Capacitive touchscreen or touch panel with fingerprint reader

摘要

Various embodiments of a capacitive touchscreen or touch panel having dual finger or hand navigation and fingerprint reading capabilities. In one embodiment, fingerprints are read and processed by the same capacitive touchscreen controller that reads and processes capacitively-sensed finger or hand touches made across the touchscreen or touch panel. A small portion of the capacitive touchscreen or touch panel is dedicated to reading an authorized user's fingerprints, while a larger or main portion of the capacitive touchscreen or touch panel is dedicated to sensing a user's finger or hand navigation across the touchscreen or touch panel.

主权项

1. A capacitive touchscreen or touch panel system, comprising:
a touchscreen comprising a first plurality of electrically conductive drive electrodes arranged in rows or columns, and a second plurality of electrically conductive sense electrodes arranged in rows or columns arranged at an angle with respect to the rows or columns of the first plurality of electrodes, mutual capacitances existing between the first and second pluralities of electrodes at locations where the first and second pluralities of electrodes intersect to form first and second groups of individual cells having first and second cell dimensions associated therewith, respectively, all of the first cell dimensions being identical to each other, all of the second cell dimensions being identical to each other, each of the first cell dimensions being different from each of the second cell dimensions, the second group of individual cells including multiple sub-regions, traces of the second group of individual cells in different sub-regions being connected to a same one of the second plurality of electrically conductive sense electrodes, the mutual capacitances changing in the presence of one or more fingers of a user or touch devices brought into proximity thereto; drive circuitry operably connected to the first plurality of drive electrodes, and at least first sense circuitry operably connected to the second plurality of sense electrodes of the first group and the second group, wherein the first group and first cell dimensions are configured to permit the detection by the first sense circuitry of the presence of the one or more fingers of the user or touch devices brought into proximity thereto, and the second group and second cell dimensions form a fingerprint reader configured to permit at least one fingerprint from the user's finger to be read by the first sense circuitry associated therewith.