TWI784685B - Touchpad with vibration function - Google Patents

Abstract

A touchpad is disposed on a housing of an electronic device. The touchpad includes a supporting member, a touch circuit board, two pressure sensors, a cover, and a vibrator. The touch circuit board is fixed on the supporting member, and the touch circuit board has a through hole. The two pressure sensors are fixed on the touch circuit board, and the two pressure sensors are located between the touch circuit board and the housing. The cover covers the touch circuit board. The vibrator is affixed to the cover, and a part of the vibrator is embedded in the touch circuit board. The touch circuit board includes a plurality of first driving electrodes, a plurality of first sensing electrodes, at least one second driving electrode, and at least one second sensing electrode, and a portion of the at least one second driving electrode and a portion of the at least one second sensing electrode surrounds the through hole.

Description

Touchpad with vibration function

The present disclosure relates to a touch panel, in particular to a touch panel applicable to thin notebooks.

Generally speaking, a notebook computer is equipped with a touch panel for users to control a mouse cursor or execute functions of various application programs through touch. Furthermore, more and more touchpads have vibrators to provide vibration feedback when the user presses the touchpad. However, the thickness design of today's notebook computers tends to be thinner and lighter, which makes it more and more difficult to install the touchpad with the vibrator on the notebook computer.

Therefore, how to design a touch panel that is easy to install and can provide a vibration function is an issue worth discussing and solving.

In view of this, the present disclosure proposes a touch panel with vibration function to solve the above problems.

The present disclosure provides a touch panel with a vibration function, which is arranged on a housing of an electronic device. The touch panel includes a support, a touch circuit board, two A pressure sensor, a cover plate, and a vibrator. The touch circuit board is fixed on the supporting member, and the touch circuit board has a through hole. The two pressure sensors are fixed on the touch circuit board, and the two pressure sensors are located between the touch circuit board and the casing. The cover plate covers the touch circuit board. The vibrator is fixed on the cover plate, and a part of the vibrator is embedded in the touch circuit board. The touch circuit board includes a plurality of first driving electrodes, a plurality of first sensing electrodes, at least one second driving electrode and at least one second sensing electrode, and a part of at least one second driving electrode and at least one second A part of the sensing electrode surrounds the through hole.

The disclosure provides a touch panel with vibration function, including a touch circuit board, a through hole is formed on the touch circuit board, and there are further a plurality of first driving electrodes, first sensing electrodes, at least one second driving electrode and At least one second sensing electrode. The extended arrangement of the first driving electrode, the second driving electrode, the first sensing electrode and the second sensing electrode corresponding to the through hole is not a straight line segment, but partially surrounds the through hole.

By increasing the density of the driving electrodes and sensing electrodes adjacent to the through hole, when the user's touch track crosses the through hole, the control chip can accurately determine the user's touch track without misjudging the touch. track situation.

In order to make the purpose, features, and advantages of the present disclosure more comprehensible, the following specific embodiments are described in detail with accompanying figures. Wherein, the arrangement of each element in the embodiment is for illustration, not for limiting the present disclosure. In addition, the partial repetition of the symbols in the figures in the embodiments is for the purpose of simplifying the description, and does not imply the relationship between different embodiments. The directional terms mentioned in the following embodiments, such as: up, down, left, right, front or back, etc., are only directions referring to the attached drawings. Accordingly, the directional terms used are for illustration and not for limitation of the present disclosure.

Please refer to Figure 1 and Figure 2. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and Fig. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a touch panel 20 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure along the section line AA' in Fig. 1 . The electronic device 10 is, for example, a notebook computer, which has a display module 11 and a host module 12 . The host module 12 is connected to the display module 11 , and the host module 12 may include a keyboard 13 , a casing 14 and a touch panel 20 . The housing 14 may include an upper part and a lower part (generally referred to as part C and part D respectively), and the keyboard 13 and the touchpad 20 are disposed on the upper part of the housing 14 .

As shown in FIG. 2, the touch panel 20 is embedded in a recess of the casing 14, and the touch panel 20 includes a support 21, a touch circuit board 22, two pressure sensors 23, and a cover. plate 24 and a vibrator 25 . The pressure sensor 23 , the supporting member 21 and the vibrator 25 are disposed on the bottom surface of the touch circuit board 22 , and the cover plate 24 is disposed on the top surface of the touch circuit board 22 .

When the user touches the cover 24 , the touch circuit board 22 will control the mouse cursor on the display module 11 according to the user's touch output signal. In addition, when the user presses the touchpad 20 along the Z axis, the pressure sensor 23 will sense the user's pressing and output a signal to control the vibrator 25 to vibrate.

It should be noted that the electronic device 10 is not limited to a notebook computer, and any electronic device including a touch panel falls within the scope of this disclosure.

Please refer to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 , FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a touch panel 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the bottom of the touch panel 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The touch panel 100 may include a support 110 , a touch circuit board 120 , at least two pressure sensors 130 , a cover 140 and a vibrator 150 .

The touch circuit board 120 is fixed on the support member 110 , and the touch circuit board 120 has a through hole 121 . The pressure sensor 130 is fixed on the touch circuit board 120 , and the pressure sensor 130 is located between the touch circuit board 120 and the casing 14 . The cover plate 140 is covered on the touch circuit board 120 , for example, by bonding. The cover plate 140 may be made of non-metallic materials such as glass, plastic or polyester film, but is not limited thereto.

In this embodiment, the vibrator 150 may be a linear resonant actuator (Linear Resonant Actuators, LRA) or an eccentric rotating inertia motor (Eccentric Rotating Mass, ERM), but is not limited thereto. As shown in FIG. 3 , the vibrator 150 is fixed on the cover plate 140 , and a part of the vibrator 150 is embedded in the touch circuit board 120 . Specifically, the vibrator 150 passes through the opening 111 of the supporting member 110 and is buried in the through hole 121 .

As shown in FIG. 3, the thickness of the touch circuit board 120 (for example, 0.8 mm) is smaller than the thickness of the vibrator 150 (for example, 2 mm), and the vibrator 150 is protruded by the touch circuit board 120 and the support member 110. out. Based on this structural design, the thickness of the touch panel 100 on the Z-axis can be greatly reduced, so the touch panel 100 can be installed in an ultra-thin notebook computer.

In this embodiment, the touch circuit board 120 has a rectangular structure, and the touch panel 100 includes four pressure sensors 130 disposed at four corners of the touch circuit board 120 , but it is not limited thereto. In other embodiments, the touch panel 100 may only include two pressure sensors 130 disposed at the center of the two short sides 122 of the touch circuit board 120 or at two diagonal corners.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the touch circuit board 120 has a first long side 123 and a second long side 124, and the first long side 123 is closer to a keyboard than the second long side 124 (such as the first long side 124 The keyboard 13 of the electronic device 10 in the figure), and the vibrator 150 is embedded in the center between the first long side 123 and the second long side 124 , but not limited thereto.

For example, in other embodiments, the vibrator 150 and the through hole 121 may be disposed near the second long side 124 . In addition, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the length of the through hole 121 is, for example, less than 8 mm, and the width is, for example, less than 4 mm.

Next, please refer to Figure 3 to Figure 6 at the same time. FIG. 5 is a schematic top view of the touch circuit board 120 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram of the touch circuit board 120 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The touch circuit board 120 includes a plurality of first driving electrodes, a plurality of first sensing electrodes, at least one second driving electrode and at least one second sensing electrode.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the touch circuit board 120 may be provided with eight first driving electrodes TX1-TX8, five first sensing electrodes RX1-RX5, two second driving electrodes TX3E-TX4E and two The second sensing electrodes RX2E~RX3E. Wherein, the intervals between the adjacent first driving electrodes are the same, and the intervals between the adjacent first sensing electrodes are the same.

In this embodiment, the through hole 121 is disposed at the center of the touch circuit board 120, and a part of the second driving electrodes TX3E˜TX4E and a part of the second sensing electrodes RX2E˜RX3E surround the through hole 121 .

In addition, a part of the first driving electrode TX4 and a part of the first sensing electrode RX3 also surround the through hole 121 . That is, the second driving electrodes TX3E˜TX4E, the second sensing electrodes RX2E˜RX3E, the first driving electrode TX4 and the first sensing electrode RX3 are not a continuous straight line.

As shown in FIG. 6, the touch panel 100 may further include a control chip 160 configured to be electrically connected to the first driving electrode, the second driving electrode, the first sensing electrode and the second sensing electrode, and may be based on these The signals of the driving electrodes and the sensing electrodes are used to determine the touch track of the user on the touch panel 100 .

It is worth noting that the second drive electrode TX3E is set between the first drive electrodes TX3~TX4, the second drive electrode TX4E is set between the first drive electrodes TX4~TX5, and the second sensing electrode RX2E is set between the first drive electrodes TX4~TX5. Between the sensing electrodes RX2-RX3, and the second sensing electrode RX3E is disposed between the first sensing electrodes RX3-RX4. In this embodiment, the distance between the second driving electrode and the two adjacent first driving electrodes is the same, and the distance between the second sensing electrode and the two adjacent first sensing electrodes is the same, but it is not limited thereto.

Based on additionally disposing a second driving electrode between the two first driving electrodes adjacent to the through hole 121 and additionally disposing a second sensing electrode between the two first sensing electrodes adjacent to the through hole 121, more information can be provided to the control chip 160 , so that when the user's touch track crosses the through hole 121, the control chip 160 can accurately determine the user's touch track according to the signals of the additionally provided second driving electrodes and second sensing electrodes without misjudgment The case of touch traces.

That is to say, the control chip 160 can predict the track of the user's finger passing through the through hole 121 according to the signals of the first and second driving electrodes and the first and second sensing electrodes together with an algorithm, so that the touch circuit board 120 can Accurately achieve the touch function required by the user.

For example, when the user's finger slides over the touch panel 100 as shown by the arrows AW in FIG. The signals of the sensing electrodes RX2-RX4 and the second sensing electrodes RX2E-RX3E are combined with an algorithm to determine that the trajectory sliding through the through hole 121 is a straight line, and control the mouse cursor to move in a straight line in real time and correspondingly.

Please refer to FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 . FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a method 300 for controlling the vibration of the vibrator 150 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In the present disclosure, the control chip 160 is configured to be electrically connected to at least two pressure sensors 130 , and the control chip 160 is configured to control the vibrator 150 to vibrate according to the sensing values of the at least two pressure sensors 130 . The specific control method is described in the next steps.

In step 302 , the control chip 160 is configured to receive the sensing value of the pressure sensor 130 . When the user touches the touchpad 100 , the pressure sensor 130 can sense the force of the finger touch and output the value to the control chip 160 .

In step 304, the control chip 160 determines whether the sensed value of the pressure sensor 130 is greater than a preset threshold. For example, the preset threshold may be 100 grams to 150 grams. When the control chip 160 determines that the sensing value is less than the preset threshold (for example, 100 grams), the control chip 160 determines that the user does not press the touchpad 100 along the Z axis, and then the process returns to step 302 .

On the other hand, when the control chip 160 determines that the sensing value is greater than or equal to the preset threshold (eg, 100 grams), the control chip 160 determines that the user presses the touchpad 100 along the Z axis, and then executes step 306 .

In step 306 , the control chip 160 further determines whether the range pressed by the user covers the through hole 121 . For example, when the user's pressing range does not cover the through hole 121 (for example, in FIG. 5 , the user's finger pressing range is completely outside the through hole 121), the control chip 160 will only receive the first sensing electrode RX1 A first output signal of at least one of ~RX5, but does not receive a second output signal output by the second sensing electrodes RX2E~RX3E corresponding to the second driving electrodes TX3E~TX4E. Therefore, the control chip 160 can determine that the pressing range does not cover the through hole 121 . Next, step 308 is executed.

As shown in FIG. 6 , the touch panel 100 may further include a driver chip 170 and in step 308 , the control chip 160 outputs a first vibration signal to the driver chip 170 . Next, in step 310 , the driver chip 170 drives the vibrator 150 to generate a first vibration according to the first vibration signal.

Furthermore, when the user's pressing range covers the through hole 121 , the control chip 160 will receive a second output signal corresponding to at least one of the second sensing electrodes RX2E˜RX3E of the second driving electrodes TX3E˜TX4E. Therefore, the control chip 160 can determine that the pressed position covers the through hole 121 . Next, continue to execute step 312 .

In step 312 , the control chip 160 outputs a second vibration signal to the driving chip 170 . Next, in step 314 , the driver chip 170 drives the vibrator 150 to generate a second vibration according to the second vibration signal. It should be noted that the intensity of the second vibration is smaller than that of the first vibration.

Based on the above design, when the user touches different positions of the touch panel 100 (covering or not covering the through hole 121), the vibrator 150 can emit vibrations of different magnitudes to provide different degrees of vibration feedback to the user. .

Please refer to FIG. 8 , which is a schematic cross-sectional view of a touch panel 200 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. In this embodiment, a notch 141 can be formed on the cover plate 140 , and a part of the vibrator 150 is embedded in the notch 141 . In some embodiments, the thickness of the cover plate 140 is 0.7 to 1 mm, and the depth of the notch 141 may be 0.5 mm, for example.

Based on the above structural design, a part of the vibrator 150 can be buried in the notch 141 under the condition that the strength of the cover plate 140 is sufficient, so as to further reduce the thickness of the touch panel 200 on the Z-axis.

In summary, the present disclosure provides a touch panel 100, including a touch circuit board 120, a through hole 121 is formed on the touch circuit board 120, and further has a plurality of first driving electrodes, first sensing electrodes, at least one The second driving electrode and at least one second sensing electrode. The extending arrangement of the first driving electrode, the second driving electrode, the first sensing electrode and the second sensing electrode corresponding to the through hole 121 is not a straight line segment, but partially surrounds the through hole 121 .

By increasing the density of the driving electrodes and sensing electrodes adjacent to the through hole 121, when the user's touch track crosses the through hole 121, the control chip 160 can accurately determine the user's touch track without Misjudgment of the touch trajectory.

In addition, in some embodiments, when the user presses the touchpad 100 with a finger, the control chip 160 determines whether the pressing range covers the through hole 121 according to the received output signals of the driving electrodes and the sensing electrodes. When the pressing range covers the through hole 121 , the vibrator 150 can emit a small vibration, and when the pressing range does not cover the through hole 121 , the vibrator 150 can emit a large vibration to provide different levels of vibration feedback to the user.

Although the embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages have been disclosed above, it should be understood that those skilled in the art can make changes, substitutions and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. In addition, the protection scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the process, machine, manufacture, material composition, device, method and steps in the specific embodiments described in the specification, and anyone with ordinary knowledge in the technical field can learn from the content of the present disclosure It is understood that the current or future developed process, machine, manufacture, material composition, device, method and step can be used according to the present disclosure as long as it can perform substantially the same function or obtain substantially the same result in the embodiments described herein. Therefore, the protection scope of the present disclosure includes the above-mentioned process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, device, method and steps. In addition, each patent application scope constitutes an individual embodiment, and the protection scope of the present disclosure also includes combinations of various patent application scopes and embodiments.

10: Electronic device 11: Display module 12: Host module 13: keyboard 14: shell 20:Touchpad 21: Support 22: Touch circuit board 23: Pressure sensor 24: cover plate 25: vibrator 100:Touchpad 110: support piece 111: opening 120: Touch circuit board 121: through hole 122: short side 123: The first long side 124: second longest side 130: Pressure sensor 140: cover plate 141: notch 150: vibrator 160: control chip 170: drive chip 200: Touchpad 300: method 302, 304, 306, 308, 310, 312, 314: steps AW: Arrow RX1~RX5: the first sensing electrode RX2E~RX3E: The second sensing electrode TX1~TX8: the first driving electrode TX3E~TX4E: The second driving electrode X:X-axis Y: Y-axis Z: Z-axis

The present disclosure can be clearly understood through the following detailed descriptions and diagrams. It is emphasized that, in accordance with the standard practice in the industry, various features are not drawn to scale and are used for illustration purposes only. In fact, the dimensions of the various features may be arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity of illustration.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a touch panel 20 along the section line A-A' in FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a touch panel 100 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a schematic bottom view of the touch panel 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a schematic top view of a touch circuit board 120 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram of the touch circuit board 120 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a method 300 for controlling the vibration of the vibrator 150 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a touch panel 200 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

14: shell

100:Touchpad

110: support piece

111: opening

120: Touch circuit board

121: through hole

130: Pressure sensor

140: cover plate

150: vibrator

X: X-axis

Y: Y-axis

Z: Z-axis

Claims (9)

A touch panel with a vibration function is arranged on a housing of an electronic device, the touch panel includes: a support; a touch circuit board fixed on the support, and the touch circuit board has A through hole; two pressure sensors, fixed on the touch circuit board, and the two pressure sensors are located between the touch circuit board and the housing; a cover plate, covered on the touch circuit board ; and a vibrator, fixed on the cover plate, and a part of the vibrator is embedded in the touch circuit board; wherein, the touch circuit board includes a plurality of first driving electrodes, a plurality of first sensing electrodes electrode, at least one second driving electrode, and at least one second sensing electrode, and a part of the at least one second driving electrode and a part of the at least one second sensing electrode surround the through hole; wherein the cover plate is composed of Made of non-metallic materials such as glass, plastic or polyester film. The touch panel with vibration function as described in claim 1, wherein the at least one second driving electrode is arranged between adjacent two of the first driving electrodes, and the at least one second sensing electrode is arranged Between two adjacent first sensing electrodes. The touch panel with vibration function as described in claim 1, wherein the touch circuit board has a rectangular structure, and the two pressure sensors are arranged on two short sides or two sides of the touch circuit board Diagonal corners. The touch panel with vibration function as described in claim 3, wherein the touch circuit board has a first long side and a second long side, and the first long side is adjacent to the second long side A keyboard of the electronic device, and the vibrator and the through hole are arranged at the second long side. The touch panel with vibrating function according to claim 1, wherein the cover plate is formed with a notch, and a part of the vibrator is buried in the notch. The touch panel with vibration function according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the touch circuit board is smaller than the thickness of the vibrator, and the vibrator protrudes from the touch circuit board and the supporting member. The touch panel with vibration function as described in claim 1, wherein the touch panel further includes a control chip configured to be electrically connected to the at least two pressure sensors, and the control chip is configured to operate according to the two pressure sensors The sensing value of the sensor controls the vibrator to vibrate. The touch panel with a vibration function as described in claim 7, wherein when the control chip only receives a first output signal of at least one of the first sensing electrodes but does not receive a signal corresponding to the second driving electrode When receiving a second output signal from the second sensing electrode, the control chip controls the vibrator to generate a first vibration. The touch panel with vibration function as described in claim 8, wherein when the control chip receives the second output signal of the second sensing electrode corresponding to the second driving electrode, the control chip controls the vibrator A second vibration is generated, wherein the intensity of the second vibration is smaller than the intensity of the first vibration.

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