TWI850048B - Panel driving device and panel driving method - Google Patents

Abstract

A panel driving device and a panel driving method are provided. The panel driving device is suitable for a panel structure with an electromagnetic sensor and a touch sensing and display layer. The panel driving device includes an electromagnetic sensing device and a touch display integration device. The electromagnetic sensing device controls the electromagnetic sensor. The touch display integration device is directly coupled to the electromagnetic sensing device, and the touch display integration device controls the touch sensing and display layer. The electromagnetic sensing device enables a block signal in an electromagnetic sensing period to the touch display integration device. The touch display integration device disables a touch sensing of the touch sensing and display layer according to an enable period of the block signal. The electromagnetic sensing device enables an electromagnetic sensing of the electromagnetic sensor during the electromagnetic sensing period.

Description

Panel driving device and panel driving method

The present invention relates to a panel driving technology with touch and electromagnetic sensing functions, and in particular to a panel driving device and a panel driving method.

Currently, the input devices for consumer electronic products are mainly touch panels, and some products also use stylus as another input device. Using fingers to operate electronic products is intuitive and convenient, but it may not be suitable for all occasions. If you need to input on a small electronic product panel or want to input content accurately, it is more convenient to use a stylus to input in writing.

On the other hand, as panels become thinner and lighter, many devices installed on the panels are being studied towards integration. However, the display screen, touch panel, and stylus sensing module on the panel may interfere with each other due to being too close to each other, causing the touch point to shake at the least, or causing the stylus to break lines and become insensitive when drawing lines. Therefore, one of the research directions is how to make the display screen, touch panel, and stylus sensing module operate normally when they are very close to each other.

The present invention provides a panel driving device and a panel driving method, which adopts timing division to avoid touch sensing and electromagnetic sensing from operating at the same time, thereby avoiding mutual interference between touch sensing and electromagnetic sensing.

The panel driving device of the present invention is applicable to a panel structure having an electromagnetic sensor and a touch sensing and display layer. The panel driving device includes an electromagnetic sensing device and a touch display integration device. The electromagnetic sensing device is used to control the electromagnetic sensor. The touch display integration device is directly coupled to the electromagnetic sensing device and is used to control the touch sensing and display layer. The electromagnetic sensing device enables a blocking signal to the touch display integration device during the electromagnetic sensing period. The touch display integration device disables the touch sensing of the touch sensing and display layer according to the enabling period of the blocking signal. The electromagnetic sensing device enables electromagnetic sensing of the electromagnetic sensor during the electromagnetic sensing period.

The panel driving method of the present invention is applicable to a panel structure having an electromagnetic sensor and a touch sensing and display layer. The panel driving method includes: enabling a blocking signal during the electromagnetic sensing period; disabling the touch sensing of the touch sensing and display layer during the enabling period of the blocking signal; and enabling the electromagnetic sensing of the electromagnetic sensor during the electromagnetic sensing period.

Based on the above, the panel driving device and panel driving method described in the embodiment of the present invention utilize the electromagnetic sensing device in the panel driving device to actively provide a blocking signal to the touch display integrated device during the electromagnetic sensing period, so that the touch display integrated device disables touch sensing during the electromagnetic sensing period, thereby adopting a timing division of labor to avoid touch sensing and electromagnetic sensing from operating at the same time period, thereby avoiding mutual interference between touch sensing and electromagnetic sensing.

110A, 110B: Panel structure

112: Glass layer

114: Touch panel

115, 117: Polarizer

116-1: Liquid crystal display layer

116-2: Touch sensing and display layer

118: Backlight module

119: Electromagnetic sensor layer

200: Panel drive device

210: Host device

220: Touch display integrated device

230: Electromagnetic sensing device

S310~S370: Steps of panel driving method

410~480: Arrow

Dframe1, Dframe2: display frame

DG11~DG13, DG21~DG23: Display group

TE: Touch enabling time period

TDdis: Touch disabled time period

DDrv: Display time period

dPenS: proximity detection signal

Sdis: blocking signal

TP1, TP2: time point

EMREN: Electromagnetic sensing period

TIS: Touch Interrupt Signal

TSS: Touch Sense Signal

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a panel structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a panel driving device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a flow chart of a panel driving method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG4 is a schematic diagram of the signals corresponding to the panel and the panel driving device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a panel structure according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 includes two types of panel structures 110A and 110B. FIG. 1 panel structure 110A includes a glass layer 112, a touch panel 114, polarizers 115 and 117, a liquid crystal display layer 116-1, a backlight module 118, and an electromagnetic sensor (EMR) layer 119. The touch panel 114 can be a capacitive touch panel, and the user can input information of the electronic product through the touch panel 114 with a finger. The polarizers 115 and 117, the liquid crystal display layer 116-1, and the backlight module 118 serve as the display screen of the electronic product. The electromagnetic sensor layer 119 is used to sense the approach, touch and distance of the stylus or corresponding touch element, thereby realizing the information input of the stylus or touch element.

Since the distance D1 between the touch panel 114 and the electromagnetic sensor layer 119 in FIG. 1 is relatively large, there is relatively little interference between the two. With the development of technology, the touch panel 114 and the liquid crystal display layer 116-1 in the panel structure 110A in FIG. 1 can be integrated with each other into the touch sensing and display layer 116-2 in the panel structure 110B in FIG. 1, thereby making the panel thinner as a whole, but also making the distance D2 between the touch sensing and display layer 116-2 and the electromagnetic sensor layer 119 in FIG. 1 even shorter, resulting in the mutual interference between the touch sensing and display layer 116-2 and the electromagnetic sensor layer 119. The components with the same number in the panel structures 110A and 110B in FIG. 1 have the same functions.

The touch sensing and display layer 116-2 is controlled by a touch display integration device (e.g., a touch panel integration (TDDI) chip), and the electromagnetic sensor layer 119 is controlled by an electromagnetic sensing device. The two devices do not communicate with each other.

Therefore, the embodiments corresponding to the present invention establish a communication channel between the aforementioned touch display integrated device and the electromagnetic sensing device, so that the electromagnetic sensing device can use a signal to notify the touch display integrated device, so that the touch display integrated device knows when the electromagnetic sensing device will start and end the electromagnetic sensing of the touch pen. At this time, the touch display integrated device will suspend its own touch sensing function to avoid mutual interference between the electromagnetic sensing and touch sensing functions. The following embodiments consistent with the present invention are provided for reference.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a panel driving device 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The panel driving device 200 is applicable to a panel structure having an electromagnetic sensor and a touch sensing and display layer, for example, the panel structure 110B in FIG. 1 . The panel driving device 200 is coupled to a corresponding driven panel to implement the embodiment of the present invention. The panel driving device 200 includes a host device 210, a touch display integrated device 220, and an electromagnetic sensing device 230. The host device 210 is coupled to the electromagnetic sensing device 230 and the touch display integrated device 220. The host device 210 is used to maintain the operation of the panel driving device 200. The host device 210 of this embodiment can be a motherboard, central processing unit, etc. of a consumer electronic device (such as a tablet device, a laptop, a mobile phone).

In some embodiments, the host device 210 may not have sufficient computing power and the overall system may be unstable. If the host device 210 is used to drive the embodiment of the present invention, it is easy to cause problems such as untimely switching and loss of user writing experience due to pauses. Therefore, the embodiment of the present invention mainly uses the blocking signal Sdis provided by the electromagnetic sensing device 230 directly to the touch display integration device 220 in Figure 2 to realize timing division of labor.

The touch display integrated device 220 is directly coupled to the electromagnetic sensing device 230. The touch display integrated device 220 is used to control the touch sensing and display layer in the panel structure (for example, the touch sensing and display layer 116-2 in FIG. 1). The electromagnetic sensing device 230 is used to control the electromagnetic sensor in the panel structure (for example, the electromagnetic sensor layer 119 in FIG. 1). The touch display integrated device 220 can be implemented using a touch panel integration (TDDI) chip.

The electromagnetic sensing device 230 of this embodiment is directly coupled to the touch display integrated device 220 using a general purpose input and output (GPIO) pin. The electromagnetic sensing device 230 uses the general purpose input and output pin to provide the blocking signal Sdis of this embodiment to the touch display integrated device 220.

The electromagnetic sensing device 230 enables the blocking signal Sdis to the touch display integrated device 220 during the electromagnetic sensing period. The touch display integrated device disables the touch sensing and touch sensing of the display layer according to the enabling period of the blocking signal Sdis. In addition, the electromagnetic sensing device 230 enables the electromagnetic sensing of the electromagnetic sensor during the aforementioned electromagnetic sensing period. In this way, timing division of labor can be adopted to avoid the touch sensing controlled by the touch display integrated device 220 and the electromagnetic sensing controlled by the electromagnetic sensing device 230 from operating at the same time. The detailed panel driving method and the corresponding signals in the panel driving device 200 are shown in Figures 3 and 4, so that those who apply this embodiment can better understand it.

FIG3 is a flow chart of a panel driving method according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG4 is a schematic diagram of the signals corresponding to the panel and the panel driving device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG3 and FIG4 can be implemented by the panel driving device 200 in FIG2. In order to describe this embodiment in detail, steps S310, S320, S330, S350 and S360 in FIG3 are executed by the electromagnetic sensing device 230 in FIG2, and steps S340, S3450 and S370 in FIG3 are executed by the touch display integrated device 220 in FIG2.

Here, the first three horizontal columns of FIG. 4 are explained. The first three horizontal columns of FIG. 4 present the actions of multiple display frames, display groups, and touch sensing and display layers. Each display frame includes one or more display groups, for example, display frame Dframe1 includes three display groups DG11, DG12, and DG13; display frame Dframe2 includes three display groups DG21, DG22, and DG23. Each display group includes one or more touch time periods and display time periods DDrv. The touch time periods planned in a display group can be divided into touch enable time periods TE and touch disable time periods TDdis. In the touch-enabled period TE, the touch-display integrated device 220 in FIG. 2 detects the touch position of the finger through the touch-sensing and display layer 116-2 in FIG. 1 and sends the corresponding coordinate command to the host device 210. This operation is called "touch sensing". On the other hand, in the touch-disabled period TDdis, the touch-display integrated device 220 in FIG. 2 suspends the aforementioned touch sensing and stops sending coordinate commands to the host device 210 because the touch interrupt signal TIS is enabled.

Please refer to FIG. 2, FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 at the same time. In step S310, the electromagnetic sensor 230 detects whether the stylus or the corresponding touch element is within the sensing range of the panel structure (such as the panel structure 110B in FIG. 1) according to the electromagnetic sensor in the panel structure, so as to generate a proximity detection signal dPenS. In this embodiment, when the stylus or the corresponding touch element approaches the writing range of the panel structure (for example, both approach to 5 to 25 mm), the electromagnetic sensor 230 will enable the proximity detection signal dPenS.

In step S320, when the proximity detection signal dPenS is enabled, the electromagnetic sensing device 230 of FIG2 enters the electromagnetic sensing period EMREN and enables the blocking signal Sdis (as shown by arrow 410). In step S330, the electromagnetic sensing device 230 of FIG2 enables electromagnetic sensing of the electromagnetic sensor at the start time point TP1 of the electromagnetic sensing period and after the first delay period (e.g., 100ms) (as shown by arrow 420 of FIG4 and the last horizontal row of FIG4). The first delay period (100ms) is set to avoid interference from touch sensing when electromagnetic sensing is performed too early, which may cause the sensing of the touch pen to be offset.

On the other hand, in step S340, after receiving the enabled blocking signal Sdis, the touch display integrated device 220 of FIG2 enables the touch interrupt signal TIS (as indicated by arrow 430), and in step S345, disables the touch sensing of the touch sensing and display layer (as indicated by arrows 440-1 to 440-4). Disabling the touch sensing means replacing the touch sensing and display layer from the original touch enabling period TE to the touch disabling period TDdis, and at this time, the touch sensing signal TSS is changed from enabling to disabling. In other words, the touch sensing and display layer is originally controlled to perform display driving (i.e., display period DDrv) and touch sensing (i.e., touch enabling period TE) alternately. During the enabling period of the blocking signal Sdis, the display driving (display period DDrv) is still performed, but the touch sensing period changes from enabling (touch enabling period TE) to being disabled (touch disabling period TDdis).

When the stylus or the corresponding touch element is far away from the sensing range of the electromagnetic sensor in the panel structure, the electromagnetic sensor 230 disables the proximity detection signal dPenS (step S350), ends the electromagnetic sensing period EMREN and disables the blocking signal Sdis (step S355) (as shown by arrow 450).

When the blocking signal Sdis is disabled, in step S360, the electromagnetic sensing device 230 of FIG. 2 disables the electromagnetic sensing of the electromagnetic sensor at the time point TP2 when the blocking signal dPenS is enabled and converted to disabled (as shown by arrow 460). Furthermore, in step S370, the touch display integration device 220 of FIG. 2 converts the touch interrupt signal TIS from enable to disable (as shown by arrow 470) after a second delay period (e.g., 50ms) after the time point TP2 when the blocking signal dPenS is enabled and converted to disabled, and allows the touch sensing signal TSS to be converted from disable to enable (as shown by arrow 480) to restore the touch sensing enable. Set the second delay period (50ms) before starting touch sensing to ensure that there will be no interference caused by system delay. After steps S360 and S370 in Figure 3 are completed, return to step S310.

In summary, the panel driving device and panel driving method described in the embodiment of the present invention utilize the electromagnetic sensing device in the panel driving device to actively provide a blocking signal to the touch display integrated device during the electromagnetic sensing period, so that the touch display integrated device disables touch sensing during the electromagnetic sensing period, thereby adopting timing division of labor to avoid touch sensing and electromagnetic sensing from operating at the same time period, thereby avoiding mutual interference between touch sensing and electromagnetic sensing.

220: Touch display integrated device

230: Electromagnetic sensing device

S310~S370: Steps of panel driving method

Claims (8)

A panel driving device is applicable to a panel structure having an electromagnetic sensor and a touch sensing and display layer, the panel driving device comprising: an electromagnetic sensing device for controlling the electromagnetic sensor; and a touch display integration device directly coupled to the electromagnetic sensing device for controlling the touch sensing and display layer, wherein the electromagnetic sensing device enables a blocking signal to the touch display integration device during an electromagnetic sensing period, and the touch display integration device disables the touch sensing of the touch sensing and display layer according to the enabling of the blocking signal, and the electromagnetic sensing device enables a blocking signal to the touch display integration device during the electromagnetic sensing period. Electromagnetic sensing of the electromagnetic sensor, wherein the electromagnetic sensing device detects whether the stylus pen is within the sensing range of the panel structure based on the electromagnetic sensor so as to enable a proximity detection signal, when the proximity detection signal is enabled, the electromagnetic sensing device enables the blocking signal and starts the electromagnetic sensing period, the electromagnetic sensing device enables the electromagnetic sensing of the electromagnetic sensor at the start time of the electromagnetic sensing period and after a first delay period, and the electromagnetic sensing device disables the electromagnetic sensing of the electromagnetic sensor when the proximity detection signal is disabled. The panel driving device as described in claim 1, wherein the touch display integrated device disables the touch sensing of the touch sensing and display layer after receiving the enabled blocking signal, and the touch display integrated device enables the touch sensing of the touch sensing and display layer after receiving the disabled blocking signal. A panel drive device as described in claim 1, wherein the touch display integrated device controls the touch sensing and display layer to alternately perform display driving and the touch sensing, and during the enabling period of the blocking signal, the display driving of the touch display integrated device is still performed, but the touch sensing is disabled, and the touch display integrated device restores the enabling of the touch sensing after a second delay period after the time point when the enabling is converted to the disabling in the blocking signal. The panel driving device as described in claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic sensing device is directly coupled to the touch display integrated device using a general purpose input and output (GPIO) pin, and the electromagnetic sensing device uses the general purpose input and output pin to provide the blocking signal to the touch display integrated device. The panel driving device as described in claim 1 further includes: a host device coupled to the electromagnetic sensing device and the touch display integrated device, and the host device maintains the operation of the panel driving device. A panel driving method is applicable to a panel structure having an electromagnetic sensor and a touch sensing and display layer, the panel driving method comprising: enabling a blocking signal during an electromagnetic sensing period; disabling the touch sensing of the touch sensing and display layer during the enabling period of the blocking signal; and enabling electromagnetic sensing of the electromagnetic sensor during the electromagnetic sensing period, wherein enabling the blocking signal during the electromagnetic sensing period comprises: The magnetic sensor detects whether the stylus pen is within the sensing range of the panel structure so as to enable a proximity detection signal; when the proximity detection signal is enabled, the electromagnetic sensing period is entered and the blocking signal is enabled; at the start time of the electromagnetic sensing period and after a first delay period, the electromagnetic sensing of the electromagnetic sensor is enabled; and when the proximity detection signal is disabled, the electromagnetic sensing of the electromagnetic sensor is disabled. The panel driving method as described in claim 6, wherein after obtaining the enabling blocking signal, the touch sensing of the touch sensing and display layer is disabled, and after obtaining the disabling blocking signal, the touch sensing of the touch sensing and display layer is enabled. A panel driving method as described in claim 6, wherein the touch sensing and display layer is controlled to alternately perform display driving and the touch sensing, during the enabling period of the blocking signal, the display driving is still performed, but the touch sensing period is disabled, and after the time point when the enabling is converted to the disabling in the blocking signal, a second delay period passes to restore the enabling of the touch sensing.

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