram 2902 illustrates how one touch drive segment 2903 can overlap with M display rows 2904. Touch drive segments 2903 located on the top glass can be electrically connected to circuitry on the bottom glass by conductive points 2905. At the edge of the display 2906, M V's in rows below a particular touch drive segment_CSTThe wires may be connected together. The top diagram 2901 shows a sub-pixel basic circuit, where the sub-pixel has a separate storage capacitor C_ST. In the top diagram, region 2907 may represent M consecutive rows of subpixels covered by a single touch drive segment. The display operation and the touch sensing may occur at different times. When the display driver is ready to set the sub-pixel states in the M rows, switch 2908 may set V_COMDrive2910 to M V_CSTLine 2904 and to touch drive segment (V)_COM). In general, V_COMThe voltage of Drive2910 may be set to ground or supply rail by the LCD driver depending on the inversion phase. Later, when this touch drive/display group can be used for touch use, switch 2908 can set V to_CSTAnd touch drive segment (V)_COM) To V_STM 2911。

2.2.1.7 concept A: MT drive capacitive load

The capacitive loading of the touch drive lines of concept a can be very high, which can occur, for example, because there is a thin (e.g., about 4 μm) gap between the touch drive layer and the bottom glass, and the gap can be covered with a grid of metal wiring and pixel ITO. The liquid crystal may have a high maximum dielectric constant (e.g., about 10).

The capacitance of the touch drive segment may influence the stimulus touch pulse V_STMThe phase of (2) is delayed. If the capacitance is too high and thus there is too much phase delay, the resulting touch signal may be negatively affected. Applicants' analysis shows that if the ITO2 sheet resistance is kept at about 30 ohms/square or less, the phase retardation can be kept within optimum limits.

2.2.1.8 concept A: electric model and V_COMIntroduced noise

Since ITO2 can be used for touch driving and LCD V simultaneously_COMTherefore, if it is for V_COMThe modulation adds noise to the touch signal.

For example, while using one touch drive segment for touch sensing, if V is used_COMTo modulate another touch drive segment, it is possible to add a noise component to the touch signal. The amount of noise added depends on the amount of noise relative to V_STMV of_COMPhase, amplitude and frequency of the modulation. V_COMDepending on the inversion method used for the LCD.

FIG. 30 shows an electrical model of the use of touch driver 3001 for touch sensing and LCD V_COMThe modulation condition. The model shows V_COMThe input path through which noise can be added to the input terminal of the charge amplifier 3002 is modulated.

In some embodiments, the charge amplifier 3002 may require additional headroom (headroom) to accommodate V_COM3003 introduced noise. In addition, subsequent filtering circuitry (e.g., a synchronous demodulator, not shown) may need to remove the signal from V_COMNoise signal due to modulationNumber (n).

2.2.1.9 concept A: v_STMEffect

Under certain conditions, V_STMModulation may have a negative impact on the subpixel voltage under the touch drive segment being modulated. If a perceptible change in subpixel RMS voltage occurs, display artifacts may result. To minimize display distortion that may result, one or more of the following methods may be utilized.

Touch driving from both sides can reduce distortion of LC pixel voltages. As shown in fig. 31, by adding V_STMTo C on both sides via conductive points 3102_STWire, can be made by using the existing low resistance C on the bottom glass_STThe wiring 3101 realizes touch driving from both sides. Alternatively, single-ended touch driving may produce a pixel offset voltage that is uniform for all pixels, and this voltage may be reduced or eliminated by adjusting the data drive level. In addition, reducing ITO sheet resistance also helps to reduce display artifacts. Finally, V_STMCan also be associated with V_COMIs correlated with frequency to reduce the amount of noise in the touch signal.

2.2.1.10 concept A: influence on the manufacturing process

The fabrication process of concept a may include additional steps associated with a typical LCD fabrication process. Some of these steps may be entirely new steps and some steps may be modifications to existing steps. Fig. 32 shows a manufacturing process flow of concept a. Blocks 3201, 3202, and 3204 represent new steps, and blocks 3205, 3206, and 3207 represent modified steps, both of which are related to a conventional LCD manufacturing process (e.g., the manufacturing process of fig. 8).

The coating and patterning of ITO1 (blocks 3201, 3202) may be accomplished using known methods. The ITO may be protected during the rest of the LCD processing. Photoresists may be used to provide a removable protective coating. Alternatively, silicon dioxide may provide a permanent protective coating. In addition, ITO2 can be coated and patterned (block 3204) to form touch drive segments in a similar manner.

Phase delay analysis shows that for small displays (≦ 4 "diagonal), the sheet resistance of ITO1 and ITO2 may be as high as 300 ohms/square assuming less capacitive loading on either plane. As described above, it may be desirable for the capacitive load incorporating concept a to have a magnitude that limits the maximum sheet resistance of ITO2 to about 30 ohms/square or less.

2.2.2 concept A60

Concept a60 is physically similar to concept a and may provide a different approach to the problem of synchronizing display updates and touch scans. The treatment may be carried out by subjecting V to_COM1-line inversion of (i.e., V) is used as a stimulus for the touch signal_STM) To complete. This is illustrated in FIG. 33, which shows how a single touch drive segment 3301 can be modulated while the other touch drive segments can be held at a constant voltage. The method can eliminate the removal of unwanted V from the touch signal_COMThe problem of noise introduced. Furthermore, the display update and touch sensor scan are not necessarily spatially separated. But using this method, it is possible to operate at a single frequency (i.e., V)_COMModulation frequency, e.g., about 14.4kHz), as opposed to the multi-frequency demodulation described in U.S. patent application 11/381,313 entitled "Multipoint Touch Screen Controller," filed on 2.5.2006, which is incorporated herein by reference. In addition, using this approach, the touch sensor scan rate can be fixed at the video refresh rate (e.g., 60 times per second).

2.2.3 concept B

Concept B illustrated in fig. 34 is similar to concept a, both sharing many of the same electrical, cabling and structural characteristics. Concept B, however, may integrate the touch driving layer into V_COMIn a layer. Concept B therefore differs in the number and stacking position of ITO layers used for LCD and touch sensing. Due to these similarities, it will now beConcept B will be described by emphasizing the difference between concepts a and B.

Concept B may split the shared ITO2 layer in concept A into two ITO layers, one layer serving as touch sensing (ITO)3402 and the other layer serving as LCD V_COM(ITO3) 3403. From the top, the layers for touch sensing may include: ITO 13401, which is an ITO layer that can be patterned into N touch sense lines; ITO 23402, which is an ITO layer that can be patterned into M touch drive lines; and ITO 33403, which is a V that can function as an LCD_COMAn ITO layer of the electrode. A touch driving layer (ITO2)3402 may be deposited on the lower surface of the top glass 3404, above the color filters 3405.

By separating V from touch-driven part_COMInterference can be reduced.

2.2.3.1 concept B: touch sensor electrode

Concept B may include touch sensor electrodes substantially similar to the electrodes described above for concept a.

2.2.3.2 concept B: conductive point

As with concept A, concept B can use additional conductive points 3406 located at the corners of the LCD to connect the touch drive segments to dedicated circuitry. Since V does not have to be shared with touch sensing_COMThus concept B can retain those V_COMConnected to each corner point of its driving circuit. In addition (as described below), concept B may even be V_COMMore conductive dots are added.

2.2.3.3 concept B: flexible circuit and touch/LCD driver IC

Concept B may use substantially the same FPC and touch/LCD driver IC as described for concept a.

2.2.3.4 concept B: synchronizing with LCD scanning

For concept B, although V_COMLayers may be separate from the touch drive layer, but it is still desirable to synchronize touch scanning andthe LCD is updated to physically separate the active touch drive from the display area being updated. For concept B, the synchronization scheme previously described for concept a is equally applicable.

2.2.3.5 concept B: MT drive capacitive load

Like concept a, the capacitive load on the touch drive line of concept B can be very high. The large capacitance may be driven by touch drive (ITO)3402 and V_COMThin (e.g., about 5 μm) dielectric between planes (ITO3) 3403. One approach for reducing undesirable phase delay in touch stimulation signals is to reduce ITO drive line resistance by adding parallel metal traces. Phase delay may also be reduced by lowering the output resistance of the level shifter/decoder.

2.2.3.6 concept B: electric model and V_COMIntroducing noise

Due to the whole V_COMThe planes may all be coupled to the touch drive layer, so that operation of the multi-touch charge amplifier is likely to be V_COMThe noise disruption introduced by the modulation. To mitigate these effects, concept B may have a constant V_COMA voltage.

In contrast, ITO 23402 and ITO 33403 (V)_COMAnd touch driving) may interfere with V_COMVoltages, which may result in storing erroneous data voltages on the LC pixels. To reduce V_STMTo V_COMCan increase the voltage V_COMThe number of conductive points connected to the bottom glass. For example, except for V at each corner of the viewing area_COMIn addition to dots, conductive dots may also be placed in the middle of each edge.

By mixing V_STMAnd V_COMSynchronization, and turning off the pixel TFT at the correct time, can be further reduced by V_COM-V_STMDistortion caused by coupling. For example, if the line frequency is 28.8kHz and the touch drive frequency is a multiple of that frequency (e.g., 172.8kHz, 230.4kHz, and 288kHz), then V_COMThe distortion may have the same phase relationship for all pixels, thereby reducing or eliminating V_COMVisibility of the distortion. Furthermore, if the gate of the pixel TFT is turned off when the distortion is mostly attenuated, the LC pixel voltage error can be reduced. Like concept A, V_STMMay be in phase with V and frequency_COMIs correlated with frequency to reduce the amount of noise in the touch signal.

2.2.3.7 concept B: influence on the manufacturing process

Like concept a, concept B may also add a step in the LCD manufacturing process. Fig. 35 shows a manufacturing process flow for concept B, where blocks 3501, 3502, 3503 and 3504 represent new steps associated with a conventional LCD manufacturing process (e.g., the process described in fig. 8), while blocks 3506, 3507, 3508 and 3509 represent modifications made to existing steps (e.g., the steps also associated with fig. 8).

As with concept a, ITO1 may be coated (block 3501) and patterned (block 3502) using known methods. The sheet resistance of ITO1 and ITO2 is substantially similar to that described for concept a. For concept B, since the layer of ITO2 may be coated directly on the glass, its deposition (block 3503) may be a routine process. Electrical access between the ITO2 layer and the bottom glass can be easily accomplished for those conductive points connected to the touch drive segments by etching using a shadow mask.

ITO3 (e.g. V for LCD)_COMLayer) may have a sheet resistance between 30 and 100 ohms per square, and it may likewise be applied using conventional methods (block 3505). However, as mentioned above, V_COMVoltage distortion can be reduced by reducing the ITO layer resistance. The effective resistance of ITO3 can be reduced, if necessary, by adding metal traces parallel to the touch drive segments. The metal traces may be aligned with the black matrix so as not to interfere with the pixel openings (pixelopening). In addition, the density of metal traces (between one per display row to about one per 32 display rows) can be adjusted to provide V_COMThe desired resistance of the layer.

2.2.4 concept B'

Concept B' may be understood as a variation of concept B, except that it omits the ITO2 driver layer and instead uses a conductive black matrix (e.g., CrO under the top glass)₂Layer) as a touch driving layer. Alternatively, the metal driving lines may be hidden behind a black matrix, which may be a polymer black matrix (polymer black matrix). Doing so may provide several benefits, including: (1) an ITO layer is omitted; (2) reduce V_STMTo V_COMThe influence of the layer; and (3) simplifying the manufacturing process. Since the use of a black matrix for touch driving may eliminate the need for patterning an ITO layer over the color filter, the manufacturing process may be simplified.

Fig. 36 shows a side view 3601 and a top view 3602 of concept B'. It can be seen that side view 3601 looks much like a standard LCD stackup, except for top ITO layer 3603 for touch sensing. The lower graph of FIG. 36 shows how the black matrix 3604 can be divided into separate touch drive segments. The grid pattern may follow the pattern of a conventional black matrix, but each drive segment may be electrically isolated from the other segments. To compensate for the reduced touch signal strength that may result from using a black matrix as the touch drive, the charge amplifier gain may be increased (e.g., about 4X).

Since the touch sensing layer is not necessarily in contact with V_COMLayer shield, thus V_COMThe modulation may interfere with the touch signal. In addition, touch driving still has the possibility of interfering with V_COMA voltage. These two problems are addressed by the pair V described above in connection with concept A_COMSegmentation of the layers and/or spatial separation of display updates and touch sensing as described above can be addressed. Furthermore, a constant V can be used_COMVoltage to address these issues.

2.2.5 concept K

Concept K is illustrated in fig. 37 (circuit diagram) and 38 (stack diagram). Concept K exploits the fact that it is on the gate that is usedC_ST(C_STOn-gate) configuration, a select pulse in the TFT LCD may be partially transmitted to the pixel ITO.

As shown in the display stack of fig. 38, a viewer may face the active array board 3801 instead of the CF board 3802. ITO pixels on active array 3803 can provide V for touch sensor_STMPulses in which display lines are alternated for V_STMPulsing and display addressing. The ITO sensing layer 3804 on the plastic polarizer 3805 may be laminated on the back side of the array plate 3801 to provide a touch sensing layer. Furthermore, a thin glass layer (e.g. 0.2mm) also contributes to an improved signal-to-noise ratio.

During a display update, each row may be individually selected to update pixel data (as shown in FIG. 39). To generate V for touch sensing_STMMultiple rows 4001 can be selected simultaneously, while a high data voltage 4003 is applied to the column line 4002 to keep the TFTs off (as shown in fig. 40). The column driver may adjust the timing of the data signals from the display memory to correspond to the touch drive time interval.

In one embodiment, the touch pulse sequence may pulse about 30 rows 4001 simultaneously during one touch scan interval. FIG. 41 shows touch drive pulses (V)_STM) The effect on the LCD sub-pixel voltage. From V_STMThe voltage added by the pulse can be V_COMAnd/or gamma correction of gray values of the display data.

Concept K may provide a number of advantages. Since the display pixels and touch sensors share drive circuitry, the level shifter/decoder can be omitted. In addition, conventional CF plates may be used herein. In addition, no additional conductive points are required between the top and bottom glasses. The baseline (busline) reflection may increase the reflectivity (R) of certain portions of the display, thereby requiring the use of additional films (e.g., CrO under Cr) at the baseline that may reduce R.

2.2.6 concept of X'

In FIG. 42 (circuit diagram) and FIG. 43 (laminate)The figure) illustrates the concept X'. The concept X' exploits the fact that V_STMPossibly similar to the gate pulse (e.g., 15-18V swing) used for TFT pixel switching. In concept X', touch drive segment 4301 may be part of an LTPS active array and may form a pixel storage capacitor C_STCounter electrode (counter electrode). C_STMay be formed between two ITO layers 4301, 4302. In this embodiment, the active array plate 4303, rather than the color filter plate 4304, may be located on the user side of the display.

As shown in FIG. 42, with a V for_STMMay be shared by three rows of pixels 4202 in order to select these rows. ITO touch drive segment 4203 may be patterned under a set of rows adjacent to the row being addressed. At a position different from V_STMWhen connected, these touch-driven segments 4203 can be connected to GND (ground) through TFT 4204.

Changes made to the processing steps to construct concept X' may include the following. First, a patterned sensing ITO can be added on the outside of the array substrate. Second, SiO can be added on the sensing ITO during LTPS processing₂And (4) protecting. In addition, a protective resist (resist) may also be used here. Third, touch-driven ITO can be used in SiO for LTPS arrays₂A barrier layer (which may be found in a typical LTPS process) is deposited and patterned underneath. Finally, the vias may be in the barrier SiO₂Is patterned so as to be in contact with the touch driving ITO layer. This step may be combined with subsequent processing steps.

The concept X' may also provide a number of advantages. For example, since the display and touch sensor share the drive circuitry, the level shifter/decoder chip may be omitted. Further, no change is required to the CF plate, whereby a conventional color filtering process can be used. Further, due to the storage capacitor C_STCan be located between two ITO layers and thus can achieve very high transmission. In addition, another advantage is that the space between the array plate 4303 and the CF plate 4304 may be omittedAdditional conductive points of (a).

2.3 fully integrated touch sensing

A third set of embodiments of the present invention fully integrates the touch sensing components inside the LCM. As with partially integrated touch sensing, existing layers in the LCM can simultaneously serve dual tasks in order to provide touch sensing functionality, and thereby reduce display thickness and simplify manufacturing processes. In addition, these fully integrated touch sensing layers may also be protected between glass layers.

In some embodiments, a fully integrated LCD may include V similar to that described in previous embodiments_COMAnd (3) a layer. In other embodiments, a fully integrated touch-sensing LCD may include in-plane switching (IPS) LCD structures, which will be described in more detail in subsequent sections.

2.3.1 fully integrated V-based_COMLCD of (1)

2.3.1.1 concept A'

Concept a' can be considered a variation of concept a that omits the ITO sensing layer (ITO 2001 in fig. 20) and employs a conductive black matrix layer (located below the top glass) as the touch sensing layer. Alternatively, the metal sensing line may be hidden behind a black matrix, wherein the black matrix may be a polymer black matrix. Thus, concept A' may also eliminate the T-tab on the FPC and the corresponding adhesion to the top glass. The touch sensing lines may be routed to the bottom glass through conductive dots and may be directly connected to the touch/LCD driver chip. Further, the FPC may be a standard LCD FPC. By omitting manufacturing steps and elements, costs can be reduced compared to concepts a and B.

FIG. 44 illustrates one method that can be implemented to replace the touch sensing layer with a conductive black matrix. Fig. 44 includes a side view 4401 of the upper portion of a single pixel having a black matrix 4403 extending between three primary color portions 4404. The touch drive segments 4405 can be separated from the black matrix lines 4403 by a planarized (planarizing) dielectric layer 4406. Fig. 44 also shows a top view 4402 of a display having vertically extending black matrix lines 4403. About 96 black bottom lines (which is equivalent to 32 pixels, for example) may be connected together to the negative terminal of the charge amplifier 4907. The touch drive segment 4405 can be driven in the manner described above. A finger approaching the top glass 4408 may disturb the electric field between the vertical black matrix lines 4403 and the touch drive segments 4405. This perturbation may be amplified by the charge amplifier 4407 and may be further processed as described elsewhere herein.

Due to the depth of the touch sensor lines 4403 in the display, the minimum distance between a finger or touch object and the sensor lines 4403 may be limited. This reduces the touch signal strength. This can be addressed by reducing the thickness of the layers above the touch sensing layer, thereby allowing a finger or other touch object to be closer to the sense line.

2.3.1.2 concept X

Concept X is illustrated in fig. 45 and 46. The stack of concept X shown in fig. 45 is substantially equivalent to that of a standard LCD. Touch sensing layer 4501 can be embedded with V_COMLayer (ITO2) which serves the dual purpose of providing V_COMVoltage plane and as output of the touch sensor. The touch driving layer may also be embedded in an existing LCD layer. For example, touch drives can be located on the bottom glass 4503 and can be part of the LCD select line circuitry (see FIG. 5). The select line may then serve the dual purpose of providing the gate signal for the sub-pixel TFT and providing the touch drive signal V_STM. FIG. 46 is a top view of concept X, showing its floating pixel 4601 embedded V_COMOne possible arrangement of touch sensing layers of a layer.

2.3.1.3 concept H

Concept H is depicted in FIGS. 47-50. Concept H does not require any ITO to be included outside the top glass or plastic layer of the display. Thus, the manufacturing process may be very similar to existing display manufacturing processes.

As shown in fig. 47, screenMay be a transparent resistive sheet (resistive sheet)4701, such as a glass or plastic substrate on which an unpatterned ITO layer is deposited. V of display_COMA layer may be used for the touch sensing portion. In contrast to some embodiments described above, since the layer does not need to be patterned, a photolithography step may be omitted in the manufacturing process. For ease of reference herein, the sides are referred to as north, south, east and west as shown.

A plurality of switches 4702 may be disposed around the periphery of the resistive sheet. These switches may be implemented as TFTs on glass. In addition, in the display border area, a plurality of conductive dots 4703 are also displayed at each switch position, which can couple V_COM(on the top glass) to the TFT layer on the bottom glass. The switches 4702 may be commonly connected to two buses, e.g., north and east switches connected to one bus 4704 and south and west switches connected to a second bus 4705.

For touch sensing, the switch 4702 may operate as follows. North and south switches may be used to measure the capacitance in the Y direction. The left and right switches can then be used to measure the capacitance in the X direction. Switches located in the northeast and northwest corners may be used for both X and Y measurements. As shown in fig. 49, the modulation can be performed by using a modulation waveform V_MODThe resistive patches 4701 are actuated to measure capacitance. Further, the current (i.e., charge) required to drive the sheet to a desired voltage may be measured and used to determine the location of the touch.

In particular, as shown in the waveform of FIG. 49, in the absence of a touch, the baseline capacitance 4902 may indicate the stimulation of the lamella 4701 to V_MODThe current (charge) required for the voltage. If there is a touch, a larger current 4903 (charge) may be required due to finger capacitance. This larger current is illustrated in the lower waveform group. The touch location can then be determined by a simple mathematical combination of the baseline and signal waveforms shown in fig. 49.

In FIG. 48, X is illustrated in executionEquivalent circuits for touch screens during direction (i.e., east-west) measurements. C _ PARA 4801 can be a distributed parasitic resistance of the sheet, and C _ filler 4802 can be a touch capacitance, e.g., a touch located at about 75% of the way to the east. The block diagram indicates how the plate can be driven to V_MODAnd how the charge can be measured, combined, and processed and sent to the host.

Fig. 50 illustrates how concept H can be integrated with an LCD. In particular, conductive dots 5001 can be connected to the TFT layer to allow for a resistive sheet 5002 (V)_COM) Modulation is performed to perform a display operation. The touch sensing operation and the display operation may be multiplexed in time. For example, assuming a screen refresh rate of 60Hz corresponding to a LCD update period of 16ms, a portion of this time may be used for writing information to the LCD, while another portion of the time may be used for touch sensing. During LCD refresh, V_MODMay be V from an LCD driver circuit_COM. In touch sensing, waveforms with different frequencies and amplitudes may be used depending on the exact details of the touch system, such as desired SNR, parasitic capacitance, and so forth. It should be further noted that the touch sensing circuit in the present embodiment illustrated in block diagram form may be integrated in the LCD driver or may be a separate circuit.

2.3.1.4 concept J

Like concept H, concept J also does not require any ITO to be included outside the top glass or plastic layer of the display. The physical structure of concept J is illustrated in fig. 51. The touch sensing surface may be a resistive sheet 5101 similar to concept H, but patterned into a plurality of row strips 5102. The patterning process may be accomplished by photolithography, laser deletion (laser deletion), or other known patterning techniques. By patterning the resistive sheet 5101 into a plurality of strips 5102, the switches along the top and bottom (north and south) can be omitted, leaving the east and west switches 5103 connected to the row strips. Each row 5102 may be sequentially energized, for example using V as shown in FIG. 52_MODWaveform 5201.The current (charge) required to drive each row 5102 to a modulated voltage can be a function of the row capacitance, which can be a combination of the parasitic capacitance of the designated row (C _ PARA 5301, figure 53) and the capacitance of a FINGER or other touch object (C _ filler 5302, figure 53).

As shown in FIG. 52, the signal in the presence of a touch 5202 can be mathematically combined with the baseline signal 5203 to calculate touch coordinates. The Y output may be determined by the centroid of the Z output for each row. The X output may then be determined by a weighted average of the X outputs of each row.

Fig. 54 shows how the touch sensor of concept J can be integrated with an LCD. Conductive dots 5401 can connect V on top glass_COMA TFT layer connected to the bottom glass. Touch and display operations are not necessarily time multiplexed. Instead, while one portion of the display is being updated, another portion may be scanned for touch activity. Various techniques for accomplishing this are discussed above in connection with other embodiments. Touch sensing may use different frequencies and amplitudes, but may also be phase synchronized with LCD row inversion. The switch 5402 may be implemented as a TFT on glass. The measurement circuit may be either integrated with the LCD controller or a separate component.

2.3.1.5 concept L

In concept L, an active TFT layer may be added to the color filter glass to allow the segmented ITO layer to provide multiple functions simultaneously via different regions of the LCD display. A stacked view of concept L is illustrated in fig. 55. Concept L may contain the same number of ITO layers as a standard LCD display. However, while the ITO 15509 and other structures 5507, 5508 on the bottom glass 5511 can remain standard, the active TFT layer 5501 on the filter glass 5505 can allow for regions (e.g., horizontal rows) of ITO 25504 at V_COMTouch driving or touch sensing.

Fig. 56 illustrates a conceptual L display with a horizontally segmented ITO2 layer 5504. The following processes are performed simultaneously for different areas of the display: handleLine V_COMModulation (region 5601) and/or writing (region 5602); providing touch stimulus (region 5603); providing touch sensing by measurement (region 5604); and maintained in a holding state (region 5605). The transistors in the active TFT layer 5501 may switch the signal for each horizontal row to the desired function in a specified time interval. In the same sequence, each region may have an equal exposure for each state, thereby substantially eliminating non-uniformities. Since providing touch stimulus can disturb the voltage across the LC, the LCD pixel writing process can occur immediately after the touch stimulus phase to shorten the duration of any disturbance. The LCD pixel writing to a region can be at V_COMOccurs during modulation, while adjacent segments may experience V_COMModulated to maintain uniform boundary conditions during pixel writing.

The color filter plate may be formed using a process similar to that used for active array processing. The process of forming the additional TFT layer may involve additional steps, but the back-end processing of the two substrates may remain substantially similar to that of a standard LCD. These techniques may allow such displays to be suitable for larger size panels without the use of low resistance ITO.

2.3.1.6 concepts M1 and M2

Fig. 57 and 58 show a stack of diagrams of the concepts M1 and M2, respectively. Concepts M1 and M2 may add patterned ITO and metal layers to the filter glass for touch sensing. Although the concepts M1 and M2 are similar, one difference is the different uses of the ITO1 and ITO2 layers. Concept M1 may use ITO 15701 for touch sensing and ITO 25702 for V_COMBoth (when the LCD pixel voltage is set/held) and touch driving (when the pixel voltage is not written). Concept M2 may use ITO 15801 for touch drive and ITO 25802 for V_COMAnd touch sensing. For both concepts M1 and M2, the top glass 5703, 5803 need not include any transistors or other active elements.

In either concept M1 or M2, the method can be achieved byTo V_COMSegmentation to allow a display area to maintain a constant V during display update_COMWhile another area is independently scanned for touch activity. This may reduce interference between touch sensing and display functions.

Fig. 59, 60, and 61 show an exemplary display (corresponding to concept M2) segmented into three regions (5901, 5902, 5903; fig. 59) where two regions may perform touch scans simultaneously (e.g., regions 5901, 5902) and the display pixels of the third region may be updated (e.g., region 5903). On the left side of FIG. 61, 27 vertical drive lines 6101 at the ITO1 and M1 (Metal 1) layers can provide three different areas, each of which has 9 touch columns. Each drive line (3 per touch column) may have a conductive point down to the array glass and may be routed to a driver ASIC (not shown).

The right side of FIG. 61 shows a possible pattern of segmented horizontal rows for the ITO2 layer, including V for the first set of alternating rows 6102_COMAnd V_HOLDAnd V for a second set of alternating rows 6103_COM、V_HOLDAnd V_SENSE. Each row of ITO2 may be connected down to the array glass via conductive dots (not shown) so that LTPS TFT switches can be used to switch the row mode. The right side of fig. 61 shows 21 sense rows, of which 14 can be sensed at any time (but the other number of rows can be more).

FIG. 62 shows a circuit diagram for touch sensing for the exemplary displays shown in FIGS. 59, 60, and 61. V_STMThe driver 6200 sends a signal through a metal drive column 6202, which may have a resistance R_MetcolAnd parasitic capacitance C_drv. Touch capacitance C_sigCan be measured via an ITO line, which can have a resistance R_ito2rowAnd a parasitic capacitance C_ito2row. It is also possible for the touch sense charge to be subjected to two additional resistors R before reaching the charge amplifier 6204_sw1And R_borderThe influence of (c).

A display frame update rate of 60fps may correspond to a touch scan rate of 120 fps. If desired (e.g., in a small multi-touch display), the designer may choose to reduce the touch scan rate (e.g., to 60fps), thereby saving power and potentially reducing complexity. Thus, certain areas of the display may be left in a "hold state" when neither display updates nor touch scans occur in those areas.

Fig. 63 shows a display (as in fig. 60) in which the display area can be scanned and updated horizontally instead of vertically. The touch drive and touch sense areas can be interleaved so that stimulation applied to a touch drive row 6301 can be sensed from both sense rows 6302 and 6303 simultaneously, as shown by sense field lines 6305.

A black mask layer may be used to hide metal lines and/or gaps in the ITO layer. For example, the metal drive lines in ITO2, the etched gaps, and the etched gaps in ITO1 may be completely or partially hidden behind a black mask (as shown in fig. 64). This may reduce or eliminate the visual impact of these items on the display user.

2.3.1.7 concept M3

As shown in fig. 65, the concept M3 may be similar to the concepts M1 and M2, but it integrates touch driving and touch sensing in a single segmented ITO layer 6501. Although the various embodiments described above include the drive and sense electrodes on separate layers, the concept M3 may include the drive and sense electrodes in the same plane. By adding the dielectric layer 6502, the touch sensing component can be shielded from other electric fields and/or effects.

Fig. 66 and 67 illustrate the display of the concept M3 segmented into three regions 6601, 6602, 6603, each of which may alternate between a touch excitation/sensing phase, an LCD pixel writing phase, and a hold phase during each cyclic update of the display frame. FIG. 68 illustrates wiring details and layout settings that can divide the display. ITO1 rows 6801 may be via conductive dots6802 LTPS switch connected to TFT glass, wherein the switch would be at V for the row_COMAnd V_HOLDTo switch the voltage. Three sense lines 6803 (one for each region) can be used for each column, where the lines are to be multiplexed to measure the active region in the corresponding time frame. In performing touch scanning on a certain area, a touch driving part corresponding to a row in the area may be activated, and all columns of the row may be sensed at the same time. During the time that one area of the display is scanned for touch activity, another area may modulate V_COMAnd/or update display pixels.

By adding metal segments (6805 in fig. 68) to the regions of ITO, the resistance of the ITO can be reduced. For example, short metal segments may be added to ITO1 drive electrodes 6804 to reduce the phase delay of the touch signal. These metal lines may be hidden behind a black mask layer.

As shown in fig. 69, guard traces 6903 can be used to block field lines between the touch and sense electrodes that are not passed up by the glass, in which case they would be affected by a finger or other touching object. This may reduce noise and enhance the impact of the measured touch on the display. FIG. 70 shows a top view 7001 and a cross-sectional view 7002 of a display without guard traces where rows of touch sensing components, such as drive electrodes 7003 and sense electrodes 7004, are separated by narrow gaps. When touch sensing is active, by laminating 6905 (V) with ITO2 layer_COM) Grounded, the touch sensing and display functions may be shielded from each other. FIG. 69 shows a top view 11101 and a cross-sectional view 6902 of a display including touch sensing components, such as ground guard traces 6903 between rows of drive electrodes 6904 and sense electrodes 6905, disposed on ITO 1.

2.3.1.8 concepts P1 and P2

Concepts P1 and P2 are similar to concept M3 and can provide touch driving and touch sensing electrodes in the same plane. However, as shown in FIG. 71, the concepts P1 and P2 may also provide the additional benefit of being individually addressable touch pixels. Each touch pixel can include a drive electrode 7102, a sense electrode 7103, and corresponding drive 7104 and sense lines 7105 that can be routed separately and connected to a bus on the display border. These lines may be formed using a conductive black mask, thereby allowing the black mask areas already present in the display to provide additional services for touch sensing. Alternatively, these lines may also be metal lines arranged behind a black matrix, wherein the black matrix may be a polymer black matrix.

Fig. 72 shows a stack diagram of concept P1. The concept P1 may differ from standard LCD processing in various ways. For example, a portion of the standard polymer black matrix may be changed to black chrome with a low resistance metal backing. These conductive lines can then be used to route signals to and from the touch pixels. In an additional masking step, a patterned ITO layer 7202 may be added behind the black mask. By adding STN type conductive dots 7203, drive and sense signals for each touch pixel can be routed to the LTPS TFT board (e.g., 2 dots per touch pixel). In addition, color filter layers and boundary planarization layers 7204 can be thickened to reduce touch driving and V_COMThe capacitance between them.

Fig. 73 shows a stack diagram of concept P2. In addition to incorporating the four variations described above with reference to concept P1, concept P2 may also include a patterned ITO layer 7301, where the layer may be used to create segmented V_COM. By pairs of V_COMSegmentation, touch driving and display operations may be isolated, thereby potentially improving signal-to-noise ratio. FIG. 74 shows a V highlighting concept P2_COMCircuit diagram of signal coupling. By maintaining separate buses (Vholdbus1 and Vholdbus2) for return, the coupled charge can be reduced. Furthermore, by using complementary drives for half of the touch pixels, the backflow in Vholdbus1 may be reduced.

FIGS. 71 and 75 illustrate exemplary routing of touch sense and touch drive lines to and from the sense and drive pixels. A set of drive and sense lines can be routed horizontally from bus lines 7501, 7502 at each end of the display to each individual touch pixel 7101. These lines may be hidden behind a black mask layer or may also be incorporated into a conductive black mask layer. Furthermore, such wiring may also be located on a single layer. Signals for individual touch pixels can be addressed and multiplexed using LTPS TFTs and over bus lines.

Parasitic capacitance can be reduced if individual pixels can be driven instead of the entire row. In addition, the individually addressable touch pixels also allow the touch array to be scanned in a "random access" mode, not just in a row-by-row mode. This may increase the flexibility of the process of interleaving touch sensing with display updates. For example, fig. 76 depicts one possible scan pattern. Since the system can scan the touch pixels in any desired pattern, the scan pattern can be designed to ensure that adjacent rows and adjacent pixels are never driven at the same time, thereby avoiding fringe field (fringe field) interactions that can lead to signal loss or signal-to-noise ratio reduction. In FIG. 76, blocks 7601 and 7602 each include a drive electrode and a sense electrode. Block 7601 corresponds to an in-phase drive, while block 7602 corresponds to a 180 degree out-of-phase drive signal. In this figure, two rows (24 pixels total) may be overlaid in five sequences and four pixels scanned at a time.

2.3.1.9 concept D

Another embodiment, concept D, may support a multi-touch sensing process by using two segmented ITO layers and additional transistors for each touch pixel. Fig. 77 shows a circuit diagram of concept D. During display update the circuit may function as in a standard LCD display. Gate drive 7700 can drive two transistors (Q17702 and Q27704), thereby allowing for power from V_COMSignals on bus 7706 and data line 7708 convey charge to a set of circuits for controlling the LC (C)_ST 7710、C_LC17712 and C_LC27714) The capacitor of (2). When transistor Q27704 is turned off, V_COM7706 it will be disconnected from C_ST7710, thereby allowing V to be inserted_COMLine 7706 is used for touch sensing. In particular, line 7706 can be used to pass charge through C_IN7716 and C_OUT7718, via data lines 7708 (used as touch sense lines) into charge amplifier 7720. Conductive objects (e.g., a user's finger, a stylus, etc.) in proximity to the display can perturb the system capacitance in a manner that can be measured by charge amplifier 7720.

Fig. 78 and 79 show sub-pixel overlay diagrams in a concept D based display. In fig. 78, the layer of ITO1 may be segmented into two plates, a 7722 and C7726. The layer of ITO2 may be segmented into islands (e.g., B7724) that may be located over the subpixels and act as counter electrodes for the plates in the layer of ITO 1. During a display update, the voltage difference between the islands 7724 and the plates (a 7722, C7726) may be used to control the liquid crystal 7804. During touch sensing, the perturbation in capacitance throughout the sub-pixels (e.g., C1, C2, Cin, Cout, and Cst in fig. 129) can be measured therein to determine the proximity of conductive objects.

Fig. 80 shows a combined wiring stack diagram of concept D. FIG. 81 illustrates a physical implementation of one embodiment of concept D.

2.3.2 fully integrated and IPS-based LCD

In fig. 82, in-plane switching (IPS) is schematically illustrated, which can be used to create an LCD display with a wider viewing angle. While some LCDs (e.g., twisted nematic) use vertically arranged electrode pairs (a related example is shown in fig. 20), in an IPS LCD, the two electrodes 8201, 8202 for controlling the orientation of the liquid crystals 8203 can be parallel to each other in the same layer (e.g., in a single plane). By orienting the electrodes in this manner, a horizontal electric field 8200 can be generated across the liquid crystal, which can cause the liquid crystal to be parallel to the front of the panel, thereby increasing the viewing angle. The liquid crystal molecules in an IPS display are not anchored to the upper or lower layer (relevant examples are shown in fig. 82), but instead can rotate freely to align themselves to the electric field 8200 while remaining parallel to each other and to the plane of the display electrodes. FIG. 83 shows a more realistic setting of interdigitated pairs of electrodes (electrodes) 8301, 8302 in a display where planar switching may be used.

Due to the IPS display lacking V available for touch actuation or touch sensing_COMThus, certain embodiments of the present invention may allow the same electrodes used for display updating to be used for touch sensing as well, in order to provide touch sensing capabilities. These electrodes may be supplemented by additional circuitry (compensated). In some embodiments described above, it is possible for a touch pixel to overlap a large number of display pixels. In contrast, since the below-described IPS embodiments can use the same electrodes for display control and touch sensing, higher touch resolution can be achieved with little or no additional cost. Alternatively, multiple touch pixels can be aggregated to produce a combined touch signal of lower resolution.

2.3.2.1 concept E

One IPS embodiment, concept E, is illustrated in FIG. 84. As described above, in the IPS-based touch sensing display, the electrodes may be in the same plane and may have an interdigital structure (as shown in fig. 84). Although electrode a 8400 and electrode B8402 may be used to orient the liquid crystal layer during display updating, these electrodes may also be used (in combination with additional components) to achieve touch sensing. For example, concept E may use additional switches 8404 to change the drive for a set of signal lines based on whether the pixel is undergoing a display update or touch sensing. In addition, concept E may also include capacitances (CIN _ A8406, COUT _ A8408, CIN _ B8410, and COUT _ B8412) and two transistors (transistor Q18414 and transistor Q28416) to control when these electrodes will be used for display updating and when they will be used for touch sensing.

During touch sensing, transistors Q18414 and Q28418 are off, thereby disconnecting the electrodes from the display signal and allowing the electrodes to be used to measure capacitance. Then, V_COMThe metal wire 8416 mayConnected to the touch excitation signals 8418. The stimulus signal may be sent via CIN _ A8406 and CIN _ B8410 to COUT _ A8408 and COUT _ B8412, which may be connected to a charge amplifier 8422. Capacitance C between CIN and COUT_SIG(not shown) may be used to detect touch. The charge delivered to charge amplifier 8422 when no sensing pixel is touched depends primarily on the capacitance between the two pairs of CIN and COUT capacitors. When an object (e.g. a finger) approaches the electrode, C_SIGThe capacitance may be disturbed (e.g., reduced) and the disturbance may be measured by charge amplifier 8422 as a change in the amount of charge delivered. The values of CIN and COUT can be selected to suit the desired input range of charge amplifier 8422, thereby optimizing the touch signal strength.

By using high frequency signals in the touch sensing process, the electrodes can be used to perform touch sensing without negatively affecting the display state. Since the LC molecules are large and non-polar, a touch can be detected without changing the state of the display by using a high frequency field that does not change or apply a DC component to the RMS voltage across the LC.

Fig. 85 shows a stack diagram of concept E. As described, all touch parts may be formed on the TFT plate 8501.

2.3.2.2 concept Q

Another embodiment of an IPS-based touch-sensing display, concept Q, also allows the use of the TFT glass components of the LCD (e.g., metal wiring lines, electrodes, etc.) for both display and touch-sensing functions. One potential advantage of this embodiment is that no changes to the display factory equipment are required. For conventional LCD manufacturing, the only added content includes adding touch sensing electronics.

Concept Q includes two types of pixels shown in fig. 105 and 106. The pixel type a is illustrated in fig. 105. Each pixel 10501 includes three terminals, i.e., a selection terminal 10502, a data terminal 10503, and a common terminal 10504. Each class a pixel has a common terminal connected along column 10505 to form a touch-sensing column. The pixel type B is depicted in fig. 106. Each pixel 10601 also includes three terminals, i.e., a selection terminal 10602, a data terminal 10603, and a common terminal 10604. Each class B pixel also has a common terminal connected along row 10605 to form a touch-sensing row. The pixels can be arranged as shown in fig. 17 to have a plurality of touch-sensitive rows 10702 and a plurality of touch-sensitive columns 10703. Touch sense chip 10701 can include drive stimulation and sense circuitry and can be connected to these rows and columns.

The touch sensing chip may operate as follows. In the first period, all rows and columns may remain grounded while the LCD is updated. In some embodiments, this first period of time may be a period of about 12 ms. In the next period, the stimulation waveform can be used to drive the class A pixels, i.e., the touch columns, while the capacitance at each class B pixel, i.e., the touch row, is sensed. In the next period, the B class pixels, i.e., the touch columns, can be driven with the stimulus waveform while the capacitance at each A class pixel, i.e., the touch column, is sensed. Then, the process may be repeatedly performed. The two touch sensing periods are about 2 ms. The excitation waveform may take various forms. In some embodiments, it may be a sine wave with a peak-to-peak value of about 5V and zero DC offset. In addition, other periods and waveforms may be used.

2.3.2.3 concept G

One problem that can arise in IPS based touch sensing displays is that if there is a lack of shielding between the touch and the LC, this means that a finger (or other touching object) is likely to affect the display output. For example, a finger touching the screen may affect the field used to control the LC, causing display distortion. One solution to this problem may be to place a protective mask (e.g., a transparent ITO layer) between the user and the display sub-pixels. However, the shield may block an electric field for touch sensing, thereby hindering touch sensing.

This problem can be overcome by an embodiment, concept G, which overcomes this problem by flipping the layers of the display as shown in the stack diagram in fig. 86. Doing so may place the LC 8600 on the side of the TFT plate 8602 opposite the user. Thus, the field lines for controlling the LC 8600 can be generally oriented away from the touch side of the LCD. This may provide partial or complete shielding for the LC at metal areas, such as data lines, gate lines, and electrodes, disposed between the touching object and the LC 8600.

2.3.2.4 concept F

Another embodiment, concept F, can reduce display disturbance while keeping the LCD data bus unchanged (relative to a non-touch IPS display) and without requiring additional ITO layers and without making layer alignment more difficult. Unlike using shared data lines (as in concepts E and G), concept F may reduce potential display perturbations by adding a set of metal lines in the metal layer (M1) that may serve as the output sense line 8700 and that are routed. These output sense lines 8700 can extend vertically under the display circuitry through the entire area of the display, as shown in FIG. 87 and in the sub-pixel stackup diagram for concept F in FIG. 134. Concept F may allow removal of one transistor shown for concept E (fig. 84) by using a separate metal layer for output sensing. It should also be noted that concept F will flip the display layer to further reduce the potential display perturbations described above in connection with concept G.

3. Enabling techniques

Various features are applicable to many of the embodiments described above. Examples of which will be described below.

3.1DITO

In many embodiments, ITO may be deposited on both sides of the substrate and patterned. Various techniques and processes for this purpose are described in U.S. patent application 11/650,049 entitled "Double-sided Touch Sensitive Panel With Integrated Electrical Electrodes" filed on 3.1.2007, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

3.2 replacement of patterned ITO with Metal

Various embodiments may omit the patterned ITO layer used to form the touch sensing electrodes and replace it with an extremely thin metal wire deposited on some of the layers, e.g., the top glass. This has many advantages including the elimination of the ITO processing step. Furthermore, the sense line electrodes can be made very thin (e.g., on the order of about 10 microns) so as not to interfere with the vision of the display. This reduction in line thickness may also reduce parasitic capacitance, which, as described above, may enhance various aspects of touch screen operation. Finally, since light from the display does not pass through the layer substantially covered with ITO, color and transmission will be improved.

3.3 Using Plastic as touch sensing substrate

The various embodiments described above are described in the context of glass substrates. In some embodiments, however, cost savings and reduced thickness may be achieved by replacing one or more of the substrates with plastic. Fig. 89 and 90 illustrate some of the differences between the glass-based system shown in fig. 89 and the plastic-based system shown in fig. 90. Although described in the context of one particular embodiment, the principles of replacing a plastic substrate may be applied to any concept.

Fig. 89 illustrates a stack of glass-based systems. The dimensions illustrated are examples using current technology, but those skilled in the art will appreciate that other thicknesses may be used as well, particularly as manufacturing techniques advance. From the top, a cover 8901 having an exemplary thickness of about 0.8mm may be positioned over the index matching layer 8902 (e.g., about 0.18mm thick). Located below the index matching layer may be a top polarizer 8903. The top polarizer 8903 may have a thickness of about 0.2 mm. The next layer may be a glass layer 8904 (e.g., about 0.5mm thick) with patterned ITO on each side. The sensing electrode may be patterned on the top surface, for exampleThe pole may also be bonded to FPC 8905. Drive electrode and V of LCD_COMThe layers may be patterned on the bottom side of glass layer 8905. Below which may be another glass layer 8906 having an exemplary thickness of about 0.3mm above which the TFT layer of the display may be formed. This glass layer top surface may also be bonded to an FPC 8907 that is connected to both the display and the touch sensing circuitry 8908. Below which may be a bottom polarizer and below which may be a display backlight 8910.

The total thickness from top to bottom is about 2.0 mm. The various ASIC and discrete circuit components may be located on glass or connected via FPC. The patterned ITO may be located on another plastic layer, such as the bottom side of the top cover, etc.

FIG. 90 illustrates a similar arrangement in which the thickness of the middle glass layer 9001 can be reduced by moving the touch sensing layer 9002 to a plastic polarizer 9003. The process of patterning the touch sensing layer 9002 on the plastic polarizer 9003 may be accomplished by various known methods. The reduction in thickness can be attributed to the fact that the glass does not have to be patterned on both sides. Due to handling problems, the glass used in the LCD process may be processed, for example, at a thickness of about 0.5mm, and then thinned to about 0.3mm after processing. By having the circuit components on both sides, wear on the glass can be avoided. However, in the embodiment of fig. 90, since the intermediate glass 9001 has an electrode patterned only on one side thereof, it is possible to grind it thin, and thus, the thickness thereof can be reduced by about 0.2mm in total. This arrangement may include additional FPC connections 9004 to the polarizer, which may be bonded using a low temperature bonding process. An additional advantage of using a plastic substrate is that materials with different dielectric constants can be used, which provides flexibility and enhances the operation of the capacitive sensing circuit.

A variation of the plastic substrate embodiment is illustrated in fig. 91. The electrodes 9101 (e.g., drive or sense lines) can be patterned on a plurality of plastic substrates 9102, 9103, which can then be adhered together. Because the plastic substrate can be thinner (e.g., about half the thickness of the glass substrate), the technology can provide even thinner touch screens.

In another variation shown in fig. 92, a polyester (polyester) substrate 9201 may have electrodes 9202 patterned on either side. This embodiment may include an access hole (access hole) for connecting between the two sides and passing through the substrate 9202. Polyester substrate 9201 may be disposed in a cover 9204 of a device such as a handheld computer. Another variation is illustrated in fig. 93, which shows a polyester layer 9301 with ITO electrodes 9302 patterned on the top surface, with inspection holes 9303 through the substrate 9301 to a second glass substrate 9304 and ITO electrodes 9305 patterned on the top surface.

FIG. 94 illustrates an upside down view of a device, such as a handheld computer 9401. By inverting it is meant that the user surface of the device is the bottom surface (not shown). ITO touch-sensing electrodes 9402 may be patterned on the back of the user surface, where a laminate 9403 with ITO placed on the contact surface is placed on it during device assembly. Another variation of this concept is illustrated in fig. 95, which shows ITO electrodes 9501 patterned on top of a stack of layers 9503 and inside of a molded plastic cover 70 according to one of the various embodiments discussed herein. In the illustration of fig. 95, the user face of the device may be a top face 9504.

Fig. 96, 97, and 98 illustrate a sequence of steps in the manufacturing process of a polyester substrate on which an ITO electrode pattern suitable for touch sensing as described herein is disposed. Fig. 96 illustrates a patterned polyester sheet 9601, wherein the polyester sheet is patterned into an isolated square grid of ITO 9602. The resistivity of the ITO may be about 200 ohms or less. The individual electrodes may be about 1mm by 1mm in size and the gap may be 30 microns. In the illustrated embodiment, sheet 9601 may be approximately 50mm by 80mm in size, which is a size suitable for a handheld computer, multimedia player, mobile phone, or similar device, although various other sizes and/or applications will occur to those skilled in the art. As shown in cross-section, the thickness of the sheet can be as small as 25 microns, but sizes of 25-200 microns are also useful. It is clear that this can provide significant advantages in terms of device thickness.

In fig. 97, an FPC 9701 may be adhered to a patterned substrate 9702. For example, in fig. 98, cover 9801 can be a PMMA layer about 0.8mm thick and can be adhered to PET substrate 9802 using an optional clear adhesive.

3.4 integration of level shifter/decoder with LCD controller

In some embodiments, additional circuitry (active, passive, or both) may be placed in the peripheral region of the LCD (see FIG. 6) to support the coupling of V_STMSignals are delivered to the touch drive segment. The details of the peripheral area circuitry and its design rules may depend on the specific manufacturing process details and TFT technology (i.e., PMOS, NMOS, or CMOS) used. The following four subsections discuss methods of implementing peripheral touch drive circuits in view of different drive circuit integration arrangements.

3.4.1 discrete level shifter/decoder chip

In one approach, a separate level shifter/decoder COG may be attached to the bottom glass (see fig. 22). In this arrangement, metal traces may be required in the peripheral region. The number of traces depends on the number of touch drive segments, which may be less than 20 for small displays. Design goals for this approach may include reducing capacitive coupling, which may be affected by the spacing between touch drive traces and the space between the touch drive traces and other LCD circuitry in the peripheral area. In addition, the lower trace impedance also helps to reduce capacitive coupling between adjacent touch drive traces.

For example, the combined resistance of the longest trace, level shifter/decoder output resistance, conductive dots, and ITO drive segments may be limited to about 450 ohms. The resistance of the touch-driven ITO may be about 330 ohms (assuming ITO sheet resistance is 30 ohms/square and 11 squares), which leaves 120 ohms for other components. The following table shows one process of assigning the resistance to each element in the touch driving circuit.

Level shifter/decoder output	Metal trace	Conductive point	ITO segmentation
				10 ohm	100 ohm	10 ohm	330 ohm

Wider traces and/or lower sheet resistance may be used to achieve the desired trace resistance. For example, for a 100 ohm trace resistance, if the sheet resistance is 200 ohms/square, then the desired trace width may be 0.18mm or more.

Of course, only the longest touch drive trace will correspondingly require the greatest width. The traces can have correspondingly smaller widths for correspondingly shorter other touch drive traces. For example, if the shortest trace is 5mm, its width may be about 0.01 mm.

FIG. 99 shows a simplified diagram of a level shifter/decoder COG 9901 for concept A(for concept B, transistor Q1 and ENB _ LCD [ x ] can be omitted]A decoder). The registered decoder block 9902 may include three separate registered decoders and may be loaded one decoder at a time. Each of the three decoders may be selected by two signals from the touch/LCD driver and may be programmed with 5-bit data. The output of the decoder may control three transistors Q1, Q2, Q3 associated with each output section of the level shifter/decoder. Each output section can be in one of three states: 1) LCD (Q1 on, Q2 and Q3 off), 2) touch (Q2 on, Q1 and Q3 off), or 3) GND (ground) (Q3 on, Q1 and Q2 off). As described above, the output resistance of Q2 may be about 10 ohms or less in order to reduce V_STMThe phase is delayed. For concept B, both the LCD decoder and Q1 may be omitted.

3.4.2 level shifter/decoder fully integrated in peripheral area

The functions of the level shifter/decoder (fig. 99) may also be fully integrated in the peripheral area of the bottom glass. With this approach, the type of TFT technology will become power consumption dependent. Although CMOS TFT technology may provide lower power consumption, it is more expensive compared to NMOS or PMOS. However, any technique may be used depending on the particular design constants.

To further reduce drive resistance, the transistor width can be expanded to compensate for the relatively low LTPS TFT mobility (e.g., about 50 cm)²V seconds).

3.4.3 level shifter/decoder partially integrated in touch/LCD driver

In some embodiments, the functions of the level shifter/decoder may be partially integrated in the touch/LCD driver and may be partially integrated in the peripheral area. This approach may have several benefits including, for example, eliminating CMOS in the peripheral region and thus reducing cost, eliminating logic in the peripheral region, andand thus power consumption can be reduced. Fig. 100 shows a modified touch/LCD driver 10001 and peripheral transistor circuit 10002 that can be used in the method. Level shifter and boost circuit 10003 can be integrated on the bottom glass and can be located between the segment driver and the touch/LCD chip. Each touch driving segment has a segment driver. Each touch drive segment can be in one of three states: GND (ground) composed of V_STMModulated or made of V_COMAnd (5) modulating. In this arrangement, the level shifter circuit must be located on the bottom glass to enable the low voltage touch/LCD chip to control the transistor switches.

3.4.4 level shifter/decoder fully integrated in touch/LCD driver

In some embodiments, the level shifter/decoder functionality may be fully integrated in the touch/LCD driver. By moving the level shifter/decoder function to the touch/LCD driver, a separate level shifter/decoder can be omitted. Further, CMOS and logic may be omitted from the peripheral area.

FIG. 101 shows a simplified block diagram of a fully integrated touch/LCD driver 10101, which may include circuitry for generating V_STMThe booster circuit 10102. Furthermore, passive components (such as capacitors, diodes and inductors) are also necessary, but, as with all other approaches, are not shown here for simplicity.

4. Use, form factor, etc

An exemplary application of the integrated touch screen LCD described herein will now be described. Handheld computers may be an advantageous application, including PDAs, multimedia players, mobile phones, GPS devices, and the like. Touch screens may also find application in tablet computers, notebook computers, desktop computers, kiosks, and the like.

FIG. 102 is a perspective view of an application of a touch screen 10201 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The touch screen 10201 may be configured to display a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to a user, possibly including a pointer or cursor and other information. For example, a touch screen may allow a user to move an input pointer or make selections on a graphical user interface by simply pointing at a GUI on the display 10202.

In general, a touch screen can recognize a touch event on the touch screen surface 10204, and thereafter output this information to a host device. The host device may correspond to a computer such as a desktop, laptop, handheld, or tablet computer. The host device may interpret the touch event and may perform an action based on the touch event. The touch screen shown in fig. 102 may be configured to simultaneously recognize multiple touch events occurring at different locations on the touch-sensitive surface 10204 of the touch screen. As shown, the touch screen may, for example, generate separate tracking signals S1-S4 for each of the touch points T1-T4 that occur on the surface of the touch screen at a given time.

Multiple touch events can be used separately or collectively to perform a single or multiple actions in a host device. When used separately, a first touch event may be used to perform a first action and a second touch event may be used to perform a second action, where the second action may be different from the first action. For example, the action may include: moving an object such as a cursor or pointer, scrolling or moving a lens, adjusting control settings, opening a file or document, viewing a menu, making selections, executing instructions, operating a peripheral device connected to a host device, and so forth. When used together, the first and second touch events may be used to perform a particular operation. The specific operation may include, for example: logging onto a computer or computer network, allowing authorized individuals to access restricted areas of a computer or computer network, loading a user profile associated with a user's computer desktop preferences, allowing access to web content, running a particular program, encrypting or decoding a message, and so forth.

Referring back to FIG. 102, the touch screen 10201 can be a stand-alone unit or can be integrated with other devices. If self-contained, the touch screen 10201 can act like a peripheral device (e.g., a monitor) that includes its own housing. The stand-alone display device may be coupled with the host device through a wired or wireless connection. If integrated, the touch screen 10201 may share a housing and may be hardwired to a host device, thereby forming a single unit. For example, the touch screen 10201 can be disposed within a variety of host devices, including but not limited to general purpose computers such as desktop, laptop, or tablet computers, handheld computers such as PDAs, media players such as music players, or peripheral devices such as cameras, printers, and/or mobile phones, among others.

FIG. 103 is a block diagram of a computer system 10301, according to one embodiment of the invention. Computer system 10301 may correspond to a personal computer system such as a desktop, laptop, tablet, or handheld computer. For example, the computer system may correspond to any Apple or PC based computer system. Further, the computer system may also correspond to a public computer system such as a kiosk, an Automated Teller Machine (ATM), a point of sale device (POS), an industrial personal computer, a gaming machine, a street machine, a vending machine, an electronic ticket terminal, a restaurant reservation terminal, a customer service station, a library terminal, a learning device, and the like.

As shown, computer system 10301 can include a processor 56 configured to execute instructions and perform operations 10302 associated with computer system 10301. For example, using instructions retrieved from memory, processor 10302 may control the receipt and manipulation of input and output data performed between components of computing system 10301. Processor 10302 may be a single chip processor or may be implemented in combination with multiple components.

In most cases, processor 10302 together with an operating system is used to execute computer code and generate and use data. Computer code and data can reside within program storage block 10303, which can be operatively coupled to processor 10302. Program storage block 10303 may provide space for holding data used by computer system 10301. For example, program storage blocks can include Read Only Memory (ROM)10304, Random Access Memory (RAM)10305, hard disk drive 10306, and so forth. The computer code and data may likewise reside on a removable storage medium, and may be loaded or installed onto a computer system as needed. For example, the removable storage medium may include CD-ROMs, PC-CARDs, floppy disks, magnetic tape, and network elements.

Computer system 10301 can also include an input/output (I/O) controller 10307, which can be operatively coupled to processor 10302. I/O controller 10307 may be integrated with processor 56 or may be a separate component as shown. I/O controller 10307 can be configured to control interaction with one or more I/O devices. The I/O controller 66 may perform operations by exchanging data between the processor and I/O devices that desire to communicate with the processor. The I/O devices and I/O controllers can communicate over a data link 10312. Data link 10312 may be a unidirectional link or a bidirectional link. In some cases, I/O devices may be connected to I/O controller 10307 through a wired connection. In other cases, the I/O devices may be connected to I/O controller 10307 through a wireless connection. For example, data link 10312 may correspond to PS/2, USB, firewire, IR, RF, Bluetooth, etc.

Computer system 10301 can also include a display device 10308, such as an integrated touch screen LCD as described herein, which can be operatively coupled to processor 10302. Display device 10308 can be a separate component (peripheral device) or can be integrated with a processor and program memory to form a desktop computer (all in one device), a laptop computer, a handheld computer, a tablet computer, or the like. Display device 10308 may be configured to display a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to a user including, for example, a pointer or cursor and other information.

The display device 10308 can also include an integrated touch screen 10309 (shown separately for clarity but actually integrated with the display) operatively coupled to the processor 10302. Touch screen 10309 can be configured to receive input from a user's touch and to send this information to processor 10302. Touch screen 10309 can recognize touches and the location, shape, size, etc. of touches on its surface. Touch screen 10309 can report the touch to processor 10302, and processor 10302 can interpret the touch in accordance with its programming. For example, processor 10302 may initiate a task based on a particular touch.

The touch screen LCD described herein may find a very advantageous application in a Multi-function Hand-held Device, such as that disclosed in U.S. patent application 11/367,749 entitled Multi-functional Hand-held Device, filed 3/2006, which is incorporated herein by reference.

For example, the principles described herein may be used to design input devices for a variety of electronic devices and computer systems. These electronic devices and computer systems may be any of a variety of types shown in fig. 104, and this includes desktop computers 10401, notebook computers 10402, tablet computers 10403, handheld computers 10404, personal digital assistants 10405, media players 10406, mobile phones 10407, and so on. Further, the electronic device and computer system may be a combination of these types of devices, such as a device that is a combination of a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone. Other variations, permutations and combinations are possible with respect to the foregoing embodiments.

Further, while the principles herein are described with reference to a capacitive multi-touch system, the principles are equally applicable to systems that implement touch or proximity sensing depending on other technologies. It is therefore intended that the following appended claims be interpreted as including all such alterations, permutations, combinations, and equivalents of the foregoing.

Claims (11)

1. A touch screen including an in-plane switching (IPS) liquid crystal display with integrated touch sensing, the touch screen comprising:

a first substrate having a display control circuit formed thereon, the display control circuit including a pair of electrodes for each of a plurality of display pixels;

a second substrate adjacent to the first substrate;

a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate;

a plurality of touch sensing parts disposed on the first substrate, wherein each touch sensing part includes a touch driving electrode and a touch sensing electrode to form an electrode pair for each display pixel;

one or more switches disposed on the first substrate, change driving for a set of signal lines based on whether the pixel is undergoing display updating or touch sensing,

in a display update, the one or more switches are operated by their respective signal lines such that, for each electrode pair, the touch drive electrodes are connected to a drive for displaying Vcom modulation, and the touch sense electrodes are coupled to a data drive for displaying; and

in touch sensing, the one or more switches are operated by their respective signal lines such that, for each electrode pair, the touch drive electrodes are connected to a drive for multi-touch stimulation and the touch sense electrodes are coupled to a capacitance measurement circuit.

2. The touch screen of claim 1, wherein the first substrate is located closer to the user than the second substrate.

3. The touch screen of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of touch drive electrodes or the plurality of touch sense electrodes are connected to form a plurality of touch sense rows and the other of the plurality of touch drive electrodes or the plurality of touch sense electrodes are connected to form a plurality of touch sense columns.

4. A touch screen including an in-plane switching (IPS) liquid crystal display with integrated touch sensing, the touch screen comprising:

a first polarizer and a second polarizer;

a first substrate disposed between and adjacent to the first polarizer and having a display control circuit formed thereon, the display control circuit including a pair of electrodes for respective display pixels of the liquid crystal display and a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of data lines for gating and supplying data to the pair of electrodes, respectively;

a second substrate disposed between and adjacent to the first polarizer and the second polarizer, the second substrate comprising a color filter plate;

a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate; and

a plurality of sensing lines disposed between the first substrate and the pair of electrodes;

an oxide layer disposed between the plurality of sense lines and the pair of electrodes;

in a display update, the electrode pair is operative for display update; and

in touch sensing, the plurality of sense lines are used for touch sensing.

5. The touch screen of claim 4, wherein the second substrate is located closer to the user than the first substrate.

6. The touch screen of claim 4, wherein the first substrate is located closer to a user than the second substrate, such that in operation the first substrate shields the liquid crystal from touch operations performed by the user.

7. An electronic device incorporating a touch screen according to any of claims 4-6, wherein the electronic device is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a tablet computer and a notebook computer.

8. An electronic device incorporating a touch screen according to any of claims 4-6, wherein the electronic device comprises at least one of a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone.

9. A method of operating the touch screen of claim 3, the method comprising:

holding the touch sensing row and the touch sensing column to ground for a first period of time;

updating the display during a first time period;

stimulating the touch sense row in a second time period;

sensing a touch on the touch sensing column for a second period;

stimulating the touch sensing column for a third time period; and

a touch on the touch sense row is sensed during a third time period.

10. A touch screen comprising an in-plane switching liquid crystal display with integrated touch sensing, the touch screen having a plurality of touch pixels responsive to touch and proximity touch of the touch screen, wherein the plurality of touch pixels comprises:

a group of class a pixels having first and second electrodes arranged adjacent to each other in a planar switching arrangement; the group of class a pixels has a select terminal, a data terminal, and a common terminal, wherein the common terminals are electrically connected together to form a touch sensing column;

a group of pixels of class B having first and second electrodes arranged adjacent to each other in a planar switching arrangement; the group of class B pixels has a select terminal, a data terminal, and a common terminal, wherein the common terminals are electrically connected together to form a touch sense row;

and wherein the touch screen comprises:

a first group of class A pixels arranged in one or more columns;

a first group of class B pixels arranged in one or more columns and adjacent to the first group of class A pixels;

a second group of class A pixels arranged in one or more columns and adjacent to the first group of class B pixels; and

a second group of class B pixels arranged in one or more columns and adjacent to the second group of class A pixels,

wherein the first group of class A pixels, the adjacent first group of class B pixels, the adjacent second group of class A pixels, and the adjacent second group of class B pixels form alternating rows of class A and class B pixels.

11. An apparatus for operating the touch screen of claim 3, the apparatus comprising:

means for keeping the touch sensing row and the touch sensing column grounded for a first period of time;

means for updating the display during a first time period;

means for stimulating the touch sense row for a second time period;

means for sensing a touch on the touch sensing column for a second period of time;

means for stimulating the touch sense column for a third time period; and

means for sensing a touch on the touch sense row during a third time period.