Touch Sensing System Bridge Circuit for High-Speed Data Transmission

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Solution Overview

Problem

As display apparatuses increase in size, the number of sensing electrodes on touch panels also increases, leading to longer sensing times and difficulties in effective touch sensing.

Innovation Solution

A touch sensing system comprising a touch panel with driving and sensing electrodes, multiple touch integrated circuits that sequentially drive the electrodes to sense information, a bridge to align and transmit sensing data, and a controller to detect touch coordinates based on the transmitted data, enabling efficient touch sensing even with a larger number of electrodes.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Area of stationary object

If the number of sensing electrodes is increased to cover a larger touch panel area, then the coverage area is improved, but the sensing time increases and touch sensing effectiveness deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetouch panel areaVSAvoidsensing time
Core Design Contradiction:
Area of stationary objectVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The touch panel is divided into multiple sensor regions, each handled by a separate touch IC. This segmentation allows parallel processing of sensing data from different regions, reducing the total sensing time while maintaining full panel coverage.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces a time dimension by implementing sequential driving of driving electrodes across different sensor regions at different time slots. Multiple touch ICs operate simultaneously but process different spatial regions, transforming a spatial problem into a spatio-temporal solution.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

2Area of stationary object

If the number of sensing electrodes is increased to cover a larger touch panel area, then the coverage area is improved, but the complexity of data processing increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetouch panel areaVSAvoiddata processing complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Area of stationary objectVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

Data processing complexity is reduced by segmenting the touch panel into multiple independent sensor regions, each processed by a dedicated touch IC. This distributes the computational burden across multiple independent processing units rather than overwhelming a single processor.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

A bridge circuit is introduced as an intermediary component that collects sensing data from multiple touch ICs, performs initial processing and coordination, and manages data flow to the controller. This intermediary layer simplifies the overall system architecture by handling complex data routing and synchronization.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Speed

If multiple touch integrated circuits are used to process sensor regions, then the sensing speed is improved, but the risk of memory I/O collisions increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesensing speedVSAvoidmemory I/O collision risk
Core Design Contradiction:
SpeedVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The bridge serves as an intermediary buffer between multiple touch ICs and the controller, managing memory access and data transmission. It coordinates I/O operations to prevent collisions while maintaining high sensing speed through efficient data routing and timing control.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements periodic action through sequential driving of driving electrodes in different time slots for different sensor regions. This time-division multiplexing approach allows multiple touch ICs to operate simultaneously without conflicting memory access, as each IC accesses memory during its designated time period.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #19Periodic action

Data Source

PatentEP2869168B1Touch sensing system and display apparatus
Publication Date: 2019.03.20 LG DISPLAY CO LTD
  • EP2869168B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2869168B1 patent drawingFigure 2(A)~2(B)
  • EP2869168B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

The present disclosure is related to a touch sensing system (100) and a display apparatus decreasing a sensing time and enabling an effective touch sensing, although a number of sensing electrodes (Rx1 to RxM) increases according to an increase of an area of a touch panel (110).