Narrow border touch screen
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsAbbas Jamshidi-Roudbari, Cheng-Ho Yu, Shih-Chang Chang, Ting-Kuo Chang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A touch screen is disclosed that includes conductive elements in a display area and connecting traces for routing the conductive elements to other locations. The connecting traces can be routed underneath or over existing opaque structures in the display area, instead of in border areas adjacent to the display area, to minimize the effect of the connecting traces on the display aperture ratio. The lengths and/or widths of these connecting traces as well as the number of parallel connecting traces used to connect to a particular element can be selected to balance the load on the drive and/or sense circuitry and on display pixels caused by the connecting traces.
Claims24
A touch screen comprising:
- a data layer;
- a plurality of electrodes formed in a display area of the touch screen, wherein the plurality of electrodes are configured to operate as at least touch-sensing electrodes;
- and
- a plurality of connecting touch-sensing traces coupled to the plurality of electrodes and routed in the display area, wherein the plurality of connecting touch-sensing traces are configured to at least carry one or more signals between the plurality of electrodes and touch circuitry;
- wherein:
- at least one of the plurality of connecting touch-sensing traces is routed under a data line in the data layer that is configured to control a luminance of a display pixel, the data line disposed between the at least one of the plurality of connecting touch-sensing traces and an electrode of the plurality of electrodes to which the at least one connecting touch-sensing trace is coupled, wherein the electrode of the plurality of electrodes is electrically coupled to the at least one connecting touch-sensing trace using at least one via that is in contact with the at least one connecting touch-sensing trace.
A method of forming a touch screen comprising:
- routing a plurality of electrodes formed in a display area of the touch screen to a second area using a plurality of connecting touch-sensing traces routed in the display area, wherein the plurality of electrodes are configured to operate as at least touch-sensing electrodes, and wherein the plurality of connecting touch-sensing traces are configured to at least carry one or more signals between the plurality of electrodes and touch circuitry;
- and
- routing at least one of the plurality of connecting touch-sensing traces under a data line in a data layer that is configured to control a luminance of a display pixel, the data line disposed between the at least one of the plurality of connecting touch-sensing traces and an electrode of the plurality of electrodes to which the at least one connecting touch-sensing trace is coupled, wherein the electrode of the plurality of electrodes is electrically coupled to the at least one connecting touch-sensing trace using at least one via that is in contact with the at least one connecting touch-sensing trace.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.