TWM644250U - electronic device - Google Patents

Abstract

This case discloses an electronic device, which includes at least one metal sensing element, a capacitive touch panel, a processor and a functional module. The capacitive touch panel includes a control unit and an edge sensing area circuit. The edge sensing area line is electrically connected to the control unit and the metal sensing element. The control unit can detect the capacitance value change generated by the metal sensing element through the edge sensing area line to Output a capacitor value information. The processor is electrically connected to the control unit to receive capacitance information and generate a control signal according to the capacitance information. The function module is electrically connected to the processor, and receives the control signal, so as to execute the corresponding function according to the control signal. Therefore, in this case, the control unit can detect whether the human body is close to the electronic device by detecting the capacitance change generated by the metal sensing element through the edge sensing area circuit.

Description

electronic device

This case is about an electronic device that uses a touchpad to switch functions.

With the vigorous development of wireless communication technology, whether the electromagnetic radiation produced by electronic products will cause human health effects has also received considerable attention. Specific Absorption Rating (SAR) of electromagnetic waves is an important index to measure the impact of radiation from wireless communication devices in electronic products on the human body. Relevant government agencies have formulated SAR levels suitable for mobile communication and telecommunications equipment to meet safety standards. with legal value.

Taking notebook computers as an example, since the SAR value is usually proportional to the communication power (radio frequency power) of the wireless communication device, when notebook computers need to perform wireless power reduction, it is often necessary to set a capacitive A capacitive sensor is used to sense whether a human body is approaching or in use through a capacitive sensor, and adjust the communication power accordingly. However, the traditional sensing of human proximity requires an additional capacitive sensor, and the capacitive sensor will also take up space on the motherboard, which does not meet the design requirements of current notebook computers that are thin, light and small.

This application provides an electronic device, which includes at least one metal sensing element, a capacitive touch panel, a processor and a functional module. The capacitive touch panel includes a control unit and an edge sensing area circuit. The edge sensing area line is electrically connected to the control unit and the metal sensing element. The control unit can detect the capacitance value change generated by the metal sensing element through the edge sensing area line. to output a capacitor value information. The processor is electrically connected to the control unit to generate a control signal according to the capacitance value information. The function module is electrically connected to the processor, and receives the control signal, so as to execute the corresponding function according to the control signal.

To sum up, this case proposes an electronic device, which uses the function of a capacitive touch panel and a metal sensing element to effectively detect the change in the capacitance value of the metal sensing element, and achieve function switching according to the change in capacitance value. Moreover, in this case, the capacitive touch panel directly replaces the capacitive sensing element, so the cost of the capacitive sensing element can be saved, and the space of the motherboard can also be saved, so as to meet the current design requirements of thin, light and small electronic devices.

Preferred embodiments are proposed below for detailed description. However, the embodiments are only used as examples for illustration and will not limit the scope of protection of this application. In addition, some components are omitted from the drawings in the embodiments to clearly show the technical characteristics of the present case. The same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or similar elements.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , an electronic device 10 mainly includes at least one metal sensing element 12 , 14 , a capacitive touch panel 16 , a processor 18 and a functional module 20 . In one embodiment, the electronic device 10 is a notebook computer, but this application is not limited thereto.

As shown in FIG. 1 , in the electronic device 10, at least one metal sensing element is set. Here, two metal sensing elements 12 and 14 are taken as an example. As shown in FIG. 2 , the metal sensing elements 12 and 14 are respectively arranged on A position with good signal reception in the casing 22 of the electronic device 10 is used to sense whether the human body is approaching. The capacitive touch panel 16 includes a control unit 161 and an edge sensing area circuit 162, wherein the control unit 161 is a microcontroller (MCU) or a control integrated circuit (control IC) built in the capacitive touch panel 16; The sensing area circuit 162 originally belongs to a part of the touch sensing area 163 of the capacitive touch panel 16. As shown in FIG. Moreover, the number of areas in the touch sensing area 163 used as the edge sensing area lines 162 can be elastically adjusted according to the number of metal sensing elements 12, 14. As long as it does not affect other areas other than the main sliding area of the touch sensing area 163, they can be used as Sensing edge sensing area lines 162 of metal sensing elements 12 and 14 . The edge sensing area circuit 162 is electrically connected to the control unit 161 and the metal sensing elements 12, 14. The control unit 161 can detect the capacitance change generated by the metal sensing elements 12, 14 through the edge sensing area line 162, and output a capacitance value information. When a human body approaches the metal sensing elements 12, 14, the capacitance value of the metal sensing elements 12, 14 will increase, and the control unit 161 can detect that the capacitance values generated by the metal sensing elements 12, 14 increase and change through the edge sensing area circuit 162 , and then output the corresponding capacitance value information; when the human body is far away from the metal sensing elements 12, 14, the capacitance value of the metal sensing elements 12, 14 will decrease, and the control unit 161 can detect the metal sensing elements 12, 14 through the edge sensing area circuit 162 The capacitance value generated in 14 decreases and changes, and then outputs the corresponding capacitance value information. The processor 18 is electrically connected to the control unit 161 of the capacitive touch panel 16 to receive capacitance information from the control unit 161 and generate a control signal according to the capacitance information. The function module 20 is electrically connected to the processor 18 and receives a control signal to execute corresponding functions according to the control signal.

In one embodiment, please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 4 at the same time. The functional module 20 is a wireless communication module 24. The metal sensing elements 12 and 14 are detected by the control unit 161 through the edge sensing area circuit 162. After the capacitance value changes and correspondingly outputs the capacitance value information to the processor 18, when the processor 18 generates a control signal to the wireless communication module 24 according to the capacitance value information, the wireless communication module 24 will perform corresponding adjustment of a communication power according to the control signal The function is to determine the communication power of the wireless communication module 24 according to the change of the capacitance value. When the processor 18 judges that the capacitance value information from the control unit 161 is greater than a preset value, it means that a human body is close to the electronic device 10, such as the electronic device 10 (notebook computer) shown in FIG. The device 18 will notify the wireless communication module 24 to reduce the communication power through the control signal, so that the wireless communication module 24 uses low power transmission signals to comply with the SAR regulations; and when the processor 18 judges that the capacitance value information is less than the preset value, it indicates The human body 26 is far away from the electronic device 10 or no human body 26 is close to the electronic device 10. The electronic device 10 (notebook computer) shown in FIG. 18 will notify the wireless communication module 24 to increase the communication power through the control signal, so that the wireless communication module 24 uses high-power transmission signals to increase the wireless receiving range.

In one embodiment, the wireless communication module 24 is a common wireless network card, such as a wireless network/(WIFI) network card or a wireless wide area network (WWAN) network card, etc., but this case is not limited thereto.

In one embodiment, please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 7 at the same time. The functional module 20 is a power option 30. The power option 30 is a collection of hardware and system settings in the electronic device 10 for management. The power usage mode of the electronic device 10 . After the control unit 161 detects the capacitance value change generated by the metal sensing elements 12 and 14 through the edge sensing area circuit 162 and outputs the capacitance value information to the processor 18, the processor 18 generates a control signal to the power option 30 according to the capacitance value information. , the power option 30 will perform the function of switching a power mode according to the control signal, wherein under the setting of the general operating system (such as Microsoft operating system) built in the electronic device 10, the power mode includes a balanced mode, a high-efficiency mode and A power saving mode and other three modes. When the processor 18 judges that the capacitance value information is greater than a preset value, it means that a human body 26 is detected to be close to the electronic device 10, and the electronic device 10 (notebook computer) shown in FIG. The power option 30 is notified by the control signal to switch the power mode to the power saving mode. In the power saving mode, the performance of the system in the electronic device 10 is reduced to reduce the usage rate of the processor 18 and reduce the overall temperature of the electronic device 10. The electronic device 10 is not overheated, so that the user has the most comfortable use situation. When the processor 18 judges that the capacitance value information is less than the preset value, and the electronic device 10 is connected to a power source, such as a power adapter (adapter), it means that the human body 26 is far away from the electronic device 10 or that no human body 26 is close to the electronic device 10 . The electronic device 10 (notebook computer) shown in FIG. 6 is placed on a table 28 to keep the human body 26 away from the electronic device 10. At this time, the processor 18 notifies the power option 30 through a control signal to switch the power mode to high performance mode, to increase the utilization rate of the processor 18, so as to improve the overall performance. When the processor 18 judges that the capacitance information is less than the preset value and the electronic device 10 is not connected to the power source, the processor 18 notifies the power option 30 to switch the power mode to a balanced mode through a control signal to automatically balance performance and power consumption.

In another embodiment, please refer to Fig. 1 and Fig. 7 at the same time, the functional module 20 is also a power supply option 30, and the control unit 161 detects the metal sensing element 12, 14 generated by the edge sensing area circuit 162 After the capacitance value changes and correspondingly outputs the capacitance value information to the processor 18, when the processor 18 generates a control signal to the power option 30 according to the capacitance value information, the power option 30 will perform the function of switching a power mode according to the control signal, wherein in the electronic device 10 Under the settings of the built-in operating system, the power mode includes two modes: a high-efficiency mode and a power-saving mode. When the processor 18 judges that the capacitance value information is greater than a preset value, it means that a human body 26 is detected to be close to the electronic device 10, and the electronic device 10 (notebook computer) shown in FIG. The power option 30 is notified by the control signal to switch the power mode to the power saving mode. In the power saving mode, the performance of the system in the electronic device 10 is reduced to reduce the usage rate of the processor 18 and reduce the overall temperature of the electronic device 10. The electronic device 10 will not be overheated, so that the user can have the most comfortable use situation. When the processor 18 judges that the capacitance value information is less than the preset value, it means that the human body 26 is far away from the electronic device 10 or that no human body 26 is close to the electronic device 10. The electronic device 10 (notebook computer) shown in FIG. 6 is placed on a table 28 to keep the human body 26 away from the electronic device 10. At this time, the processor 18 notifies the power option 30 to switch the power mode to a high-efficiency mode through a control signal to increase the utilization rate of the processor 18 to improve the overall performance.

In one embodiment, as shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 4 and Fig. 7, there can be one or more metal sensing elements 12, 14. In this embodiment, two metal sensing elements 12, 14 are used as an example, However, the quantity or type of metal sensing elements 12, 14 can be determined according to actual needs, and this case is not limited thereto. In one embodiment, the metal sensing elements 12 and 14 are an antenna, a circuit board with metal lines (flexible printed circuit board) or a combination thereof, or other electronic components with variable capacitance.

In one embodiment, the processor 18 is a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), an embedded controller (embedded controller, EC), or other general purpose or special purpose microprocessor (microprocessor), microprocessor Control unit (micro control unit, MCU), digital signal processor (digital signal processor, DSP), programmable controller, application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC) or other similar components or a combination of the above components , this case is not limited to this.

The traditional use of capacitive sensing elements will occupy about 11 mm*8 mm of space on the motherboard, but in this case, since the antenna or flexible printed circuit board (FPC) is directly used as the metal sensing element in this case, it only needs to be placed on the The circuit board in the capacitive touch panel is installed with the antenna buckle female seat or the FPC female seat, and the circuit of the edge sensing area of the capacitive touch panel is electrically connected to the antenna buckle female seat, and the antenna buckle female seat is then connected to the Antenna, or electrically connect the edge sensing area of the capacitive touch panel to the FPC female seat and then connect the FPC female seat to the flexible printed circuit board, so that the edge sensing area line is electrically connected to the antenna or the metal of the flexible printed circuit board For the sensing element, since the antenna buckle female seat is about 2 mm*2 mm, and the FPC female seat is about 5 mm*3 mm, it will only occupy a small amount of space. Based on this, this case not only saves the space of the motherboard, but also saves the cost of the capacitive sensing element. Furthermore, in this case, the capacitive touch panel is directly applied to detect whether the human body is approaching by sensing the capacitance change caused by the touch, so that the control unit senses the capacitance value change of the metal sensing element through the edge sensing area line, and cooperates with the electronic device The function module, judge its use status and make the function module execute the corresponding function mechanism.

To sum up, this case proposes an electronic device, which uses the function of a capacitive touch panel and a metal sensing element to effectively detect the change in the capacitance value of the metal sensing element, and achieve function switching according to the change in capacitance value. Moreover, in this case, the capacitive touch panel directly replaces the capacitive sensing element, so the cost of the capacitive sensing element can be saved, and the space of the motherboard can also be saved, so as to meet the current design requirements of thin, light and small electronic devices. Among them, when this case adjusts the communication power function of the wireless communication module through the change of capacitance value, this case can judge whether the human body is approaching or moving away according to the change of capacitance value, and adjust the communication power of the wireless communication module according to the usage situation. In order to comply with the safety standard of SAR, and to maintain good transmission performance of the electronic device. When this case adjusts the function of the power mode through the change of the capacitance value, the case can judge whether the human body is approaching or moving away according to the change of the capacitance value, and adjust the power mode of the power option according to the usage situation to provide users with a good usage situation. or use potency.

The above-mentioned embodiments are only to illustrate the technical ideas and characteristics of this case. Equal changes or modifications made to the disclosed spirit should still be covered within the scope of the patent application in this case.

10: Electronic device 12,14: metal sensing element 16: Capacitive touch panel 161: Control unit 162: Edge sensing area circuit 163:Touch sensing area 18: Processor 20: Functional module 22: shell 24: Wireless communication module 26: Human body 28: table 30:Power Options

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the appearance of an electronic device provided with a metal sensing element according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the position of the circuit in the edge sensing area of the capacitive touch panel used in the electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention located in the touch sensing area. FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic device according to another embodiment of the present application. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a usage scenario where an electronic device is placed on a human leg according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a usage scenario where an electronic device is placed on a table according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic device according to yet another embodiment of the present application.

10: Electronic device

12,14: metal sensing element

16: Capacitive touch panel

161: Control unit

162: Edge sensing area circuit

18: Processor

20: Functional module

Claims (10)

An electronic device comprising: at least one metal sensing element; A capacitive touch panel, which includes a control unit and an edge sensing area circuit, and the edge sensing area line is electrically connected to the control unit and the metal sensing element, and the control unit can detect through the edge sensing area line The capacitance value change generated by the metal sensing element is used to output a capacitance value information; a processor electrically connected to the control unit to generate a control signal according to the capacitance information; and A functional module is electrically connected to the processor and receives the control signal to execute corresponding functions according to the control signal. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor can determine whether a human body is close to the electronic device by detecting the change of the capacitance value generated by the metal sensing element through the edge sensing area circuit by the control unit. The electronic device as described in claim 2, wherein the functional module is a wireless communication module, and the processor generates the control signal to the wireless communication module, so that the wireless communication module executes the function of adjusting a communication power Function. The electronic device as described in claim 3, wherein the processor notifies the wireless communication module to lower the communication power through the control signal when judging that the capacitance value information is greater than a preset value; and the processor judges the capacitance value When the information is less than the preset value, the control signal is used to notify the wireless communication module to increase the communication power. The electronic device as described in claim 2, wherein the functional module is a power option, and the processor generates the control signal to the power option, so that the power option performs the function of switching a power mode. The electronic device according to claim 5, wherein the power mode includes a balance mode, a high-efficiency mode and a power-saving mode. The electronic device as described in claim 6, wherein when the processor determines that the capacitance value information is greater than a preset value, it notifies the power option to switch to the power saving mode through the control signal; the processor determines that the capacitance value information is less than When the default value and the electronic device is connected to a power source, the control signal is used to notify the power option to switch to the high-efficiency mode; and the processor determines that the capacitance value information is less than the default value and the electronic device is not connected When the power supply is turned on, the control signal is used to notify the power supply option to switch to the balanced mode. The electronic device according to claim 5, wherein the power mode includes a high-efficiency mode and a power-saving mode. The electronic device as described in claim 8, wherein when the processor determines that the capacitance value information is greater than a preset value, it notifies the power option to switch to the power saving mode through the control signal; and the processor determines the capacitance value information When the value is less than the preset value, the control signal is used to notify the power option to switch to the high-efficiency mode. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the metal sensing element is an antenna, a circuit board with metal lines or a combination thereof.

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