Abstract:
The present invention provides a method of controlling a noise processing circuit of a touch panel and a related noise signal processing apparatus. At first, the present invention detects whether the touch panel is interfered with by noise. Then, according to whether the noise interferes with the touch panel, the noise processing circuit is controlled to be activated or not activated. Therefore, the noise processing circuit can be turned off if it is unnecessary, thereby to reduce the workload due to the noise processing.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates generally to a touch panel, and more particularly, to a method of controlling a noise processing circuit of a touch panel and related noise processing apparatus. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     Capacitive touch panels have advantages of the ease of use, which is usually used as interfaces between machine and human. As the capacitive touch panels support multi-touching, and have high transmittance and low power consumption, the capacitive touch panels are widely used in a variety of portable devices, such as smart phones, navigation systems, PDA, and tablet computers. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 1  in conjunction with the following descriptions, which illustrates how a touch panel senses a touch on it. At first, sensing axes X 1 -Xn of the touch panel  110  are driven each by each, and sensed signals on sensing axes Y 1 -Yn on the Y-axis with respect to each driven X sensing axis are read out accordingly. Then, the sensing axes Y 1 -Yn are driven each by each, and sensed signals on sensing axes X 1 -Xn with respect to each driven sensing Y sensing axis are read out accordingly. In response to the touch, each sensing axis generates the sensed signals with different amounts. With the configuration of a configuration circuit  112  (which could be registers having setting value) inside the sensing circuit  10 , the multiplexer  114  sequentially connects the sensing axes to an analog-digital converter (ADC)  116  such that the sensed signals can be read out. 
     The configuration circuit  112  configures the driving circuit  118  to drive the sensing axes via the multiplexer  114 . For example, when the driving circuit  118  drives the sensing axes X 1 , the configuration circuit  112  configures the multiplexer  114  such that the a sensed signal on a sensing axes Y 1  can be accessed. The ADC  116  converts the sensed signal to a digital signal and stored it. Accordingly, the microcontroller  120  loads the digital value. Such operation is repeated until all sensed signals of the sensing axes Y 1 -Y 8  is load by the microcontroller  120 . In a consequence, the microcontroller  120  refers to these sensed signals on sensing axes Y 1 -Y 8  to determine whether a touch occurring on the sensing axis X 1 . 
     Before the microcontroller  120  refers to the sensed signals to determine whether the touch occurs on the sensing axis X 1 , a noise processing mechanism is applied to the sensed signal for noise reduction processing. This is because the noise may interfere with the sensing axes of the touch panel  110 . Also, each stage of the sensing circuit  10  from the sensing axes to the ADC  116  may be interfered with by the noise, which causes the sensed signal to fail to reflect the touch. Therefore the microcontroller  120  uses noise processing mechanism to remove the noise in the sensed signals. Under the condition that the noise exists, the noise reduction processing can improve the accuracy of touch sensing. However, the noise does not exist, it will significantly increase the workload of the microcontroller  120 . Even, the noise reduction processing occupies cycles of the microcontroller  120 , which may cause the report rate regarding touch events to be decreased. Also, if the sensed signal without noise is processed with the noise reduction processing, the sensed signal may be distorted. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     With this in mind, it is one objective of the present invention to provide a method for noise detection. The method can determine whether the noise exists and interferes with a touch panel. Only when it is confirmed that the noise does exist and interfere with the touch panel, the noise reduction processing will be performed on sensed signals, preventing the sensed signal without noise from being processed. 
     According to a first aspect of the invention, a method for controlling a noise processing circuit of a touch panel is provided. The touch panel has a plurality of first sensing axes on a first dimension and a plurality of second sensing axes on a second dimension. The method comprises: selecting at least one reference axis from the plurality of first sensing axes; sensing the least one reference axis to generate a first sensed output when the plurality of first sensing axes and the plurality of second sensing axes are not driven; generating a noise detection result at least according to the first sensed output; and controlling the noise processing circuit according to the noise detection result. 
     According to a second aspect of the invention, a noise processing apparatus for a touch panel is provided. The touch panel has a plurality of first sensing axes on a first dimension and a plurality of second sensing axes on a second dimension. The noise processing apparatus comprises a driving circuit, a multiplexer, a configuration circuit, a determination circuit and a noise processing circuit. The multiplexer is coupled to the plurality of the first sensing axes and the plurality of the second sensing axes, and arranged for generating at least one first sensed output. The configuration circuit is coupled to the driving circuit and the multiplexer, and arranged for configuring the driving circuit not to drive the plurality of first sensing axes and the plurality of second sensing axes, and configuring the multiplexer to select at least one reference axis from the plurality of first sensing axes, wherein the multiplexer generates the first sensed output according to a sensed result of the at least one reference axis. The determination circuit is coupled to the multiplexer, and arranged for generating a noise detection result at least according to the first sensed output. The noise processing circuit is coupled to the determination circuit, and arranged for operating according to the noise detection result. 
     These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a touch panel and a conventional touch sensing circuit. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a noise processing apparatus according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIGS. 3-8  illustrates how to determine the existence of the noise according to different embodiments of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The concept of the present invention is to read out signals sensed on sensing axes when the sensing axes are not driven. As mentioned above, when the touch panel is operating to sense the touch, the sensing circuit firstly drives one sensing axis of a certain dimension, and accordingly reads out signals sensed on all the sensing axes of another dimension. Therefore, if the sensing axis is not driven and there is no touch occurring on the touch panel, the amount of the signal sensed on the sensing axis should be zero. If the signal sensed on the sensing axis still has a certain amount or a difference between amounts of the signals sensed on different sensing axes is considerably large, this represents that the noise may interfere with the touch panel. If it is confirmed that the noise does exist and interferes with the touch panel, the noise processing mechanism is activated to process the noise in the sensed signals. On the contrary, if it is determined that the noise does not exist, the noise processing mechanism is not activated. As a result, the sensed signals are not processed, thereby preventing the sensed signals from being distorted. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 2 , which illustrates a circuit diagram of a noise processing apparatus  20  according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The noise processing apparatus  20  performs noise reduction processing on the sensed signals that are read out from the touch panel  110 . The signal processing apparatus  20  determines whether the noise exists and accordingly determines whether to activate a noise processing mechanism therein. When the noise processing mechanism is activated, the sensed signals read out from the touch panel  110  are processed by the noise processing apparatus  20  for noise reduction in advance, and then processed sensed signals are used in touch sensing. When the noise processing mechanism is not activated, the sensed signals read out from the touch panel  110  are directly used in touch sensing. 
     The determination of the existence of the noise is achieved by reading out and comparing signals sensed on specific sensing axes of the sensing axes X 1 -Xn and Y 1 -Yn of the touch panel  110 . This is done by either determining a total amount of the signal(s) on one or more sensing axis or determining a difference between amounts of signals on one or more sensing axis. A configuration circuit  212  is arranged to select one or more sensing axis. As can be understood in the following, the selection of the sensing axes will not affect the accuracy of the determination. The configuration circuit  212  configures a multiplexer  214 , allowing the selected one or more sensing axis to be connected to inputs of an ADC  216 . If the noise is determined according to the amount of the signal on the sensing axis, the ADC  216  could be of single-ended input type. The ADC  216  sends a conversion result to the determination circuit  312 . The determination circuit  312  compares the conversion result with a threshold. If the conversion result exceeds the threshold, the determination circuit  312  determines that the noise does exist, and accordingly activates a noise processing circuit  314  to perform noise reduction processing on the following sensed signals read out (at the time the sensing axes are driven) during the touch sensing procedure. In addition, if the noise is determined according to the difference between amounts of the signals sensed on different sensing axes, the ADC  216  could be of differential input type. The ADC  216  outputs the conversion result to the determination circuit  312 . The determination circuit  312  determines whether the conversion result is close to zero. If the conversion result is considerably larger than zero, the determination circuit  312  determines that the noise does exist, and accordingly activates the noise processing circuit  314 . Moreover, in determining the existence of the noise, the configuration circuit  212  configures the multiplexer  214  and a driving circuit  218  in order not to drive all of the sensing axes. A further description will be presented to illustrate the selecting of the sensing axes. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 3 , which illustrates how to select the sensing axes by referring to the total amount of the signal sensed to determine the existence of the noise according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, any two sensing axes from the sensing axes of a same dimension are selected as reference axes. According to the amount of signals sensed on these two sensing axes, the existence of the noise can be determined. It should be noted that in this embodiment selecting the sensing axes X 3  and X 4  as the reference axes is for illustrative purpose only, rather than a limitation. In other embodiments of the present invention, other sensing axes except the sensing axes X 3  and X 4  could be selected as reference axes (e.g. both of the sensing axes on X-axis or both of the sensing axes on Y-axis). The configuration circuit  212  firstly selects the sensing axes X 3  and X 4  on X-axis as reference axes. Accordingly, with the configuration of the configuration circuit  212 , the multiplexer  214  connects outputs of the sensing axes X 3  and X 4  to a single-ended input terminal of the ADC  216 . That is, the outputs of the sensing axes X 3  and X 4  are shorted and connected to the single -ended input terminal of the ADC  216 . Then, the ADC  216  generates corresponding digital output information. If the value of the digital output information is below a threshold, it represents that the noise does not exist or the noise is weak enough to be omitted. However, if the value of the ADC  216  exceeds the threshold, the determination circuit  312  determines that the noise does exist and interferes with the touch panel. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 4 , which illustrates how to select the sensing axes by referring to the difference between the amounts of the signals sensed to determine the existence of the noise according to a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiments, any two sensing axes are selected as a reference axis and a detection axis, one of which is selected from the sensing axes of X-axis while the other of which is selected from the sensing axes of Y-axis. The difference between amounts of signals sensed on the reference axis and the detection axis is used to determine the existence of the noise. It should be noted that in this embodiment selecting the sensing axes X 3  and Y 3  as the reference axis and the detection axis is for illustrative purpose only, rather than a limitation. In other embodiments of the present invention, other sensing axes except the sensing axes X 3  and Y 3  could be selected as the reference axis and the detection axis (e.g. one selected from the sensing axes on X-axis and the other selected from the sensing axes on Y-axis). The configuration circuit  212  firstly selects the sensing axis X 3  on X-axis as the reference axis and selects the sensing axis Y 3  on Y-axis as the detection axis (or selects X 3  as the detection while selects Y 3  as the reference axis). Accordingly, with the configuration of the configuration circuit  212 , the multiplexer  214  connects outputs of the sensing axes X 3  and Y 3  respectively to terminals of a differential input of the ADC  216 . Then, the ADC  216  generates corresponding digital output information. If the value of the digital output information is zero or approximately zero, it represents that the noise does not exist or the noise is weak enough to be omitted. However, if the value of the ADC  216  is not zero and considerably large, the determination circuit  312  determines that the noise does exist and interferes with the touch panel. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 5 , which illustrates how to select the sensing axes by referring to the total amount of the signals sensed to determine the existence of the noise according to a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, any two sensing axes from the sensing axes of different dimensions are selected as reference axes. According to the total amount of signals sensed on these two sensing axes, the existence of the noise can be determined. It should be noted that in this embodiment selecting the sensing axes X 3  and Y 3  as the reference axes is for illustrative purpose only, rather than a limitation. In other embodiments of the present invention, other sensing axes except the sensing axes X 3  and Y 3  could be selected as reference axes (e.g. one selected from the sensing axes on X-axis and the other selected from the sensing axes on Y-axis). The configuration circuit  212  firstly selects the sensing axis X 3  on X-axis and the sensing axis Y 3  on Y-axis as reference axes. Accordingly, with the configuration of the configuration circuit  212 , the multiplexer  214  connects outputs of the sensing axes X 3  and Y 3  to the single-ended input terminal of the ADC  216 . Then, the ADC  216  generates corresponding digital output information. If the value of the digital output information is below a threshold, it represents that the noise does not exist or the noise is weak enough to be omitted. However, if the value of the ADC  216  exceeds the threshold, the determination circuit  312  determines that the noise does exist and interferes with the touch panel. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 6 , which illustrates how to select the sensing axes by referring to the difference between the amounts of the signals sensed to determine the existence of the noise according to a fourth exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, any two sensing axes are selected as a reference axis and a detection axis, both of which are selected from the sensing axes of a same dimension. The difference between amounts of signals sensed on the reference axis and the detection axis is used to determine the existence of the noise. It should be noted that in this embodiment selecting the sensing axes X 3  and X 4  as the reference axis and the detection axis is for illustrative purpose only, rather than a limitation. In other embodiments of the present invention, other sensing axes except the sensing axes X 3  and X 4  could be selected as the reference axis and the detection axis (e.g. both are selected from the sensing axes on X-axis or Y-axis). The configuration circuit  212  firstly selects the sensing axis X 3  as the reference axis and selects the sensing axis X 4  as the detection axis. With the configuration of the configuration circuit  212 , the multiplexer  214  connects outputs of the sensing axes X 3  and X 4  respectively to terminals of the differential input of the ADC  216 . Then, the ADC  216  generates corresponding digital output information. If the value of the digital output information is zero or approximately zero, it represents that the noise does not exist or the noise is weak enough to be omitted. However, if the value of the ADC  216  is not zero and considerably large, the determination circuit  312  determines that the noise does exist and interferes with the touch panel. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 7 , which illustrates how to select the sensing axes by referring to the total amount of the signals sensed to determine the existence of the noise according to a fifth exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, several sensing axes are selected as reference axes from different dimension. According to the amount of signals sensed on these sensing axes, the existence of the noise can be determined. It should be noted that in this embodiment selecting the sensing axes X 3 -X 4  and Y 3 -Y 4  as the reference axes is for illustrative purpose only, rather than a limitation. In other embodiments of the present invention, other sensing axes except the sensing axes X 3 -X 4  and Y 3 -Y 4  could be selected as reference axes. The configuration circuit  212  firstly selects the sensing axes X 3 -X 4  on X-axis and Y 3 -Y 4  on Y-axis as reference axes. Accordingly, with the configuration of the configuration circuit  212 , the multiplexer  214  connects outputs of the sensing axes X 3 -X 4  and Y 3 -Y 4  collectively to the single-ended input terminal of the ADC  216 . Then, the ADC  216  generates corresponding digital output information. If the value of the digital output information is below a threshold, it represents that the noise does not exist or the noise is weak enough to be omitted. However, if the value of the ADC  216  exceeds the threshold, the determination circuit  312  determines that the noise does exist and interferes with the touch panel. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 8 , which illustrates how to select the sensing axes by referring to the difference between the amounts of the signals sensed to determine the existence of the noise according to a sixth exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, several sensing axes are selected as reference axes and detection axes respectively from the sensing axes of different dimensions. The difference between amounts of signals sensed on the reference axes and the detection axes is used to determine the existence of the noise. It should be noted that in this embodiment selecting the sensing axes X 4 , X 6 , Y 4 , Y 6  and X 3 , X 5 , Y 3 , Y 5  as the reference axes and the detection axes is for illustrative purpose only, rather than a limitation. In other embodiments of the present invention, other sensing axes except the sensing axes X 4 , X 6 , Y 4 , Y 6  and X 3 , X 5 , Y 3 , Y 5  could be selected as the reference axes and the detection axes. The configuration circuit  212  firstly selects the sensing axis X 4 , X 6  on X-axis and Y 4 , Y 6  on Y-axis as the reference axes and selects the sensing axis X 3 , X 5  on X-axis and Y 3 , Y 5  on Y-axis as the detection axes. With the configuration of the configuration circuit  212 , the multiplexer  214  shorts outputs of the sensing axes X 4 , X 6 , Y 4  and Y 6  to obtain a common output, and shorts outputs of the sensing axes X 3 , X 5 , Y 3  and Y 5  to obtain another common output. These two common outputs will be sent to different terminals of the differential input of the ADC  216 . Then, the ADC  216  generates corresponding digital output information. If the value of the digital output information is zero or approximately zero, it represents that the noise does not exist or the noise is weak enough to be omitted. However, if the value of the ADC  216  is not zero and considerably large, the determination circuit  312  determines that the noise does exist and interferes with the touch panel. 
     It can be comprehended from the above embodiments that there is no limitation in the number or in the dimension of the sensing axes when determining the existence of the noise. For example, in the embodiments illustrated in  FIG. 3  and  FIG. 5 , there are two sensing axes selected and shorted to obtain an output. This output is sent to the single-ended input terminal of the ADC  216  for noise determination. In addition, in the embodiment of  FIG. 3  the sensing axes from the same dimension are selected as reference axes while in the embodiment of  FIG. 5  the sensing axes from the different dimensions are selected as reference axes. In the embodiments illustrated in  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 6 , even though there are still two sensing axes selected, the signals sensed on different sensing axes are sent to the terminals of the differential input of the ADC  216 , however. In the embodiments illustrated in  FIG. 7  and  FIG. 8  more sensing axes are selected for determining the existence of the noise. That is, the present invention can be implemented in various ways to meet different considerations of the circuit design. 
     Once the determination circuit  312  determines that the noise does exist and interferes with the touch panel, a command or a signal will be issued to the noise processing circuit  314 , notifying the noise processing circuit  314  to activate the noise processing mechanism. Then, the configuration circuit  212  comes back to the normal touch sensing procedure, controlling the driving circuit  218  to drive each sensing axis. Through the multiplexer  216 , signals sensed on the sensing axes are read out and used by the touch sensing circuit to determine whether the touch occurs. If the noise processing mechanism is activated, the signal sensed on the sensing axis will be processed by the noise processing circuit  314  for noise reduction. For example, the noise processing circuit  314  may have a low-pass filtering on the sensed signal to filtering out the noise. On the other hand, if the determination circuit  312  determines that the noise does not exist, the noise processing circuit  314  will not be activated, the signal reads out from the sensed axes will be directly used in touch sensing. 
     In this embodiment, the noise processing circuit  314  and the determination circuit  312  can be implemented by the microcontroller  300  executing specific software or firmware. Such noise processing apparatus  20  can also used in touch sensing, wherein the microcontroller  300  operates to analyze the sensed signal that are read out. Furthermore, the noise processing circuit  314  and the determination circuit  312  could be hardware circuits in other embodiments of the present invention. In such embodiments, additional circuits are necessary for touch sensing. In other words, the noise processing apparatus of the present invention may be implemented with a conventional touch sensing circuit. This can be achieved by properly setting the operations of the configuration circuit  212 . The configuration circuit  212  operates to determine the existence of the noise as well as control the noise process mechanism in a period except the touch sensing period. The timing of determining the existence of the noise and controlling the noise processing mechanism depends on the actual requirement. Additionally, although it is mentioned above that the determination circuit  312  refers to the digital information generated by the ADC  216  to determine the existence of the noise. In other embodiments of the present invention, the ADC  216  may be saved. For instance, the output of the multiplexer  214  can be directly provided to the determination circuit  312 . The determination circuit  312  may use a comparator to determine whether the total amount of the sensed signal exceeds a threshold level or whether there is a difference between the amounts of two sensed signals. This can be easily accomplished with the comparator. Hence, the noise processing apparatus  20  is not limited to the circuitry as shown in  FIG. 2 , which can be modified or changed. 
     In conclusion, the present invention overcomes the shortcomings of the noise processing circuit in the state-of-the-art. That is, only when it is confirmed the noise exists and interferes with the touch panel, the noise processing mechanism is activated. As the inventive noise processing apparatus can be implemented with the conventional touch sensing circuit, the hardware cost will not be increased. Beside, the noise processing mechanism is activated when necessary. The workload of the microcontroller in the touch sensing circuit can be significantly reduced. 
     Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.