Patent ID: 8547117

Claim:
A capacitive touch panel, comprising: a plurality of sensing electrodes arranged on an insulating panel while being insulated from each other; a plurality of capacitance-time conversion means having the same structure connected to the respective sensing electrodes, the capacitance-time conversion means each outputting a binary signal, the binary signal having binary data that is inverted in varying time with respect to a predetermined base point in time depending on a magnitude of a stray capacitance of a corresponding sensing electrode; and input operation detecting means for detecting a sensing electrode an input unit is approaching by comparing the magnitudes of the stray capacitances of the sensing electrodes based on times for the binary data to be inverted with respect to the base point in time of the binary signals, wherein the capacitance-time conversion means includes: a resistor connected in series or in parallel with the stray capacitance of a sensing electrode; a charge and discharge circuit that can select either charge control or discharge control and control, the charge control being such that a stray capacitance is charged or discharged from the base point in time to raise an electric potential of a sensing electrode from a ground potential to a predetermined charge potential with a time constant determined by a resistance value of the resistor and the stray capacitance of the sensing electrode, the discharge control being such that the electric potential of the sensing electrode is reduced from the charge potential to the ground potential; and a comparison circuit for comparing the electric potential of the sensing electrode with respect to the base point in time with a reference potential set between the charge potential and the ground potential, and outputting a binary signal binary data of which is inverted when a difference between the electric potential of the sensing electrode and the reference potential is inverted, wherein the charge and discharge circuits of the specific capacitance-time conversion means connected to respective ones of at least two or more specific sensing electrodes raise or reduce the electric potentials of the specific sensing electrodes with respect to the base point in time under the same charge control or the same discharge control, and wherein the input operation detecting means detects any of the specific sensing electrodes the input unit is approaching based on times for the binary data of the binary signals output from the comparison circuits of the specific capacitance-time conversion means to be inverted with respect to the base point in time.