Single-Chip Multi-Stimulus Controller for Flexible Touch Sensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional multi-stimulus touch sensor systems are inflexible, requiring specific drive signal combinations and extraction methods, limiting their operational scenarios and adaptability.
Innovation Solution
A single-chip multi-stimulus controller with a transmit oscillator, transmit signal section, receive channel, and demodulation section, including a demodulator and vector operator, allowing for arbitrary vector selection and testing, enabling flexible stimulation and decoding without extensive redesign.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional multi-stim systems use specific combinations of drive signals to generate specific sense signals, then the system operation is limited to specific stimulation scenarios, but the system design becomes inflexible and requires extensive redesign for different scenarios
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal controller architecture that can handle multiple stimulation scenarios through software configuration rather than hardware redesign. The controller is designed to work with any combination of drive signals and sense signals by programming different stimulation matrices and decode matrices, allowing the same physical system to adapt to various touch sensor configurations and stimulation patterns without requiring extensive hardware changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs dynamic programmability where the stimulation matrix and decode matrix can be changed through software at runtime. This allows the system to transition between different stimulation scenarios dynamically, enabling flexible adaptation to different sensing requirements, touch panel configurations, or operational modes without physical reconfiguration or hardware redesign.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a single-chip controller integrates multiple functions (transmit oscillator, transmit signal section, receive channel, demodulation section), then the system becomes more flexible and adaptable, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent consolidates multiple controller functions including transmit oscillator generation, transmit signal processing, receive channel processing, and demodulation operations into a single integrated circuit chip. This integration reduces the number of discrete components, simplifies system architecture, and improves signal coherence while maintaining the flexibility to support multiple stimulation scenarios through software-programmable matrices and configurable operation modes.
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 solution provides a more flexible system capable of testing and implementing different stimulation and decoding combinations, enhancing the adaptability and efficiency of multi-touch sensor operations.
Implementation Method 1
a transmit oscillator, a transmit signal section that generates a plurality of drive signals based on a frequency of the transmit oscillator
Implementation Method 2
a receive channel that receives a sense signal resulting from the driving of the multi-touch sensor, a receive oscillator, and a demodulation section that demodulates the received sense signal based on a frequency of the receive oscillator
Data Source
AI summary
A multi-stimulus controller for a multi-touch sensor is formed on a single integrated circuit (single-chip). The multi-stimulus controller includes a transmit oscillator, a transmit signal section that generates a plurality of drive signals based on a frequency of the transmit oscillator, a plurality of transmit channels that transmit the drive signals simultaneously to drive the multi-touch sensor, a receive channel that receives a sense signal resulting from the driving of the multi-touch sensor, a receive oscillator, and a demodulation section that demodulates the received sense signal based on a frequency of the receive oscillator to obtain sensing results, the demodulation section including a demodulator and a vector operator.