Touch controller, method for determining voltage, chip and electronic equipment

Abstract

The invention discloses a touch controller, a method for determining voltage, a chip and electronic equipment, and belongs to the technical field of touch control. In the touch controller, a driving module is used for generating a driving signal according to a voltage output by a voltage converter and a carrier signal generated by a carrier signal generator, and transmitting the driving signal to a touch sensor through an uplink. And the driving module is also used for acquiring the sensing signal transmitted by the touch sensor and transmitting the sensing signal to the demodulation module. And the demodulation module is used for processing the sensing signal and the carrier signal to obtain a processing result. And the controller is used for acquiring a transmission quality index of the uplink according to the processing result, and adjusting the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the transmission quality index. According to the touch controller, on the premise of ensuring the transmission quality of the uplink, the flexible adjustment of the voltage of the uplink is realized, and the power consumption is reduced.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The embodiments of the present application relate to the field of touch control technology, and in particular to a touch controller, a method for determining voltage, a chip, and an electronic device. Background Art

[0002] With the development of touch technology, touch sensors are integrated into the display modules of many devices. The touch controller connected to the touch sensor is used to detect objects around the touch sensor, such as a stylus. There is an uplink between the touch controller and the stylus. The voltage of the uplink affects the power consumption of the touch controller. How to determine the voltage of the uplink has become a problem worthy of attention. Summary of the invention

[0003] The embodiments of the present application provide a touch controller, a method for determining voltage, a chip and an electronic device, which can be used to determine the voltage of an uplink. The technical solution includes the following aspects.

[0004] In a first aspect, a touch controller is provided, which includes a voltage converter, a carrier signal generator, a driving module, a demodulation module and a controller, wherein the voltage converter, the carrier signal generator and the demodulation module are respectively connected to the driving module, the driving module is also connected to a touch sensor, the carrier signal generator is also connected to the demodulation module, and the voltage converter and the demodulation module are also respectively connected to the controller.

[0005] The driving module is used to generate a driving signal according to the voltage output by the voltage converter and the carrier signal generated by the carrier signal generator, and transmit the driving signal to the touch sensor through an uplink; the driving module is also used to obtain a sensing signal transmitted by the touch sensor and transmit the sensing signal to the demodulation module, wherein the sensing signal is generated based on the driving signal when the stylus is around the touch sensor; the demodulation module is used to process the sensing signal and the carrier signal to obtain a processing result; the controller is used to obtain a transmission quality index of the uplink according to the processing result, and adjust the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the transmission quality index.

[0006] In an exemplary embodiment, the touch controller also includes a clock signal generator and a multiplexer, the second input end of the multiplexer is connected to the carrier signal generator, and the output end of the multiplexer is connected to the demodulation module; the carrier signal generator is used to generate the carrier signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator; the demodulation module is used to process the sensing signal and the carrier signal to obtain the processing result when the second input end of the multiplexer is connected.

[0007] In an exemplary embodiment, the first input end of the multiplexer and the carrier signal generator are respectively connected to the clock signal generator, and the demodulation module is further used to demodulate the sensing signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator to obtain a demodulation result when the first input end of the multiplexer is turned on; the controller is further used to determine the position information of the stylus based on the demodulation result.

[0008] Exemplarily, the demodulation module includes an NCO (numerically controlled oscillator), a mixer and an LPF (low-pass filter), the first input end of the multiplexer is connected to the clock signal generator through the NCO, the output end of the multiplexer is connected to the mixer, and the LPF and the driving module are connected to the mixer respectively. The NCO is used to generate a second carrier signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator; the mixer is used to demodulate the sensing signal according to the second carrier signal to obtain a demodulation signal when the first input end of the multiplexer is connected; the LPF is used to filter the demodulation signal to obtain the demodulation result.

[0009] In an exemplary embodiment, the position information includes at least one of an angle or a distance of the stylus relative to the touch sensor. The controller is configured to adjust the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the position information and the transmission quality indicator.

[0010] In an exemplary embodiment, the touch sensor includes a plurality of electrodes. The driving module is used to transmit the driving signal to a plurality of groups of first electrodes among the plurality of electrodes in turn when the stylus is in an unpaired state, and any group of first electrodes includes some of the plurality of electrodes; or, the driving module is used to transmit the driving signal to a second electrode among the plurality of electrodes when the stylus is in a paired state or an active state, and the second electrode is a part of the plurality of electrodes, and the second electrode corresponds to a position of the stylus, and the position of the stylus is obtained by detection or prediction.

[0011] In a second aspect, a method for determining voltage is provided, which can be applied to the touch controller provided in the first aspect, and the method includes: generating a driving signal through a driving module according to the voltage output by a voltage converter and a carrier signal generated by a carrier signal generator, and transmitting the driving signal to the touch sensor through an uplink; acquiring a sensing signal transmitted by the touch sensor through the driving module, and transmitting the sensing signal to the demodulation module, wherein the sensing signal is generated based on the driving signal when the stylus is around the touch sensor; processing the sensing signal and the carrier signal through the demodulation module to obtain a processing result; acquiring a transmission quality index of the uplink through the controller according to the processing result, and adjusting the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the transmission quality index.

[0012] In an exemplary embodiment, the method further includes: generating the carrier signal by the carrier signal generator according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator. Processing the sensing signal and the carrier signal by the demodulation module to obtain a processing result includes: processing the sensing signal and the carrier signal by the demodulation module when the second input terminal of the multiplexer is turned on to obtain the processing result.

[0013] In an exemplary embodiment, the method further includes: when the first input terminal of the multiplexer is turned on, demodulating the sensing signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator to obtain a demodulation result by the demodulation module; and determining the position information of the stylus according to the demodulation result by the controller.

[0014] In an exemplary embodiment, the demodulating the sensing signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator to obtain a demodulation result includes: generating a second carrier signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator through the NCO in the demodulation module; demodulating the sensing signal according to the second carrier signal to obtain a demodulated signal when the mixer in the demodulation module is connected to the first input end of the multiplexer; and filtering the demodulated signal through the LPF in the demodulation module to obtain the demodulation result.

[0015] In an exemplary embodiment, the position information includes at least one of an angle or a distance of the stylus relative to the touch sensor; and adjusting the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the transmission quality indicator includes: adjusting the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the position information and the transmission quality indicator by the controller.

[0016] In an exemplary embodiment, the method further includes: transmitting the driving signal to multiple groups of first electrodes among the multiple electrodes in turn through the driving module when the stylus is in an unpaired state, and any group of first electrodes includes some electrodes among the multiple electrodes; or, transmitting the driving signal to second electrodes among the multiple electrodes through the driving module when the stylus is in a paired state or an active state, and the second electrodes are some electrodes among the multiple electrodes, and the second electrodes correspond to the position of the stylus, and the position of the stylus is obtained by detection or prediction.

[0017] According to a third aspect, a chip is provided, wherein the chip includes the touch controller provided by the first aspect or any exemplary embodiment of the first aspect.

[0018] According to a fourth aspect, an electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a touch sensor and a touch controller provided by the first aspect or any exemplary embodiment of the first aspect.

[0019] The technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application brings at least the following beneficial effects:

[0020] In the embodiment of the present application, the carrier signal generator is connected to the demodulation module, and the demodulation module can process the carrier signal and the sensing signal transmitted by the carrier signal generator to obtain a processing result, which can be used by the controller to obtain the transmission quality index of the uplink, making it possible to adjust the voltage output by the voltage converter (i.e., the transmission voltage of the uplink). Under the premise of ensuring the transmission quality of the uplink, the embodiment of the present application realizes the flexible adjustment of the transmission voltage of the uplink and reduces the power consumption. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings required for use in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present application. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying any creative work.

[0022] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a touch sensor and a touch controller in a related technology provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0023] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a touch sensor and a touch controller provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0024] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of another touch sensor and touch controller provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0025] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a working state of a stylus provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0026] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a driving electrode in a related technology provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0027] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of a second electrode provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0028] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of another second electrode provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0029] Figure 8 This is a flow chart of a method for determining voltage provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] In order to make the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the present application clearer, the implementation methods of the present application will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0031] With the development of touch control technology, touch sensors are integrated into display modules of many devices, such as mobile phones, notebook computers, and smart car devices, etc. The touch sensor is, for example, a projected capacitive touch (PCAP) sensor.

[0032] The PCAP sensor includes at least one group of transmitting (Transmit, TX) electrodes and receiving (Receive, RX) electrodes, each group of transmitting electrodes and receiving electrodes are orthogonal and mutually coupled. At the intersection of the orthogonal transmitting electrodes and receiving electrodes, there is a mutual capacitance.

[0033] In addition, there is self-capacitance between each transmitting electrode and the system reference, and there is self-capacitance between each receiving electrode and the system reference, which can be specified as ground. The touch sensor is connected to a touch controller, which can measure mutual capacitance or self-capacitance and determine the position of objects near the touch sensor based on the change in mutual capacitance or self-capacitance.

[0034] In one example, the object includes a user's finger. In another example, the object includes a stylus, and thus the touch controller may also support an active stylus, such as an active stylus defined by the Universal Stylus Initiative (USI).

[0035] The stylus defines a downlink protocol, which is a link in the downlink direction, and the downlink direction is the direction from the stylus to the touch controller. According to the protocol, the stylus can actively transmit a fixed frequency signal from the pen tip within a predetermined time period, so that a signal is generated on the transmitting electrode or receiving electrode of the touch sensor. Correspondingly, the touch controller can amplify the generated signal to obtain an amplified signal, demodulate the amplified signal using a frequency matching the fixed frequency, and provide a signal proportional to the output field of the stylus, so as to detect the signal actively emitted by the stylus. In addition, the stylus can also transmit data. For example, the stylus has a weighing sensor for measuring the tip pressure or the state of the stylus button, and the data can be the data measured by the weighing sensor. The data is encoded using a certain encoding method to obtain the encoded data, so that the encoded data can be transmitted. The touch controller can refer to the method described above to demodulate the encoded data to obtain the data transmitted by the stylus. Exemplarily, the encoding method includes but is not limited to ASK (amplitude shift key) or D-BPSK (differential-binary phase shift key).

[0036] In addition, USI also defines an uplink, which is a link in the uplink direction, from the touch controller to the stylus. The touch controller can send instructions or timing synchronization information to the stylus through the uplink. Through the above-mentioned downlink and uplink, the touch controller can control the stylus, detect the position of the stylus, and support data exchange with the stylus, so as to provide relevant reports to the operating system of the device where the touch controller is located.

[0037] See also Figure 1 , Figure 1 An exemplary touch controller and touch sensor are shown for realizing measurement of a stylus and control through an uplink. The touch controller includes an uplink code generator, a first amplifier, a first pad, a second pad, a second amplifier, a clock, a mixer (also called a demodulator), an LPF, a memory, and a controller. The touch sensor includes an orthogonally arranged transmitting electrode and a receiving electrode, and the transmitting electrode and the receiving electrode are coupled.

[0038] Among them, the uplink code generator generates a carrier signal according to the control of the controller, and the carrier signal forms a driving signal after passing through the first amplifier and the first pad, thereby transmitting the driving signal to the transmitting electrode of the touch sensor. Correspondingly, a sensing signal is generated on the receiving electrode of the touch sensor. The second amplifier amplifies the sensing signal, and the amplified sensing signal is transmitted to the mixer. The mixer demodulates the sensing signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator to obtain a demodulated signal. The LPF filters the demodulated signal to obtain a filtered signal, and the filtered signal can be stored in the memory. The controller can obtain the stored filtered signal from the memory to calculate the mutual capacitance, and then determine information such as the position of the stylus.

[0039] The second pad, the second amplifier, the mixer and the LPF mentioned above can be referred to as a receiver channel. The touch controller can be an IC (integrated circuit) including multiple receiver channels, and the multiple receiver channels correspond to multiple receiving electrodes. Then, the touch controller can simultaneously measure the mutual capacitance corresponding to the multiple receiving electrodes, and quickly determine the position of the stylus and other information.

[0040] For the stylus, the operation of the downlink will be affected by noise. For example, it is affected by the noise from the display itself. This noise may be more serious in an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display, especially when the OLED display is used to display pathological images with strong spatial harmonics (for example, repetitive images including black and white stripes, also known as zebra images). For another example, the noise generated by the AC-DC (alternating current to direct current) converter or DC-DC (direct current to direct current) converter used in the power supply, and the noise generated by the switching power supply will have an adverse effect on the operation of the stylus. For another example, other environmental noises, including but not limited to noise generated by devices with motors or fluorescent lamps, will also affect the operation of the stylus.

[0041] The touch controller may use frequency hopping technology to mitigate the effects of noise. In frequency hopping technology, the touch controller monitors the frequency currently used by the downlink and at least one alternative frequency band. If it is determined through noise measurement that the currently used frequency is affected by noise, the stylus is instructed to switch to a noise-free alternative frequency band. Optionally, the method used for noise measurement is similar to the process of detecting the signal actively transmitted by the stylus described above, except that the noise measurement process may be performed when it is known that the stylus is not actively transmitting a signal.

[0042] According to the requirements of the stylus protocol, the uplink needs to use a frequency transmission of about 60Hz (unit: Hertz). This requirement is relatively easy to achieve on LCD (liquid crystal display) or rated load OLED, and the power consumption will change with the change of the capacitive load of the touch sensor. In addition, on OLEDs with higher loads, the power consumption of uplink transmission is relatively large. For example, the transmission voltage of the uplink may be between 8V (unit: volts) and 20V to improve the transmission quality of the uplink, but for OLEDs with higher loads, just maintaining the transmission voltage between 8V and 20V may consume 30mW (unit: milliwatts) of power, which accounts for a large proportion of the total power consumed by the touch controller.

[0043] In addition, unlike the downlink mentioned above, the uplink in the related art does not have a frequency hopping function. According to the definition of the stylus protocol, the uplink adopts a broadband coding scheme, including but not limited to the DSSS (direct-sequence spread spectrum) scheme. The transmission voltage of the uplink is generally specified in advance to ensure that the stylus can reliably receive the content transmitted by the touch controller through the uplink under various noise conditions. The reason is that the stylus in the related art lacks a feedback mechanism, making it difficult to adjust the power consumption without affecting the performance of the stylus. However, the method of specifying the transmission voltage in advance is very inefficient and consumes too much power, because the situation where the noise conditions are so severe that a pre-specified transmission voltage is required is usually rare. It can be seen that the method of determining the voltage of the uplink in the related art is relatively limited, resulting in a waste of power consumption.

[0044] The present application embodiment provides a touch controller 1, such as Figure 2As shown, the touch controller 1 includes a voltage converter 11, a carrier signal generator 12, a driving module 13, a demodulation module 14 and a controller 15. The voltage converter 11, the carrier signal generator 12 and the demodulation module 14 are respectively connected to the driving module 13, the driving module 13 is also connected to the touch sensor 2, the carrier signal generator 12 is also connected to the demodulation module 14, and the voltage converter 11 and the demodulation module 14 are also respectively connected to the controller 15.

[0045] The voltage converter 11 is used to output a voltage to the driving module 13. The carrier signal generator 12 is used to generate a carrier signal (referred to as a first carrier signal to distinguish it from other carrier signals below), and transmit the first carrier signal to the driving module 13 and the demodulation module 14 respectively. The driving module 13 is used to generate a driving signal according to the voltage output by the voltage converter 11 and the first carrier signal generated by the carrier signal generator 12, and transmit the driving signal to the touch sensor 2 through the uplink, so that the stylus can sense the driving signal of the touch sensor 2.

[0046] The driving module 13 is further used to obtain the sensing signal transmitted by the touch sensor 2, and transmit the sensing signal to the demodulation module 14, where the sensing signal is generated based on the driving signal when the stylus touches the touch sensor 2. The demodulation module 14 is used to process the sensing signal and the first carrier signal to obtain a processing result. The controller 15 is used to obtain the transmission quality index of the uplink according to the processing result, and adjust the voltage output by the voltage converter 11 according to the transmission quality index.

[0047] On the one hand, after generating the first carrier signal, the carrier signal generator 12 transmits the first carrier signal to the driving module 13. Therefore, the driving module 13 can generate a driving signal according to the voltage output by the voltage converter 11 and the first carrier signal, and transmit the driving signal to the electrode 21 of the touch sensor 2 through the uplink, for example, the driving signal is transmitted to the transmitting electrode of the touch sensor 2. Afterwards, if the stylus touches the touch sensor 2, for example, the distance between a certain position or a certain part of the stylus and the touch sensor 2 is less than or equal to the distance threshold (the embodiment of the present application does not limit the value of the distance threshold), the electrode 21 of the touch sensor 2 generates a sensing signal, for example, the receiving electrode of the touch sensor 2 generates a sensing signal. After the driving module 13 obtains the sensing signal transmitted by the electrode 21 of the touch sensor 2, since the driving module 13 is connected to the demodulation module 14, the driving module 13 can transmit the sensing signal to the demodulation module 14.

[0048] On the other hand, after generating the first carrier signal, the carrier signal generator 12 transmits the first carrier signal to the demodulation module 14 .

[0049] After the demodulation module 14 obtains the sensing signal and the first carrier signal, the demodulation module 14 can process the sensing signal and the first carrier signal, for example, by cross-correlation processing, and the cross-correlation processing can be used to compare the similarity between the sensing signal and the first carrier signal to obtain a processing result. The processing result can be stored in a memory, and the controller 15 can obtain the processing result from the memory, thereby determining the transmission quality index of the uplink according to the processing result, such as the transmission quality index such as SNR (signal-to-noise Ratio), so that the voltage output by the above-mentioned voltage converter 11 can be adjusted based on the transmission quality index to improve the transmission quality index of the uplink.

[0050] Taking the transmission quality indicator SNR as an example, SNR is positively correlated with the voltage output by the voltage converter 11, that is, the higher the voltage, the larger the SNR value, which means the better the transmission quality. Therefore, the controller 15 can control the voltage output by the voltage converter 11 to increase when the SNR value is less than the first threshold value, so as to increase the SNR value and improve the transmission quality. Alternatively, the controller 15 can control the voltage output by the voltage converter 11 to decrease when the SNR value is greater than or equal to the second threshold value (the second threshold value is greater than or equal to the first threshold value), so as to save the power consumption of the voltage converter 11, thereby also saving the power consumption of the touch controller 1.

[0051] Optionally, the controller 15 is, for example, an embedded CPU (central processing unit), and the memory is, for example, NVM (non-volatile memory) or SRAM (static random access memory).

[0052] The touch controller 1 provided in the embodiment of the present application can estimate the transmission quality index of the uplink, and adjust the voltage of the uplink (i.e., the voltage output by the voltage converter 11) according to the transmission quality index, which is conducive to reducing power consumption. Among them, since the transmission quality index is affected by noise, estimating the transmission quality index is equivalent to adding a noise detection function to the touch controller 1, thereby reducing power consumption and avoiding the influence of noise, which is more flexible.

[0053] For example, see Figure 3 , Figure 3 An exemplary touch controller 1 provided in an embodiment of the present application is shown. Figure 3For the sake of simplicity, the connection relationship between the controller 15 and the elements included in the touch controller 1 is omitted. Optionally, the controller 15 can be connected to the voltage converter 11 to adjust the voltage output by the voltage converter 11. The controller 15 can be connected to the memory to obtain the processing result from the memory. The controller 15 can also be connected to other elements other than the voltage converter 11 or the memory according to actual needs, which will not be repeated here.

[0054] The touch controller 1 includes a clock signal generator 16 and a first frequency divider. The clock signal generator 16 can provide a clock signal with higher precision. The first frequency divider is connected to the clock signal generator 16, and is used to divide the clock signal to obtain a first signal. The first frequency divider is also connected to the carrier signal generator 12, so that the first frequency divider can transmit the first signal to the carrier signal, so that the carrier signal generator 12 generates the above-mentioned first carrier signal according to the first signal. Exemplarily, the first carrier signal generated by the carrier signal generator 12 has a certain waveform. The carrier signal generator 12 can perform serialized XOR (exclusive or) through a predefined code and the data to be transmitted through the uplink, thereby generating a DSSS code waveform according to the above-mentioned first signal.

[0055] Optionally, the carrier signal generator 12 is a first NCO. The carrier signal generator 12 may also be referred to as an uplink code generator. Exemplarily, the controller 15 may be connected to the first NCO to control at least one of a frequency or a phase configured by the first NCO, and the first carrier signal generated by the first NCO has a frequency or a phase configured by the first NCO.

[0056] The voltage output by the voltage converter 11 to the driving module 13 is an intermediate voltage between the power supply voltage of the touch controller 1 and the maximum voltage of the uplink. The voltage converter 11 can provide an operating voltage higher than the power supply voltage of the touch controller 1 for uplink signal transmission. In an embodiment of the present application, the voltage converter 11 is configurable, or in other words, the voltage output by the voltage converter 11 can be adjusted. For example, the power supply voltage of the touch controller 1 is approximately 3.3V, and the intermediate voltage is approximately 8V to 20V. Exemplarily, the voltage converter 11 includes a DC-DC voltage converter 11, such as a high voltage (HV) DC-DC voltage converter 11.

[0057] According to the above description, the voltage converter 11 and the carrier signal generator 12 are respectively connected to the driving module 13, so as to achieve connection with the touch sensor 2 through the driving module 13. Exemplarily, there may be more than one driving module 13. Figure 3, each driving module 13 may include a first amplifier, a first multiplexer and a pad. The voltage converter 11 and the carrier signal generator 12 are respectively connected to the first amplifier, the first amplifier is also connected to the first end of the first multiplexer, the second end of the first multiplexer is connected to the pad, and the third end of the first multiplexer is connected to the demodulation module 14. The first amplifier is used to amplify the first carrier signal generated by the carrier signal generator 12 according to the voltage output by the voltage converter 11 to obtain the amplified first carrier signal.

[0058] The first multiplexer is equivalent to an internal analog switch in the driving module 13. In one example, the first multiplexer is in an uplink transmission mode, and the amplified first carrier signal is transmitted to the electrode 21 (such as a transmitting electrode) of the touch sensor 2 through the first end of the first multiplexer, the second end of the first multiplexer, and the pad. In another example, the first multiplexer is in a downlink transmission mode, and after the electrode 21 (such as a receiving electrode) of the touch sensor 2 generates a sensing signal according to the above description, the sensing signal is transmitted to the demodulation module 14 through the pad, the second end of the first multiplexer, and the third end of the first multiplexer, so that the demodulation module 14 processes the sensing signal.

[0059] In an exemplary embodiment, the touch controller 1 further includes a second frequency divider and a timing sequencer, wherein the second frequency divider is connected to the clock signal generator 16 and is used to divide the clock signal provided by the clock signal generator 16 to obtain a second signal. The second frequency divider is also connected to the timing sequencer, so that the timing sequencer controls the mode of each component in the touch controller 1 according to the second signal, so that each component in the touch controller 1 is in the correct mode at each time. For example, the timing sequencer can control the first multiplexer to be in the above-mentioned uplink transmission mode or downlink transmission mode according to the second signal.

[0060] According to the above description, the driving module 13 is connected to the demodulation module 14, for example, the third end of the first multiplexer included in the driving module 13 is connected to the demodulation module 14. Exemplarily, the third end of the first multiplexer is connected to the demodulation module 14 through the second amplifier, BPF (band-pass filter) and ADC (analog to digital converter). After the driving module 13 transmits the sensing signal to the demodulation module 14, the second amplifier amplifies the sensing signal to obtain the amplified sensing signal, the BPF filters the amplified sensing signal to obtain the filtered sensing signal, and sends the filtered sensing signal to the ADC.

[0061] Correspondingly, the touch controller 1 further includes a third frequency divider, which is used to connect the above-mentioned clock signal generator 16 and ADC. The third frequency divider is used to divide the clock signal provided by the clock signal generator 16 to obtain a third signal, and transmit the third signal to the ADC. The ADC converts the above-mentioned filtered sensing signal from an analog signal form to a digital signal form according to the third signal. After that, the ADC can transmit the sensing signal in the form of a digital signal to the demodulation module 14, so that the demodulation module 14 can obtain the sensing signal in the form of a digital signal.

[0062] Exemplarily, the touch controller 1 further includes a multiplexer 17 (referred to as a second multiplexer 17 to distinguish it from the first multiplexer mentioned above), a first input end of the second multiplexer 17 and a carrier signal generator 12 are respectively connected to the clock signal generator 16 mentioned above, a second input end of the second multiplexer 17 is connected to the carrier signal generator 12, and an output end of the second multiplexer 17 is connected to the demodulation module 14. The carrier signal generator 12 is used to generate a first carrier signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator 16, which has been described above and will not be repeated here.

[0063] The demodulation module 14 is used to process the sensing signal and the first carrier signal when the second input terminal of the second multiplexer 17 is connected to obtain a processing result (corresponding to the processing mode, used to adjust the voltage output by the voltage converter 11).

[0064] In this regard, when the second multiplexer 17 is in the processing mode, the second input terminal of the second multiplexer 17 is connected, so that the first carrier signal generated by the carrier signal generator 12 is transmitted to the demodulation module 14 through the second input terminal of the second multiplexer 17, so that the demodulation module 14 can perform processing (such as cross-correlation processing) based on the first carrier signal and the above-mentioned obtained sensing signal, so as to obtain a processing result, and the processing result can be stored in a memory.

[0065] The demodulation module 14 is further used to demodulate the sensing signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator 16 to obtain a demodulation result when the first input terminal of the second multiplexer 17 is connected. The controller 15 is further used to determine the position information of the stylus pen according to the demodulation result (corresponding to the sensing mode, used to determine the touch position).

[0066] When the second multiplexer 17 is in the sensing mode, the first input terminal of the second multiplexer 17 is connected, so that the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator 16 is transmitted to the demodulation module 14 through the first input terminal of the second multiplexer 17, so that the demodulation module 14 can demodulate the sensing signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator 16, thereby obtaining a demodulation result, and the demodulation result can also be stored in the memory.

[0067] Optionally, the above-mentioned timing sequencer can control the second multiplexer 17 to be in processing mode or sensing mode according to the second signal. In one example, the timing sequencer controls the second multiplexer 17 to be in processing mode when the uplink is in a signal transmission state, so as to determine the transmission quality index of the uplink through the processing mode during the signal transmission of the uplink. In another example, the timing sequencer controls the second multiplexer 17 to be in processing mode after the first amplifier included in the driving module 13 is in an off state, so as to determine the transmission quality index of the uplink through the processing mode at different times after the first amplifier is turned off. Among them, after turning off the first amplifier, the uplink is blocked, avoiding the uplink from affecting the processing mode. In the embodiment of the present application, the first amplifier can be turned on to enter the sensing mode after the voltage is adjusted through the processing mode. The first amplifier can also be controlled by the timing sequencer according to the second signal when it is in an off state.

[0068] In an exemplary embodiment, the demodulation module 14 includes an NCO 141 (referred to as the second NCO 141 to distinguish it from the first NCO described above), a mixer 142 and an LPF 143. Such a demodulation module 14 may also be referred to as an IQ demodulator, where I represents in-phase and Q represents quadrature. There may be multiple demodulation modules 14. The demodulation module 14, the second amplifier, the BPF and the ADC described above form a sensing module.

[0069] The first input end of the second multiplexer 17 is connected to the clock signal generator 16 through the second NCO 141, for example, connected to the clock signal generator 16 through the second NCO 141 and the third frequency divider mentioned above. The output end of the second multiplexer 17 is connected to the mixer 142, and the LPF 143 and the driving module 13 are respectively connected to the mixer 142. For example, for the driving module 13, the third end of the first multiplexer in the driving module 13 is connected to the mixer 142 through the second amplifier, the BPF and the ADC. Among them, the second NCO 141 is used to generate a second carrier signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator 16. The mixer 142 is used to demodulate the sensing signal according to the second carrier signal to obtain a demodulated signal when the first input end of the second multiplexer 17 is connected. The LPF 143 is used to filter the demodulated signal to obtain a demodulation result.

[0070] Among them, Figure 3As shown, the third frequency divider is used to divide the clock signal provided by the clock signal generator 16 to obtain a third signal, and transmit the third signal to the second NCO 141. The second NCO 141 generates a second carrier signal according to the third signal. The second carrier signal can be a composite sinusoidal signal. The second carrier signal is transmitted to the mixer 142 through the first input end of the second multiplexer 17. The mixer 142 mixes the second carrier signal with the sensing signal to obtain a baseband signal. The baseband signal is recorded as a demodulated signal obtained by demodulating the sensing signal according to the second carrier signal. The mixer 142 sends the demodulated signal to the LPF 143, and the LPF 143 filters the demodulated signal to obtain a demodulation result that can be stored in the memory.

[0071] According to the above description, the memory can store processing results or demodulation results. In one example, the controller 15 is used to obtain the processing results from the memory, determine the transmission quality index of the uplink according to the processing results, and adjust the voltage output by the voltage converter 11 according to the transmission quality index. The adjustment method can be seen in the above example, which will not be repeated here. In another example, the controller 15 is also used to obtain the demodulation result from the memory, determine the position information according to the demodulation result, and adjust the voltage output by the voltage converter 11 according to the position information and the transmission quality index. Optionally, the position information includes at least one of the angle or distance of the stylus relative to the touch sensor 2. Since the stylus is located around the touch sensor 2, the distance information can indicate that the stylus is directly in contact with the touch sensor 2, or that the stylus is hovering above the touch sensor 2. For example, the controller 15 can determine the first voltage according to the transmission quality index, adjust the first voltage according to the position information, obtain the second voltage, and use the second voltage as the voltage output by the voltage converter 11. For example, after the controller 15 determines the first voltage according to the transmission quality index, it determines according to the position information that the distance between the stylus pen and the touch sensor 2 is far, so it increases the first voltage to obtain the second voltage, and uses the second voltage as the voltage output by the voltage converter 11 to further improve the transmission quality of the uplink.

[0072] For the stylus mentioned in the above instructions, see Figure 4 , the stylus can have the following three working states: unpaired state, paired state and active state. The touch controller 1 can convert the stylus in the unpaired state into the paired state by detecting the potential stylus. If the pairing fails, the stylus in the paired state is converted back to the unpaired state. If the pairing is successful, the stylus in the paired state is converted back to the active state. If the time for the stylus to be forced to unpair exceeds the time threshold (i.e., timeout), the stylus in the active state is converted back to the unpaired state.

[0073] In the related art, during the transmission process of the uplink, for example, during the process of transmitting the driving signal to the electrode 21 of the touch sensor 2, the touch controller 1 Figure 5 As shown, the touch controller 1 continuously transmits driving signals to all the electrodes 21 in the touch sensor 2 unless the stylus is located in a stylus storage bin (garage). This approach has high power consumption.

[0074] In the embodiment of the present application, the touch controller 1 is used to execute steps different from those in the related art in response to different working states of the stylus.

[0075] In one example, the driving module 13 is used to transmit driving signals to multiple groups of first electrodes in the multiple electrodes 21 in turn when the stylus is in an unpaired state. Any group of first electrodes includes some electrodes in the multiple electrodes 21. For example, each group of first electrodes may include some electrodes in the multiple electrodes 21. In one example, the proportion of each group of first electrodes in the multiple electrodes 21 is less than or equal to 1 / 3. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the proportion of the number of electrodes included in each group of first electrodes in all the multiple electrodes 21. The number of electrodes included in different groups of first electrodes may be the same or different. Since the first electrodes are some electrodes in the multiple electrodes 21, power consumption can be saved. Although this method may slightly increase the time for pairing with the stylus, the increased time is acceptable.

[0076] Optionally, the driving module 13 transmits the driving signal multiple times, and each time the driving signal is transmitted, the driving signal is transmitted to one group of the multiple groups of first electrodes. For example, the driving electrode 21 can adopt a cyclic mode, see Figure 6 , when the driving signal is transmitted for the first time, the driving signal is transmitted to electrode 1, electrode 4 and electrode 7, when the driving signal is transmitted for the second time, the driving signal is transmitted to electrode 2, electrode 5 and electrode 8, when the driving signal is transmitted for the third time, the driving signal is transmitted to electrode 3 and electrode 6, and when the driving signal is transmitted for the fourth time, the driving signal is again transmitted to electrode 1, electrode 4 and electrode 7. For another example, the driving electrode 21 may adopt a pseudo-random mode, in which there are multiple groups of configured first electrodes, and each time the driving signal is transmitted, a group of first electrodes is randomly selected from the multiple groups of first electrodes, and the driving signal is transmitted to the selected group of first electrodes.

[0077] In another example, the driving module 13 is used to transmit a driving signal to a second electrode among the multiple electrodes 21 when the stylus is in a paired state or an active state, where the second electrode is a portion of the multiple electrodes 21 and corresponds to the position of the stylus.

[0078] Among them, since the stylus is in a paired state or an active state, the position of the stylus can be detected. On this basis, due to the influence of the maximum moving speed of the stylus, there may be an uncertainty area near the detected position of the stylus. An example of the uncertainty area can be seen in Figure 7 .

[0079] For example, when the frequency is 60 Hz, the maximum moving speed of the stylus is 1 m / s (unit: meter / second), and each electrode 21 of the touch sensor 2 corresponds to 4 mm (unit: millimeter), after the position of the stylus is detected, the stylus can still move a distance of about 16 mm (corresponding to 4 electrodes 21), forming an uncertainty area, and the uncertainty area is, for example, 8 electrodes near the detected position of the stylus (relative to ±4 electrodes of the detected position of the stylus). Therefore, these 8 electrodes 21 can be used as the uncertainty area, that is, the above-mentioned second electrodes, so that the second electrodes correspond to the position of the stylus, and the position of the stylus is obtained by detection. If the touch sensor 2 has a total of 38 electrodes (taking the touch sensor 2 of a 6.7-inch cellular device as an example), using 8 electrodes as the above-mentioned second electrodes can save about (38-8) / 38=80% of power consumption (such as electricity).

[0080] In addition, when the stylus is in a paired state or an active state, the future position of the stylus can also be predicted, for example, by using a motion filter for smoothing position jitter. That is, in this case, the position of the stylus is obtained through prediction, and there may be an uncertainty area near the predicted position of the stylus, so the electrode corresponding to the uncertainty area can be used as the second electrode mentioned above to save power consumption.

[0081] In summary, in the embodiment of the present application, the carrier signal generator is connected to the demodulation module, and the demodulation module can process the carrier signal and the sensing signal transmitted by the carrier signal generator to obtain a processing result, which can be used by the controller to obtain the transmission quality index of the uplink, making it possible to adjust the voltage output by the voltage converter (i.e., the transmission voltage of the uplink). Under the premise of ensuring the transmission quality of the uplink, the embodiment of the present application realizes the flexible adjustment of the transmission voltage of the uplink and reduces power consumption.

[0082] The present application also provides a method for determining voltage, which can be performed by the above-mentioned touch controller. Figure 8 As shown, the method includes the following steps 801 to 804.

[0083] Step 801: Generate a driving signal through a driving module according to a voltage output by a voltage converter and a carrier signal generated by a carrier signal generator, and transmit the driving signal to a touch sensor through an uplink.

[0084] Step 802 : acquiring a sensing signal transmitted by the touch sensor through a driving module, and transmitting the sensing signal to a demodulation module. The sensing signal is generated based on the driving signal when the stylus is located around the touch sensor.

[0085] Step 803: Process the sensing signal and the carrier signal through a demodulation module to obtain a processing result.

[0086] Step 804: The controller obtains the transmission quality index of the uplink according to the processing result, and adjusts the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the transmission quality index.

[0087] In an exemplary embodiment, the method further includes: generating a carrier signal by a carrier signal generator according to a clock signal transmitted by a clock signal generator. Processing the sensing signal and the carrier signal by a demodulation module to obtain a processing result includes: processing the sensing signal and the carrier signal by the demodulation module when the second input terminal of the multiplexer is turned on to obtain a processing result.

[0088] In an exemplary embodiment, the method further includes: demodulating the sensing signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator by the demodulation module when the first input terminal of the multiplexer is turned on to obtain a demodulation result; and determining the position information of the stylus according to the demodulation result by the controller.

[0089] In an exemplary embodiment, a sensing signal is demodulated according to a clock signal transmitted by a clock signal generator to obtain a demodulation result, including: generating a second carrier signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator through an NCO in a demodulation module; demodulating the sensing signal according to the second carrier signal when a mixer in the demodulation module is connected to a first input terminal of a multiplexer to obtain a demodulation signal; and filtering the demodulation signal through an LPF in the demodulation module to obtain a demodulation result.

[0090] In an exemplary embodiment, the position information includes at least one of an angle or a distance of the stylus relative to the touch sensor; adjusting the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the transmission quality index includes: adjusting the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the position information and the transmission quality index through a controller.

[0091] In an exemplary embodiment, the method also includes: transmitting a driving signal to multiple groups of first electrodes among the multiple electrodes in turn through a driving module when the stylus is in an unpaired state, and any group of first electrodes includes some electrodes among the multiple electrodes; or, transmitting a driving signal to second electrodes among the multiple electrodes through a driving module when the stylus is in a paired state or an active state, and the second electrodes are some electrodes among the multiple electrodes, and the second electrodes correspond to the position of the stylus, and the position of the stylus is obtained by detection or prediction.

[0092] Figure 8 The method embodiment shown belongs to the same concept as the touch controller described above. Therefore, the specific implementation methods and technical effects corresponding to the method embodiment can be found in the corresponding description above and will not be repeated here.

[0093] In an exemplary embodiment, the present application also provides a chip, and the chip includes the touch controller described above.

[0094] Exemplarily, an embodiment of the present application further provides an electronic device, the electronic device comprising a touch sensor and the above chip, wherein the chip is connected to the touch sensor. For example, the electronic device is a display device.

[0095] The terms "first", "second", etc. (if any) in the specification and claims of the present application are used to distinguish similar objects, and are not necessarily used to describe a specific order or sequence. It should be understood that the data used in this way can be interchangeable where appropriate, so that the embodiments of the present application described herein can be implemented in an order other than those illustrated or described herein. The implementation methods described in the above exemplary embodiments do not represent all implementation methods consistent with the present application. On the contrary, they are merely examples of devices and methods consistent with some aspects of the present application as detailed in the attached claims. The "multiple" mentioned herein refers to two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships can exist, for example, A and / or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. The character " / " generally indicates that the objects associated before and after are in an "or" relationship.

[0096] The above description is only an exemplary embodiment of the present application and is not intended to limit the present application. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the principles of the present application shall be included in the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A touch controller, characterized in that: The touch controller includes a voltage converter, a carrier signal generator, a driving module, a demodulation module and a controller, wherein the voltage converter, the carrier signal generator and the demodulation module are respectively connected to the driving module, the driving module is also connected to the touch sensor, the carrier signal generator is also connected to the demodulation module, and the voltage converter and the demodulation module are also respectively connected to the controller; The driving module is used to generate a driving signal according to the voltage output by the voltage converter and the carrier signal generated by the carrier signal generator, and transmit the driving signal to the touch sensor through an uplink; The driving module is further used to obtain a sensing signal transmitted by the touch sensor and transmit the sensing signal to the demodulation module, wherein the sensing signal is generated based on the driving signal when the stylus is located around the touch sensor; The demodulation module is used to process the sensing signal and the carrier signal to obtain a processing result; The controller is used to obtain the transmission quality indicator of the uplink according to the processing result, and adjust the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the transmission quality indicator.

2. The touch controller according to claim 1, characterized in that: The touch controller further comprises a clock signal generator and a multiplexer, wherein the second input end of the multiplexer is connected to the carrier signal generator, and the output end of the multiplexer is connected to the demodulation module; The carrier signal generator is used to generate the carrier signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator; The demodulation module is used to process the sensing signal and the carrier signal to obtain the processing result when the second input end of the multiplexer is connected.

3. The touch controller according to claim 2, characterized in that: The first input terminal of the multiplexer and the carrier signal generator are respectively connected to the clock signal generator; The demodulation module is further configured to demodulate the sensing signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator to obtain a demodulation result when the first input terminal of the multiplexer is turned on; The controller is further configured to determine the position information of the stylus pen according to the demodulation result.

4. The touch controller according to claim 3, characterized in that: The demodulation module includes a digital controlled oscillator NCO, a mixer and a low-pass filter LPF, the first input end of the multiplexer is connected to the clock signal generator through the NCO, the output end of the multiplexer is connected to the mixer, and the LPF and the driving module are respectively connected to the mixer; The NCO is used to generate a second carrier signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator; The mixer is used for demodulating the sensing signal according to the second carrier signal to obtain a demodulated signal when the first input terminal of the multiplexer is connected; The LPF is used to filter the demodulated signal to obtain the demodulation result.

5. The touch controller according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that: The position information includes at least one of an angle or a distance of the stylus relative to the touch sensor; The controller is used to adjust the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the position information and the transmission quality indicator.

6. The touch controller according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The touch sensor includes a plurality of electrodes; The driving module is used to transmit the driving signal to multiple groups of first electrodes among the multiple electrodes in turn when the stylus is in an unpaired state, and any group of first electrodes includes some electrodes among the multiple electrodes; Alternatively, the driving module is used to transmit the driving signal to a second electrode among the multiple electrodes when the stylus is in a paired state or an active state, the second electrode being a part of the multiple electrodes, the second electrode corresponding to the position of the stylus, and the position of the stylus being obtained by detection or prediction.

7. A method for determining voltage, characterized in that The method is applied to the touch controller according to claim 1, and the method comprises: Generate a driving signal through the driving module according to the voltage output by the voltage converter and the carrier signal generated by the carrier signal generator, and transmit the driving signal to the touch sensor through an uplink; Acquire a sensing signal transmitted by the touch sensor through the driving module, and transmit the sensing signal to the demodulation module, wherein the sensing signal is generated based on the driving signal when the stylus is located around the touch sensor; Processing the sensing signal and the carrier signal by the demodulation module to obtain a processing result; The controller obtains a transmission quality indicator of the uplink according to the processing result, and adjusts the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the transmission quality indicator.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that The method further comprises: generating the carrier signal by the carrier signal generator according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator; The processing of the sensing signal and the carrier signal by the demodulation module to obtain a processing result includes: processing the sensing signal and the carrier signal by the demodulation module when the second input end of the multiplexer is connected to obtain the processing result.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The method further comprises: When the first input terminal of the multiplexer is turned on, the demodulation module demodulates the sensing signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator to obtain a demodulation result; The controller determines the position information of the stylus pen according to the demodulation result.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The step of demodulating the sensing signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator to obtain a demodulation result includes: Generate a second carrier signal according to the clock signal transmitted by the clock signal generator through the digital controlled oscillator NCO in the demodulation module; When the first input terminal of the multiplexer is connected, the mixer in the demodulation module demodulates the sensing signal according to the second carrier signal to obtain a demodulated signal; The demodulation signal is filtered by a low-pass filter LPF in the demodulation module to obtain the demodulation result.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that: The position information includes at least one of an angle or a distance of the stylus relative to the touch sensor; The adjusting the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the transmission quality indicator comprises: adjusting the voltage output by the voltage converter according to the position information and the transmission quality indicator by the controller.

12. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 10, characterized in that: The method further comprises: When the stylus is in an unpaired state, the driving module transmits the driving signal to multiple groups of first electrodes among the multiple electrodes in turn, and any group of first electrodes includes some electrodes among the multiple electrodes; Alternatively, when the stylus is in a paired state or an active state, the driving module transmits the driving signal to a second electrode among the multiple electrodes, the second electrode is a part of the multiple electrodes, the second electrode corresponds to the position of the stylus, and the position of the stylus is obtained by detection or prediction.

13. A chip, characterized in that: The chip includes the touch controller described in any one of claims 1-6.

14. An electronic device, characterized in that: The electronic device comprises a touch sensor and a touch controller as described in any one of claims 1-6.

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