KR20130088812A - System to detect touch signal of touch screen panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A touch signal detecting system of a touch screen panel is provided to remove the necessity for an integrated controller which controls touch drive ICs integrally, thereby reducing power consumption and the cost of a product. CONSTITUTION: A touch screen panel (TSP) (50) includes sensor patterns for sensing the contact or access of a conductive touch unit or the part of a human body, and is divided into individual sensing areas by a border part. Touch drive ICs are connected by a sensor signal line (22) according to the individual sensing areas, and receive the touch signals. One touch drive IC is set as a master touch drive IC (7a), and the rest touch drive ICs are set as slave touch drive ICs (7b) to perform a touch detecting operation under the control of the master touch drive IC. [Reference numerals] (17) Boundary unit

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a touch-

The present invention relates to a touch signal detection system for a touch screen panel, and more particularly, to a touch signal detection system for detecting a touch signal using a plurality of touch drive ICs in a single touch screen panel, The structure for controlling the functions of the slave touch drive IC is simplified by providing the master function to one of the plurality of touch drive ICs and controlling the functions of the plurality of slave touch drive ICs, And more particularly, to a touch signal detection system for a touch screen panel having a relatively low construction cost.

In general, a touch screen panel is mounted on a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display panel (PDP), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), or an active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) And is an input device that generates a signal corresponding to a position when an object such as a finger or a pen is touched. Such a touch screen panel is used in a wide variety of fields such as a small portable terminal, an industrial terminal, and a tablet PC.

Conventionally, various types of touch screen panels have been disclosed, but resistance type touch screen panels having a simple manufacturing process and a low manufacturing cost have been widely used. However, since the resistance type touch screen panel is low in transmittance and requires pressure to be applied, it is inconvenient to use, and it is difficult to recognize multitouch and gesture, and detection error occurs.

On the other hand, capacitive touch screen panels are increasingly penetrating the market because of their high transmittance, soft touch recognition, and good multi-touch and gesture recognition.

1 shows an example of a conventional capacitive touch screen panel. 1, a transparent conductive film is formed on the upper and lower surfaces of a transparent substrate 2 made of plastic or glass, and metal electrodes 4 for voltage application are formed on each of four corners of the transparent substrate 2. The transparent conductive film is formed of a transparent metal such as ITO (Indium Tin Oxide). The metal electrodes 4 formed at the four corners of the transparent conductive film are formed by printing with a conductive metal having a low resistivity such as silver (Ag). A resistor network is formed around the metal electrodes 4.

The resistance network is formed with a linearization pattern for uniformly transmitting a control signal to the entire surface of the transparent conductive film. A protective film is coated on the transparent conductive film including the metal electrode 4.

When a high frequency AC voltage is applied to the metal electrode 4, the electrostatic touch screen panel is spread over the front surface of the transparent substrate 2. At this time, when the transparent conductive film on the upper surface of the transparent substrate 2 is lightly touched with the finger 8 or the conductive touch input tool, a certain amount of current is absorbed into the body, and the current sensor incorporated in the controller 6 senses a change in current, The touch point is recognized by calculating the amount of change of the current in each of the metal electrodes 4.

The electrostatic touch screen panel as shown in FIG. 1 is a method of detecting the magnitude of the minute current, and the detection system is expensive. Although one touch drive IC can detect the touch signal with respect to the entire area of the touch screen panel, There is a problem that multi-touch which recognizes a touch is difficult.

In order to overcome such a problem, a capacitive touch screen panel as shown in FIG. 2 has been used in recent years. The touch screen panel of Fig. 2 comprises a linear sensor pattern 5a in the lateral direction and a linear sensor pattern 5b in the longitudinal direction, and touch drive ICs 7a and 7b for analyzing the touch signal. This touch screen panel is a method of detecting the magnitude of the capacitance formed between the linear sensor pattern 5 and the finger 8 so as to scan the linear sensor pattern 5a in the lateral direction and the linear sensor pattern 5b in the longitudinal direction So that a plurality of touch points can be recognized.

However, when the touch screen panel is large, it is impossible to detect the touch signal in the entire area of the touch screen panel with one touch drive IC. For example, in the case of using a single touch-drive IC, when the touch screen panel is widened, the area of the linear sensor pattern 5 is widened so that the number of sensor patterns 5 opposed to the finger is decreased. In extreme cases, The linearity of the linear sensor pattern 5 may be deteriorated due to an error in the detection of the finger position.

In order to overcome such a problem, a method of detecting a touch by dividing a screen of a touch screen panel by a plurality of touch drive ICs 7a and 7b is used as shown in FIG. Referring to Fig. 3, there are a touch drive IC 7a for detecting a touch in the " area A "at the upper end of the touch screen panel 50 and a touch drive IC 7b for detecting & And an integrated controller 11 for controlling the touch driver ICs 7a and 7b.

The integrated controller 11 communicates with the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b via the control and communication line 8 or sends control signals to perform all operations related to the touch signal detection of the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b And receives touch data from the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b to extract touch coordinates.

However, this configuration requires a separate integrated controller 11, which consumes a lot of current, increases the price, and requires a separate space for mounting the integrated controller 11.

Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 10-2011-0042676 (Apr. 27, 2011)

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a touch screen IC having a plurality of touch drive ICs, The structure for controlling the functions of the slave touch drive IC is simplified by providing the master function to one of the plurality of touch drive ICs and controlling the functions of the plurality of slave touch drive ICs, And to provide a touch signal detection system for a touch screen panel which is relatively inexpensive to construct.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a touch screen panel, comprising: a touch screen panel formed with a predetermined sensor pattern for sensing the approach or contact of a part of the body or the conductive touch means and partitioned into a plurality of discrete regions by a boundary; And a plurality of touch driver ICs connected to the touch screen panel (50) by sensor signal lines (22) for receiving touch signals sensed by the sensor signal lines (22), wherein one of the plurality of touch driver ICs The drive IC is set as the master touch drive IC 7a and the remaining touch drive IC is set as the slave touch drive IC 7b so that the slave touch drive IC 7b is controlled by the master touch drive IC 7a, A touch detection operation of the touch screen panel is performed.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the plurality of touch drive ICs are set to the master touch drive IC 7a or the slave touch drive IC 7b in each of the touch drive ICs to operate as the functions of the master and the slave, respectively And a setting unit for setting a touch signal to the touch screen panel.

The master touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b are connected to a master touch drive IC 7a for synchronizing a scan time point and a scan point And a synchronous signal line (17) through which a synchronous signal is transmitted and a touch synchronous signal line (15) through which a touch signal sensed by the slave touch driver IC (7b) is transmitted. System is provided.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the slave touch drive IC 7b transmits a feedback signal according to the reception of the synchronization signal of the master touch drive IC 7a transmitted through the synchronization signal line 17, The master touch drive IC 7a determines the validity of the control signal based on the feedback signal.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the master touch drive IC 7a uses the touch data of the boundary portion transmitted from the slave touch drive IC 7b and the boundary touch data of the master touch drive IC 7a itself And calculating a touch coordinate at the boundary portion.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a touch signal detection system for a touch screen panel, wherein the touch data at the boundary is an ADC value or an area value of a unit touch cell.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a touch signal detection system for a touch screen panel, wherein the touch data at the boundary portion is a sum of a longitudinal sum or a horizontal direction of grouped touch data.

As described above, according to the touch signal detection system of the touch screen panel for detecting touch signals of a single touch screen panel with a plurality of touch drive ICs, an integrated controller for integrally controlling each touch driver IC is not required, The cost of the product is reduced, and a separate mounting space for the integrated controller is unnecessary, so that the product can be manufactured simply.

1 is a perspective view showing an example of a conventional electrostatic touch screen panel.
2 is a plan view showing another example of a conventional capacitive touch screen panel
FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a conventional touch sensing device for detecting touch signals of a single touch screen panel using a plurality of ICs
FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a touch signal detection system of a touch screen panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a view showing an example of a conventional electrostatic touch screen panel,
6 is a schematic view illustrating a principle of detecting a touch input of a touch signal detection system of a touch screen panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating another configuration of a touch signal detection system of a touch screen panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
8 is a waveform diagram illustrating an example of a signal transmitted between a master touch drive IC and a slave touch drive IC according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 9 is a side view illustrating a combined state of a touch screen panel and a display device of a touch signal detection system of a touch screen panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG.
FIGS. 11 to 13 are views illustrating a configuration of an ESD prevention line included in a touch signal detection system of a touch screen panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description. Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a touch signal detection system of a touch screen panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a touch input detection system of a touch signal detection system of a touch screen panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing another configuration of a touch signal detection system of a touch screen panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a master touch drive IC according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 9 is a side view illustrating a combined state of a touch screen panel and a display device of a touch signal detection system of a touch screen panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 11 to 13 are diagrams for explaining a touch signal detection system of a touch screen panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. And an ESD protection line.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. The present invention detects a noncontact touch input of a finger or a conductive touch means having similar electrical characteristics. Here, the term " noncontact touch input " means that a touch input means such as a finger or the like touches the touch panel while the touch input means is spaced apart from the sensor pattern by a predetermined distance. The touch input means can be brought into contact with the outer surface of the touch screen panel. In this case, however, the touch input means and the sensor pattern maintain the non-contact state. Thus, the touch behavior of a finger with respect to a sensor pattern can be expressed in terms of " approach ". On the other hand, since the finger may be in contact with the outer surface of the substrate, the touching action of the finger with respect to the substrate may be expressed by the term " contact ". As used herein, the terms " approach " and " contact "

Although the touch signal line 15 and the synchronizing signal line 17 are shown as one solid line in the entire specification, a plurality of communication lines such as a clock and an in / out signal line can be used for the touch signal line 15, 17 may also use a plurality of signal lines such as a clock or in / out signal line.

In addition, in the entire specification, only two touch-drive ICs 7a and 7b are used to give a master function to one and a slave function to the other, but this is merely an embodiment for simplifying the drawing, A plurality of touch driver ICs may be used to provide a master function to one and a slave function to the other.

The present invention relates to a touch signal detection system for a touch screen panel for detecting a touch signal of a single touch screen panel with a plurality of touch drive ICs 7a and 7b, The touch screen panels 7a and 7b are divided into a plurality of sensing individual areas and the touch of each sensing individual area is detected by the plurality of touch drive ICs 7a and 7b, One of the plurality of touch drive ICs 7a and 7b has a master function and the other touch drive IC 7b has a function of a slave function 7a and 7b, The slave touch drive IC 7b proceeds to touch detection by the control of the master touch drive IC 7a and performs touch detection between the master touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b It enables motivation for.

In recent years, portable devices have become commonplace, and screens have become larger than 7 inches, and it is not easy to detect touch signals of a touch screen panel that is 7 inches or more in size with a single touch drive IC. Accordingly, a touch screen panel of seven or more inches usually uses three or four touch drive ICs, and a touch screen panel is divided into a plurality of screens, Controls the operation of these touch points, and also accepts all of the touch signals detected by the individual touch drive ICs and calculates touch coordinates.

However, in most cases, the integrated controller 11 is not a dedicated product to be applied to a touch product, and even if a dedicated product is designed and manufactured, small and medium-sized enterprises having a small business scale design and manufacture such a dedicated integrated controller 11 It is difficult to use a general-purpose microcomputer or a CPU. When the integrated controller 11 is used in a touch screen panel of a portable device, the use time of the portable device is shortened and the portability is degraded because such a general-purpose microcomputer or CPU consumes a large current consumption.

In addition, since portable equipment is light and thin, it is not easy to secure mounting space even for small parts. Further, since the integrated controller 11 is required to include a CPU for calculation, it is usually composed of a package of 5 mm x 5 mm or more. In order to mount a component of such a size, a considerably large mounting area is required and selection of a mounting position becomes difficult.

The present invention comprises a touch screen panel (50) formed with a predetermined sensor pattern (20) for sensing the approach or contact of a part of the body or the conductive touch means, and partitioned into a plurality of sensing individual areas by a boundary; And a plurality of touch drive ICs (7a, 7b) connected to the sensing signal lines (22) for sensing individual regions of the touch screen panel (50) and receiving sensed touch signals. One touch drive IC of the plurality of touch drive ICs 7a and 7b is set as a master touch drive IC 7a and the remaining touch drive IC is set as a slave touch drive IC 7b, And the touch detection operation of the slave touch drive IC 7b is performed under the control of the drive IC 7a.

Therefore, by providing the means for enabling the touch detection of the touch screen panel 50 divided only by the plurality of touch drive ICs 7a and 7b without using the above-described integrated controller 11, the consumption current is reduced The mounting area of the parts can be reduced and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a touch signal detection system of a touch screen panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 4, two touch drive ICs 7a and 7b are used between the boundaries of a Bar- . The master touch drive IC 7a located on the left side of the touch screen panel 50 detects the touch signal of the left sensing area of the boundary of the touch screen panel 50 and detects the touch signal of the slave touch drive IC 50 located on the right side of the touch screen panel 50 (7b) detects the touch signal of the sensing area on the right side of the boundary of the touch screen panel (50).

The sensor pattern 10 on the left side of the touch screen panel 50 is connected to the master touch drive IC 7a And the sensor pattern 10 on the right side of the touch screen panel 50 is connected to the slave touch drive IC 7b. The sensor signal line 22 shown in Fig. 4 is a means for connecting the sensor pattern 10 and the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b. The sensor signal line 22 connects the touch signal detected by the sensor pattern 10 to the master touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch To the drive IC 7b.

Referring to FIG. 5, the point-based touch detection unit 10 is connected to the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b through the sensor signal line 22. [ 2 and 4 is a line touch detection system, the sensor pattern 10 of FIG. 5 is of the point system, which is another embodiment of the commercialized electrostatic touch system.

FIG. 6 is an embodiment of a touch signal detection system of a touch screen panel for detecting a capacitive touch in the sensor pattern 10. 6, when the finger 25 or similar conductive touch means approach the sensor pattern 10, the sensor pattern 10 and the finger 25 are spaced apart by an interval of "d" Quot; C "is formed between the finger 25 and the sensor pattern 10 as shown in the right equivalent circuit and the equation of Fig. When a voltage or a current signal is supplied to the signal input line of the sensor pattern 10 having the capacitance "C" to accumulate the electric charge having the magnitude of the electric charge quantity "Q", a relational expression V = Q / C is formed, "C" can accumulate the charge. Referring to the mathematical expression, a capacitance difference occurs depending on the contact area between the sensor pattern 10 and the touch means 25 such as a finger, and the difference in capacitance causes a difference in the amount of accumulated electric charges, The difference in the facing area between the pattern 10 and the touching means 25 causes a difference in voltage detected in the capacitance. The touch drive ICs 7a and 7b detect the difference between these voltages to detect whether or not they are touched. As shown in FIG. 5, a touch detection unit exists in the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b, and an ADC is typically included in the touch detection unit. The ADC detects the difference of the generated voltage and converts it into a digital code so that it can be used for an operation of determining whether or not the touch is detected.

7 is an embodiment for detecting a touch on a single touch screen panel 50 by using a plurality of touch drive ICs 7a and 7b of the point touch detection type of FIG. Referring to FIG. 7, the touch screen panel 50 is divided into two sensing individual areas with reference to a boundary. The touch screen panel 50 includes a master touch drive IC 7a for detecting a touch signal in the left sensing area, A slave touch drive IC 7b for detecting a touch signal is connected to the touch signal line 15 and the synchronizing signal line 17 so as to be connected to each other.

The functions of the master and the slave and the touch detection method will be described with reference to FIG. 4 or FIG. First, the plurality of touch drive ICs 7a and 7b shown in FIG. 4 or 7 should be defined as a master touch drive IC 7a or a slave touch drive IC 7b in advance. There are various means for accomplishing this, but the easiest way is to have means for setting the master touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b in the register area inside the touch drive ICs 7a, 7b. For example, it is assumed that there is a bit called " M / S " in a specific area of the register of the touch driver ICs 7a and 7b.

If this bit is set to HI or LO when the bit is "HI" and the master touch drive IC 7a is operated when the bit is "LO" and the slave touch drive IC 7b is set to LO, The functions of the master touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b can be separately provided to the touch panel drivers 7a and 7b. As another embodiment of the method, it is a method of assigning specific pins to the touch drive IC and varying their potentials. If the pin is set to "00 ", it will be set to the master touch drive IC 7a. If it is" 01 ", the slave touch drive IC 7b and the first drive IC. ≪ / RTI > In the case of "10 ", the slave drive IC can be positioned as the second drive IC, and when set to" 11 ", it can be set as the third slave drive IC.

When a plurality of slave drive ICs 7b are used, their positions are determined in the touch screen panel 50 divided into the sensing individual areas, so that the slave touch drive ICs 7b must be assigned different numbers by position. The position of the slave drive IC 7b can be inserted into the communication protocol when the touch signal is transmitted to the master drive IC 7a through the touch signal line 15 to be described later, It is possible to determine in which area of the divided touch screen panel 50 the signal is transmitted when analyzing the signal.

Although not shown in the embodiment of FIG. 4 or 7, the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b must be connected to the CPU 40. FIG. The CPU 40 receives touch coordinates from the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b and performs various operations such as operating an MP3 palayer function or moving a screen, which is a device to which the touch screen panel 50 is applied . The connection between the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b and the CPU 40 is performed using a PCB or a flexible circuit board 19 or the like and is usually performed using a flexible circuit board 19. [ At this time, the CPU 40 may be connected to each of the master touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b. However, in order to minimize the use of the flexible circuit board 19, Only the IC 7a can be connected. In this case, the information transmitted to the slave touch drive IC 7b must be transmitted in the case of the master touch drive IC 7a, so that the touch signal line 15 is provided between the master touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b. Should exist. Serial communication such as I2C or SPI may be used for the touch signal line 15. Various communication methods such as USB or parallel communication may be used, but serial communication is preferably used to reduce the number of signal lines.

The data that the CPU 40 transmits to the master touch drive IC 7a or the slave touch drive IC 7b is the register values necessary for the operation of the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b or the operation of the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b And the like. If a register area for the slave touch drive IC 7b exists separately in the register area of the master touch drive IC 7a, the master touch drive IC 7a refers to the register area for the slave touch drive IC 7b, The register values can be transmitted to the slave touch driver IC 7b through the touch signal line 15. [

Alternatively, the data transferred from the CPU 40 to the master drive IC 7a according to a predetermined communication protocol may be bypassed to the slave touch drive IC 7b.

If two or more slave touch drive ICs 7b are connected to the master touch drive IC 7a and different data are written for each slave touch drive IC 7b, each slave touch drive IC 7b ) And writes the ID in the communication protocol, the slave touch drive IC 7b may store only data having the same ID as itself.

The touch signal line 15 may be installed in the touch screen panel 50 to connect the master touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b to the master touch drive IC 50, (7a) and the slave touch drive IC (7b).

As will be described later, the slave touch drive IC 7b transmits the touch data at the boundary to the master touch drive IC 7a via the touch signal line 15, and at the boundary, The touch coordinates are extracted by calculating the touch data so as to be an operation. The master touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b have to be synchronized with each other for data processing at the boundary. The reason why the synchronous signal is required between the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b The following is an explanation.

Assuming that the plurality of touch drive ICs 7a and 7b are not synchronized with each other, the left master drive IC 7a detects a signal at C1, and the right slave touch drive IC 7b Assume that C11 detects a touch signal. At this time, it is assumed that the finger is touched to C11 to C12 and moves to the upper end of the touch screen panel 50 after a predetermined time, and is touched to C9 to C10. The slave touch drive IC 7b on the right side scans the path of C11? C12? C13 and thus detects the finger touch signal. However, the master drive IC 7a on the left side scans from C1 to C2? C3? C4. . Therefore, the touch signal is not detected due to the fact that the finger is not yet scanned through the C11. A predetermined time is required until the master touch drive IC 7a on the left side sequentially scans and scans C9 from C1. During this time, the finger moves upward in the touch screen panel 50 and is positioned at C9 and C10 . Thereafter, the slave touch drive IC 7b transmits the detected touch data to the master drive IC 7a using the touch signal line 15, and the master drive IC 7a transmits the touch data of its own detected at the boundary and the slave touch And the touch coordinates of the drive IC 7b are analyzed to calculate touch coordinates.

At this time, since the master drive IC 7a has detected that a touch has occurred at C9 and the slave touch drive IC 7b at the right has detected that a touch has occurred at C11, the master drive IC 7a, And recognizes that two touches have occurred.

In the point system as shown in FIG. 7, if the master drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b are not synchronized with each other, an error of touch coordinate recognition occurs at the boundary portion is the same as the embodiment of FIG. 4, do.

In order to solve this problem, which is perceived as two multi-touches for one touch at the boundary, the master touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b perform a process of matching the scan point and the scan point equally Synchronization process is required. If the master touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b start scanning at the same timing (equalization of the scan time) from C1 (equalization of scan points), the master touch drive IC 7a And the slave touch drive IC 7b detect the touch by the finger at the same point and at the same point, they are recognized as one touch. When the finger is analyzed according to the change of the time, As shown in FIG.

A synchronization signal is required for the master touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b to be synchronized and the synchronization signal can be generated by the master touch drive IC 7a or the slave touch drive IC 7b Normally, the master touch drive IC 7a generates this. The generated synchronizing signal may be transmitted to the slave touch drive IC 7b through the touch signal line 15 to be synchronized with the slave touch drive IC 7b. However, in consideration of the fact that normal serial communication is not fast, It is preferable to transmit the synchronization signal to the IC 7b.

The synchronizing signal does not require a special protocol, but one embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 8, a sync signal, which is information on the scan start point (C1 in the embodiment of FIG. 4 or FIG. 7) of the master drive IC 7a, is transmitted to the slave touch drive IC 7b via the signal line 17 (start_master). In FIG. 8, the scan start point is represented by two pulses, which are merely examples, and various methods can be used to indicate the start point. For example, three pulses may be present and the pulse width may be long, or may be achieved by a combination of the pulse width modulation and the number of pulses.

The slave touch drive IC 7b notifies the master touch drive IC 7a of the same signal sent by the master touch drive IC 7a or a predetermined signal in advance in accordance with the " start_master " (Start_slave) via the synchronizing signal line 17 to the master touch drive IC 7a because the noise is generated by the master touch drive IC 7a to the slave touch drive IC 7b, The slave touch driver IC 7b determines whether the signal received from the master touch driver IC 7a has been correctly received to determine the validity of the feedback signal.

On the other hand, the scan time of each line after the scan start point can also be transmitted through the sync signal line 17 to the slave touch drive IC 7b. Referring to FIG. 8, pulses sequentially generated after the scan start point are synchronous signals for sequentially scanning C2, C3, and so on. The slave touch drive IC 7b receiving the synchronization signal from the master touch drive IC 7a transmits the same signal or a predefined signal to the master touch drive IC 7a, . After the communication between the master touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b is completed, if a touch is detected for the corresponding line from a certain point in time, No detection error occurs in the detection area.

After the master drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b are synchronized with each other, the data of the slave touch drive IC 7b detected at the boundary is transmitted to the master touch drive IC 7a through the touch signal line 15 . 9 shows an example of a data format in which the slave touch drive IC 7b transmits data detected at the boundary to the master touch drive IC 7a. Referring to FIG. 9, when a touching finger 25 touches a boundary portion, a capacitance according to the equation of FIG. 6 is formed, and the capacitance is converted into a voltage by a classical equation of V = Q / C , The signal processing unit in the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b reads the voltage through the ADC included in the touch detecting unit in the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b. The voltage of each sensor pattern 10 read through the ADC may be converted to capacitance or may be converted to an area by the equation of FIG.

Referring again to FIG. 9, FIG. 9 is one of the ADC values of the unit sensor patterns 10 when the finger touches the sensor pattern 10 in the embodiment of FIG. 7 or an ADC value converted into an area . The left side of the boundary is the value detected by the master drive IC 7a, and the right side is the value detected by the slave touch drive IC 7b.

The master drive IC 7a or the slave touch drive IC 7b must extract the touch coordinates by using the value detected at the boundary portion. To do so, the master drive IC 7a requires all the data at the boundary portion. In the present invention, since the master touch drive IC 7a performs such an integrated operation, it is assumed that the master touch drive IC 7a collects data at the boundary, but the slave touch drive IC 7b may perform the integrated operation .

The type of data required by the master touch drive IC 7a to perform the integrated operation can be defined in advance. For example, the ADC value or the area of each unit sensor pattern 10 or the value of the detected unit sensor patterns 10 may be summed both vertically and horizontally.

Referring again to FIG. 9, the ADC value or area value of the unit sensor pattern 10 detected by the master drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b at the boundary is displayed. If the master drive IC 7a needs data of the unit sensor pattern 10, the slave touch drive IC 7b transmits these data to the master touch drive IC 7a through the touch signal line 15 do. 9, the data of the master touch drive IC 7a and the data of the slave touch drive IC 7b are stored in the same plane as the master drive IC 7a, It is possible to detect the touch in the same way as when the touch is detected by one drive IC.

However, when the number of touches is increased, the amount of data increases, and the master touch drive IC 7a (7a) The transmission delay of the data may be delayed. This causes a reduction in the computation speed and a problem in that the touch speed is lowered.

In order to overcome such a problem, the master drive IC 7a may receive the data of the sensor pattern 10 as a sine or a horizontal sum, and calculate the touch center point based on these data. This method reduces the amount of data transmitted to the master touch drive IC 7a by the slave touch drive IC 7b, and does not cause a touch speed drop problem due to the communication delay. "60" and "62" on the right side of FIG. 9 are the data of the sensor pattern 10 detected by the slave touch drive IC 7b in the horizontal direction and "100" and "17" Is the sum of the data of the detected sensor pattern 10 in the longitudinal direction. In the embodiment of FIG. 9, the number of data detected by the slave touch-drive IC 7b is only four, which is the same as the sum of the summed data. However, the larger the number of touches is, the smaller the amount of data summed in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction .

In other words, as the number of coordinates increases, the sending of all the coordinate data causes a problem of speed reduction due to a lot of data. However, the amount of the sum of the length and the width means that the number of the coordinates decreases relative to the number of the coordinates.

10 is an embodiment in which the touch screen panel 50 is attached to the upper surface of the display device 58. In Fig. Referring to FIG. 10, when the touch screen panel 50 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention is attached to the upper surface of the display device 58 such as an LCD, the protective glass or protection A protective plate 52 made of plastic or the like is bonded to the touch screen panel 50 and the transparent double-sided tape 59. In such a configuration, when static electricity (ESD, Electro Static Discharge) induced in the wearer's clothing or the surrounding environment or induced in the laboratory equipment is radiated to the surface of the protecting plate 52, etc., the static electricity does not penetrate the glass and plastic materials So that the protective sheet 52 and the touch screen panel 50 will be infiltrated from the periphery of the edge to which the panel is bonded. Since the static electricity is transmitted from the periphery of the touch screen panel 50 where penetration is initiated to the center of the touch screen panel 50, the periphery of the touch screen panel 50 is defined as the start point of the static inflow. If such static electricity flows into the touch driver ICs 7a and 7b through the sensor pattern 10 and the sensor signal line 22, the touch driver ICs 7a and 7b may malfunction or fail.

In order to prevent malfunction or failure of the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b due to such static electricity, if there is a wiring having a predetermined potential such as a ground or any DC or AC potential at the time of the passage of the static electricity, The static electricity will be discharged through the wiring and will not flow into the wiring.

11 is another embodiment of the present invention for preventing the flow of static electricity by using the touch signal line 15 or the synchronizing signal line 17 between the master drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b. 11, the touch signal line 15 and the synchronizing signal line 17 are connected to the touch driver ICs 7a and 7b in a rest period in which the touch signal line 15 or the synchronizing signal line 17 is not used as a communication or control signal line, 7b, and has a discharge path connected to a predetermined potential having a ground or DC or AC voltage. For example, DC will be between 0 and several volts, and AC will be an alternating voltage alternating between 0 and several volts. In general, since the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b do not have an AC voltage, they are preferably connected to a ground or a DC voltage.

Since the touch signal panel 15 or the synchronizing signal line 17 is connected to the ground or a predetermined potential and has the discharge path and covers the entire touch screen panel 50 from the viewpoint of the static path of the static electricity, The touch screen panel 50 is safely protected because it is absorbed by the touch signal line 15 or the synchronizing signal line 17 and discharged through a ground or a predetermined potential.

On the other hand, in the static electricity prevention system using the touch signal line 15 or the synchronizing signal line 17, at least one of the touch signal line 15 and the synchronizing signal line 17 should not perform an operation involving a communication operation or a control signal And the touch signal line 15 or the synchronizing signal line 17 which does not operate should be connected to a ground or a voltage having a predetermined potential.

When the touch signal line 15 or the synchronizing signal line 17 can not cover the entire touch screen panel 50 as in the embodiment of FIG. 4 or 7, It may be difficult to implement the function of preventing the static electricity by the touch signal line 15 or the synchronizing signal line 17 when it is allocated to the communication between the touch drive IC 7a and the slave touch drive IC 7b. Fig. 12 is another embodiment of the present invention to overcome this problem.

12, an ESD absorption line 62 for ESD discharge is separately disposed, and an ESD absorption line 62 is connected to an external ground or a predetermined potential, not shown, through a flexible circuit board 19 . Although the ESD absorption line 62 is shown as being connected to the external potential in FIG. 12, it may be connected to the ground provided by the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b or to a predetermined potential connected to the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b have.

Referring back to FIG. Preferably, the ESD absorption line 62 is located at the time of the penetration path of the ESD which is the outer edge of the touch screen panel 50. 11, the ESD absorption line 62 is always connected to the ground or the predetermined potential, while the ESD is likely to be penetrated. In contrast, the ESD absorption line 62 is always grounded Since it is connected to a predetermined potential, it is always possible to take measures against ESD.

FIG. 13 shows an embodiment in which an ESD absorption line 62 is used when a single touch-driving IC is used. Referring to FIG. 13, the ESD absorption line 62 is connected to an external ground or a predetermined electric potential through the flexible circuit board 19, and can be connected to one electric potential or two different external electric potentials. If they are connected at different external potentials, the ESD absorption lines 62 should be separated from each other and may be disconnected from each other because they can form a closed loop to serve as an antenna even when they are connected to one potential. Although the embodiment of FIG. 13 has described an embodiment in which the ESD absorption line 62 is connected to the external potential through the flexible circuit board 19, the ESD absorption line 62 is connected to the touch drive ICs 7a and 7b, And may be connected to a potential of a ground or the like provided by the drive ICs 7a and 7b.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art.

7: Touch drive IC 7a: Master touch drive IC
7b: Slave touch drive IC 10: Sensor pattern
10a: longitudinal sensor pattern 10b: lateral sensor pattern
11: Integrated controller 15: Touch signal line
17: Synchronization signal line 19: Flexible circuit board
22: sensor signal line 40: CPU
50: touch screen panel 52: protective glass or protective plastic
57: double-sided tape 58: display device
59: transparent double-sided tape 60: flexible circuit board
62: ESD absorption line

Claims (1)

A touch screen panel (50) in which a predetermined sensor pattern is formed for sensing the approach or contact of a part of the body or the conductive touch means and is divided into a plurality of sensing individual regions by a boundary portion; And
And a plurality of touch driver ICs connected to the sensing signal lines 22 for sensing individual sensing areas of the touch screen panel 50 to receive sensed touch signals,
One of the touch drive ICs of the plurality of touch drive ICs is set as a master touch drive IC 7a and the remaining touch drive IC is set as a slave touch drive IC 7b so that the control of the master touch drive IC 7a Wherein the touch detection operation of the slave touch drive IC (7b) is performed by the touch sensor (7a).

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