Master Slave Touch Controller Segmentation for Large Panels
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing touch sensing systems face challenges in efficiently processing large or high-resolution touch sensor panels due to limitations in the number of drive and sense lines that can be handled by a single controller ASIC, leading to inadequate support and increased costs for designing new controllers to handle larger surfaces.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a master/slave touch controller configuration where the master and slave controllers transmit drive signals and receive sense signals, with synchronized clock signals to ensure in-phase processing, allowing for coordinated operation and reduced costs by using existing controllers, thereby enabling efficient touch sensing on larger surfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a single controller ASIC is used to handle touch sensing, then the device complexity is low, but the controller cannot support larger or higher resolution touch sensor panels
Solution Approach 1:
The touch controller is divided into a master controller and one or more slave controllers. The master controller generates clock signals and controls the overall operation, while slave controllers handle specific portions of the touch sensor panel. This segmentation allows the system to support larger panels by distributing the control workload across multiple controller units.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple controllers are used to support larger touch sensor panels, then the adaptability increases, but the number of connections and packaging complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple controller units (master and slave) are combined to work together as a unified touch sensing system. The controllers share common clock signals and coordinate their operations to manage different portions of the touch panel, effectively reducing the total number of independent connections needed compared to using separate controllers for each panel section.
3Ease of operation
If slave controllers operate independently with their own clock signals, then the operation flexibility is high, but the signal processing becomes out-of-phase reducing accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The master controller generates clock signals that are distributed to slave controllers, creating a synchronized timing reference. This feedback mechanism ensures that all controllers operate in-phase with each other, maintaining signal processing accuracy while allowing each controller to independently manage its assigned portion of the touch panel.
Data Source
AI summary
Touch sensing can be accomplished using master/slave touch controllers that transmit drive signals to a touch surface and process sense signals including superpositions resulting from master/slave drive signals. The master/slave can drive and sense different sets of lines, respectively, of the touch surface. A communication link between master/slave can be established by transmitting a clock signal between master/slave, transmitting a command including sequence information to the slave, and initiating a communication sequence from the clock signal and sequence information. The slave can receive/transmit communications from/to the master during first/second portions of the communication sequence, respectively. Touch sensing operations can be synchronized between master/slave by transmitting a command including phase alignment information from master to slave, and generating slave clock signals based on the clock signal and the phase alignment information, such that sense signal processing by master clock signals are in-phase with sense signal processing by slave clock signals.