Capacitive Touch Structure Reducing Wire Count for Narrow Margins
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current self-capacitance touch structures face challenges with a large number of wires, which hinder narrow margin frame designs and result in significant touch dead zones due to the need for numerous wires connected to many self-capacitance electrodes.
Innovation Solution
The capacitive touch structure incorporates a layer of block electrodes between self-capacitance electrodes, with each block electrode corresponding to only one self-capacitance electrode and connected to a shared second wire, reducing the overall number of wires and enhancing touch sensing accuracy by detecting capacitance variations across both self-capacitance and block electrodes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a plurality of self-capacitance electrodes are provided to improve touch sensing accuracy, then measurement precision is improved, but the number of wires increases leading to larger touch dead zones and making narrow margin frame design difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple self-capacitance electrodes into groups where adjacent electrodes share common wiring. Specifically, electrodes in the same row share a first wire, and electrodes in the same column share a second wire, creating a matrix-style shared wiring structure that reduces the total number of wires while maintaining individual electrode functionality for touch sensing
Solution Approach 2:
The first wires and second wires serve multiple functions simultaneously - they act as both signal lines for reading capacitance values from multiple electrodes and as part of the scanning mechanism. Each wire is universally used to interface with multiple electrodes rather than having dedicated one-to-one connections
2Device complexity
If the number of wires is reduced to enable narrow margin frame design, then device complexity is reduced, but touch sensing accuracy may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the electrode array into a grid structure with rows and columns, allowing independent scanning of each row and column group. This segmentation enables the use of fewer wires while maintaining the ability to individually address and measure each electrode's capacitance through systematic row-by-row or column-by-column scanning
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a one-dimensional wiring approach to a two-dimensional matrix wiring structure. By organizing electrodes in rows and columns with shared wiring along each dimension, the system achieves reduced wire count through spatial arrangement in multiple dimensions rather than linear scaling
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration significantly reduces the number of wires, minimizing touch dead zones and facilitating narrow margin frame designs while maintaining accurate touch sensing, thereby improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of touch panels.
Implementation Method 1
self-capacitance touch structures utilize self-capacitance principle to implement detection of finger touch position
Implementation Method 2
a plurality of block electrodes disposed in the same layer as the self-capacitance electrodes and insulated from the self-capacitance electrodes, wherein at least many adjacent self-capacitance electrodes satisfy the following conditions: at least two block electrodes are provided between any two adjacent self-capacitance electrodes
Data Source
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Figure 2a
AI summary
A capacitive touch structure, an in-cell touch panel, a display device and a scanning method thereof are disclosed. The capacitive touch structure comprises: self-capacitance electrodes (10); block electrodes (20) disposed in the same layer as self-capacitance electrodes (10); first wires connected with self-capacitance electrodes (10); second wires connected with block electrodes (20); and a touch sensing chip connected with the first wires and the second wires. There are at least adjacent self-capacitance electrodes (10) that satisfy the following conditions: at least two block electrodes (20) are provided between any two adjacent self-capacitance electrodes (10) each of which corresponds to one self-capacitance electrode (10); block electrodes (20) of one self-capacitance electrode (10) are connected with the same second wire, block electrodes (20) of adjacent self-capacitance electrodes (10) are connected with different second wires, and one second wire is connected with block electrodes (20) of at least two self-capacitance electrodes (10).