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US 2020/0401295 A1Published application
System and method of controlling an electropermanent magnet at a trackpad
AssigneeDell Products L.P.
InventorsJason S. Morrison, Laurent A. Regimbal
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An information handling system may include a processor to receive input from a trackpad at the information handling system, from a user; and an electropermanent magnet control system to control the activation of an electropermanent magnet (EPM) magnetically couplable to the trackpad to influence the force of actuation.
Claims20
An information handling system, comprising:
- a processor to receive user input from a trackpad at the information handling system;
- and
- an electropermanent magnet control system to control the activation of an electropermanent magnet (EPM) magnetically couplable to a diveboard structure of the trackpad to set a resistive actuation force for a click input to the trackpad.
A trackpad system, comprising:
- a substrate having a touch sensing layer to receive input from a user;
- a switch to detect deflective movement of the substrate as a user actuates the trackpad system;
- a permanent magnet operatively coupled to a portion of the substrate having a permanent magnet polarity;
- and
- an electropermanent magnet (EPM) including
- a low-coercivity magnet having an electrically conductive wire coiled around the low-coercivity magnet to receive a first electrical current pulse to adjust the polarity of the low-coercivity magnet relative to the permanent magnet to generate an EPM magnetic flux to interact with the permanent magnet to set a resistive actuation force for a click input to the trackpad.
3 more elements
A method of controlling a multilevel electro-permanent magnet (EPM) of a trackpad assembly of an information handling system, comprising:
- at the multilevel EPM comprising a plurality of low-coercivity magnets and a plurality of electrically conductive wires each coiled around a low-coercivity magnet:
- selecting a magnetic level from a plurality of magnetic levels for the multilevel EPM by applying a selected number of current pulses to the plurality of electrically conductive wires to select a number of low-coercivity magnets for polarity alignment with a high coercivity magnet or the EPM or to oppose polarity alignment of a permanent magnet disposed on the trackpad assembly to set the magnetic level of the multilevel EPM, where the selected magnetic level may be used to adjust resistive actuation force for a click input to the trackpad assembly.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.