Apparatus and method for sensing the degree and touch strength of a human body on a sensor

[0001] This invention relates generally to the field of fingerprint sensors and touchpads for security devices, computer peripherals, and mobile data processing systems and, in particular to an improvement over the prior art devices which eliminates the DC-current component and reduces the number of connection pins from the sensor to the signal processing chip.

[0002] This invention relates to the sensing of the level of contact between parts of the human body and a sensor. In the prior art, the types of technologies that sense the level of human body contact have incorporated technology that uses various semiconductor devices, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,056 (Tsikos), entitled “Capacitive Fingerprint Sensor,” and U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,442 (Knapp), entitled “Fingerprint Sensing Device And Recognition System Having Predetermined Electrode Activation.”

[0003] One problem with these types of sensors is that the semiconductor devices used for the sensors have the liability of being sensitive to contamination and being vulnerable to damage by external forces. As a result, technologies that are independent of semiconductor sensors are considered more desirable.

[0004] Such a prior art sensor is shown in FIG. 1. Prior art technologies that sense the level of human body contact generally comprise a sensing component or components, shown as reference number 10 in FIG. 1, and a voltage component that provides operating voltage to the sensing component. Typically, the sensing component senses the level of human body contact and sends the outcome to an arbitrary electronic device, such as a signal processing chip (not shown).

[0005] The sensing component of the prior art sensor 10 of FIG. 1 comprises a sensing point 3, parasitic capacitor 1 and output device 2, for example, an inverter.

[0006] In operation, the user initiates contact with the device by placing a finger on sensing point 3, and becomes part of the circuit, in general appearing as a resistor 4 connected to ground. Any electrical charge stored in the parasitic capacitor 1 would flow through the human body resistive path 4 to ground, thereby discharging capacitor 1. As a result, the voltage level at node P₁ would fall, causing the output of inverter 2 to rise, leading to a high output of sensor 10.

[0007] One problem with the prior art device of FIG. 1 is that the sensing device 10 is generally configured using a continuous activation method, in which capacitance 1 must re-charge while the human body is in contact with sensing point 3. After the charging of the capacitor 1 is completed, the determination of whether the human body is in contact with sensing point 3 is made by sensing whether the charging voltage is maintained.

[0008] When this method is used, the body of the user is in contact with sensing point 3 while capacitor 1 is being charged, and thus the user is subject to the danger of excess direct current flowing through the body. These kinds of direct currents, while generally not life threatening, could cause uneasiness and discomfort to the user.

[0009] From the viewpoint of device performance, the prior art configuration also causes some practical difficulties. If the amount of current flowing through the body is too great, the amount of power consumption will be much more than necessary, thereby increasing the total power consumption of the device. This is especially troublesome for portable type devices which may draw operational power from a battery.

[0010] Yet another problem with the prior art device exists in connection with the physical size and resolution of the device. Typically, sensing device 10 is connected to a signal processing chip, where there is a one-to-one correspondence between pins on the chip and a plurality of sensing devices 10. For the sensor to work with sufficient precision, the resolution should be at least 500 dpi. With a typical human finger being about 1 cm in width, there must be at least 400 sensing devices 10 to enable normal operation, and the signal processing chip must therefore have an equivalent number of individual pins for it to process the information from the sensing devices. This leads to excessively large devices and/or high production costs to incorporate the large number of connections in a reasonable area.

[0011] Because of these problems, the practical uses of the prior art devices are limited. It would therefore be advantageous and desirable to have a sensing device which alleviates the aforementioned problems extant in the prior art devices.

[0012] Disclosed herein is a device that senses the strength level of human body contact and the methods for using the device. The device of the present invention is an improvement over the prior art that overcomes the undesirable characteristics of the prior art devices. Specifically, the device of the present invention utilizes a novel configuration that senses the level of human body contact by observing the redistribution of the stored charge, thereby minimizing the amount of direct current flowing through the body of the user. Even when used in continuous activation mode, the phenomenon of current continuously flowing though the body can be prevented, which eliminates the possible discomfort and anxiety felt by the user. Additionally, the power consumption of the device is decreased.

[0013] Further, the device of the present invention utilizes multiplexed passive circuit elements, which maximizes the effectiveness of each sensing circuit element and requires fewer connections with the signal processing chip.

[0028] A block diagram of the preferred embodiment of the sensor of the present invention is shown in FIG. 2. The sensor consists of a array 100 of sensing devices 20 that are electrically connected to signal processing chip 300. Signal generator 200 sends controlled input power each of sensing devices 20 in array 100. Sensing devices 20 output static and dynamic signals to signal processing chip 300, depending on whether or not there is human contact, and will output a different signal, depending on the level of human contact.

[0029] The simple sensing device shown in FIG. 3 can act as one of a plurality of sensing devices 20 in array 100 of sensing devices as shown in FIG. 2, receiving input from signal generator 200 that sends controlled power to selected sensing elements array 100.

[0030] The sensing device of FIG. 3 consists of sensing point 21 that provides a place for contact with a portion of a human body, most likely a finger 18, output device 22 that outputs static or dynamic signals depending on the level of human body contact, and capacitor C₁ which stores the power from the power source for a preset time, and which provides part of the stored electrical charge for capacitor C₂, which is electrically coupled to capacitor C₁ and which forms an RC delay circuit by interaction with the human resistive element R_b provided by human body 18 and redistributes the electrical charge provided by the capacitor C₁, depending on the RC time constant. The voltage of the capacitor C₁ is thereby changed depending on the RC time constant.

[0031] The operation of the circuit of FIG. 3 is shown in FIG. 4. In operation, capacitors C₁ and C₂ are first discharged, thus “initializing” them, and, using the signal from signal generator 200 and buffer 23, the voltage V_a is supplied to node P₁. At time t₂, capacitor C₁ is charged to V_a. If there is no human body contact during presetting, the capacitor C₁ maintains its voltage of V_a.

[0032] When human body 18 comes in contact with sensing point 21 after time t₂, the resistance R_b supplied by human body part 18, along with capacitor C₂, forms an RC circuit element which is dependant on the level of contact with body part 18. As capacitor C₁ starts to discharge through capacitor C₂, the voltage at node P₁ approaches V_f as shown in FIG. 4. Voltage V_f is formed when equilibrium is reached after the charge redistribution between capacitors C₁ and C₂. When this happens, the final voltage V_f assumes the value of Equation 1, and the redistribution behaviors follows the usual RC delay circuit with an RC time constant as shown in Equation 2. $\begin{array}{cc}{V}_f=\frac{C_1}{C_1+C_2}{V}_a& \left(1\right)\end{array}$ $\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{RC}\mathrm{time}\mathrm{constant}=R_b\left(\frac{C_1{C}_2}{C_1+C_2}\right)& \left(2\right)\end{array}$

[0033] As the voltage at node P₁ falls from Va to Vf, it will, at some point t₃, fall below V_m, the threshold voltage of the output element. In the simplest case, device 22 is an inverter and, as the voltage at node P₁ changes to a falls from a HIGH level to a LOW level, at t3, the output of 22 will assume a HIGH value. Thus output element 22 sends the signal and duration time of the level of human contact to the signal processing chip 300. The decay of the voltage at node P₁ is dependent upon the value of R_b, which is dependent upon level of contact between human body part 18 and sensing point 21.

[0034] Prior to this invention (i.e., without capacitor C₂), the fact that there was contact between human body part 18 and sensing point 21 was detected via the flow of the electrical charge in capacitor C₁ directly through human body part 18, possibly causing discomfort to the user.

[0035] As stated previously, in the prior art devices, if the continuous activation method is used, the body of the user is in contact with the sensing point while capacitor C₁ is being charged, and thus the user is subject to the danger of excess direct current flowing through the body. Additionally, the undesirable effect of excess power consumption will cause an increase in total power consumption.

[0036] The use of the circuit in FIG. 3 eliminates these undesirable characteristics of the prior art. When the circuit of FIG. 3 is utilized in the continuous activation mode, capacitors C₁ and C₂ must be discharged, thus “initializing” them, and, using the power source 200 and buffer 23 the voltage V_a is supplied to node P₁. While capacitor C₁ is charged to V_a, human body part 18 may maintain contact with the sensing point 21.

[0037] Because capacitor C₂ forms an RC-circuit with the human resistive element R_b, and because the voltage V_a is charged at the capacitor C₁ at a much smaller time than the R_bC₂ time constant, capacitor C₂ is hardly charged at all while capacitor C₁ is re-charged to V_a. After capacitor C₁ is charges to V_a, the voltage at node P₁ will start to decay toward V_f. The rate of decay will be defined by the RC time constant.

[0038] A second embodiment of the invention, shown in FIG. 5, allows the sensing device to be used in “sweeping mode,” that is, the human body part 18 is swept over an array of sensing points. In this embodiment, the resolution of human body contact image can be increased by dividing the sensing point 21 of FIG. 3 into a plurality of sensing points 21, as shown in FIG. 5.

[0039] As shown in FIG. 6, where the shadowed region 25 shows the area of human body contact, it can be seen that while the contact area moves over sensing points SP₁, SP₂, and SP₃, at time t₁ all sensing points are in contact with the human body part, at time t₂ two sensing points are in contact, at time t₃, one sensing point is in contact, and at time t₄, no sensing points are in contact. According to the number of contacts, the effective value of body contact resistance value R_b varies and this value can be detected by the resulting RC curve (the internal between t₂ and t₃) as shown in FIG. 4. The configuration of FIG. 5 has the advantage of increasing the resolution of the sensor without increasing the number of connection points with signal processing chip 300.

[0040] This kind of reduction of connecting pins to the signal processing chip can be made more systematically by the embodiment shown in FIG. 7. Here, array 36 of passive elements is connected to the capacitor C₃ and selectively controls the amount of discharge therefrom.

[0041] As is shown in FIG. 7, the passive element array 36 is a combination of a plurality of parallel sensing points 37 and corresponding charge redistribution capacitors C₄, which form the RC circuit with the human body resistance R_b, and which influence the charge redistribution action that depends on the RC time constant when the charge of capacitor C₃ is redistributed. Selecting nodes (32, 33, . . . ,34, 35) receive signals from external sources and selectively influence the charge, or discharge action of the charge redistribution capacitors C₄ and the capacitor C₃. Between the charge redistribution capacitors C₄ and the selecting nodes (32, 33, . . . , 34, 35) there are multiple capacitors C₅ that have a one to one correspondence to the charge redistribution capacitors C₄ and that transmit the change in voltage when selecting voltage is applied by the selecting nodes (32, 33, . . . ,34, 35). This has the effect of “selecting” or “deselecting” certain of sensing points 37.

[0042] In operation, the configuration of FIG. 7 work as follows. First, selecting nodes (32, 33, . . . ,34, 35) and node P₃ are grounded, and all the capacitor voltages are, “initialized” zero charge using current sink I₂, as shown in the timing diagram of FIG. 8. Current is then supplied to the storage nodes P₃, using current source I₁ from the supply voltage source (200). At time t₁, the voltage at node P₁ reaches the threshold voltage V_m and the output of device 31 flips. (i.e., changes from HIGH to LOW if device 31 is an inverter). Power source(200) and the current source I₁ supply power to node P₃ for the time Δt₁. At this time, capacitors C₃, C₄ and C₅ are charged, and the voltage at node P₃ reaches V_a.

[0043] When this state is reached, the sensing device turns current source I₁ to an off state, and turns the current sink I₂ on for the time Δt₂, and Δt₃, enabling capacitor C₃ to be discharged to voltage V_b which is a lower than the threshold voltage V_m of the output device 31.

[0044] After current sink I₂ is turned to an off state, there is a set amount of charge stored in the capacitors around node P₃, and this charge is stored in a state that is electrically isolated from external influences. In this state, the sensing device sends a voltage pulse to selecting nodes (32, 33, . . . ,34, 35) in a particular order and activates them. As an example, a selection voltage pulse is sent to a node, for example to node 32. When rise time of the pulse is sufficiently short enough compared to the RC time constant determined by the human body contact resistance, then, during the short time the voltage pulse is applied, the voltage at node P₃ rises, at time t₂ to voltage V_c of the, according to the combined capacitance of C₃, C₄ and C₅. If there is a human body part in contact with sensing point 37 coupled to the activated selecting node then the voltage at node P₃ follows an RC curve and at time t3 falls below the threshold voltage of the output device, and the output state of output device 31 flips. Due to this, output device 31 is able to send a signal that represents that there has been contact with a human body to the signal processing chip 300.

[0045] After this evaluation process with selecting node 32 is completed, the sensing device deselects sensing point 37 connected to selecting node 32 at time t₄. At this time, the voltage at node P₃ drops and begins to rise following an RC curve until V_b is reached or until the next node is selected. At time t5 in the diagram, selecting node 33 is activated, and, as at time t2, the voltage at node P₃ rises to V_c. If sensing point 37 connected to selecting node 33 is in contact with a human body part, then the process just described with respect to selecting node 32 repeats for selecting node 33. However, if activated selecting node 33 is not in contact with the human body, then additional voltage has been applied to node P₃, which means that even after a set time has passed, the voltage of node P₃ does not fall under the voltage V_m, and due to this, the output of output device 31 does not change.

[0046] According to a predefined order, a voltage selecting pulse is sent to successive selecting nodes (32, 33, . . . ,34, 35) and the voltage at node P₃ will either remain above the threshold voltage V_m, or fall below it, depending n whether or not there is human body contact with the activated sensing point 37.

[0047] In another embodiment of the invention, which is a variation of the circuit of FIG. 7, in the circuit of FIG. 9, current source I₁ and inverter 31 can, for example, be replaced by transistor 42 and comparator 41. When this configuration is used, the sensing device uses another operational mode to sense the level of human body contact.

[0048] First, the sensing device discharges capacitors C₃, C₄, and C₅. Then, all of the selecting nodes 46 are grounded, except for one selecting node 45. Transistors 42 and 43 are used to raise the voltage at node P₄ up to voltage Va. (For purposes of explanation, only two sensing points 44 and 47 are shown as being associated with sensing device 40).

[0049] In this embodiment, as in previous embodiments, the combination of capacitors, forms an RC circuit with the human resistive element R_b. If the charging time of capacitor C₃ is sufficiently shorter than the RC time constant, the voltage of charge redistribution capacitors C₄, and C₅ connected to selected node 45 do not undergo a sudden change in charge. However, the combination of C₄ and C₅ connected to the grounded selector node 46 stores a charge corresponding to the stored voltage V_a. Therefore, node P₄ sees, in effect, the combination of C₃ in parallel to the series connection of C₄ and C₅ (i.e. C₄C₅/(C₄+C₅)), and obtains a charge according to Equation 3. $\begin{array}{cc}Q=\left(C_3+\frac{C_4{C}_5}{C_4+C_5}\right)V_a& \left(3\right)\end{array}$

[0050] After the voltage at node P₄ has reached V_a, transistors 42, 43 are turned off and node P₄ is left in a floating state, isolated electrically from external sources. In this situation, if sensing point 44 that corresponds to selected node 45 is in contact with a human body, and if sensing point 47 is not in contact with a human body, the initially discharged capacitor C₄ draws current from node P₄ while the node voltage of sensing point 44 goes from the initial voltage V_a to ground.

[0051] Therefore, as shown in FIG. 10, the voltage of the node P₄ draws follows an RC curve A₁, and heads towards it's final voltage V_f, defined by equation 4. $\begin{array}{cc}{V}_f=\frac{V_a\left(C_3+\frac{C_4{C}_5}{C_4+C_5}\right)}{2C_4+C_3}& \left(4\right)\end{array}$

[0052] At time t₇, the voltage at node P₄ falls below the reference voltage V_m of comparator 41, and the comparator sends a signal signifying contact with the human body to the signal processing chip 300.

[0053] Next, the sensing device discharges capacitor C₃, C₄ and C₅ and selects the next node 46, while grounding all other selecting nodes. After node P₄ is charged to voltage V_a, transistors 43 and 44 are turned off, and the floating state of node P₄ is maintained.

[0054] Assume in this that sensing point 44, corresponding to grounded selecting node 45 comes into contact with a human body, while sensing point 47, corresponding to selected node 46 is not in contact with a human body. The charge stored at in capacitors C₄ and C₅ situated between node P₄ and grounded selecting node 45 and at capacitor C₃ is redistributed while the voltage at node 44 falls from V_a/2 to ground potential. In this case, as shown in FIG. 10, the voltage at node P₄ follows an RC curve A₂, and heads toward the final voltage V_f, define by Equation 4.

[0055] At time t₈, when the voltage at node P₄ falls below the reference voltage of output device 41, for example a comparator, the comparator sends a signal signifying contact with the human body to the signal processing chip 300.

[0056] It is to be noted here, that the sensing point corresponding to the selected selection node, undergoes more voltage change than the sensing points corresponding to the non-selected selection nodes (i.e., the grounded nodes), hence the resulting voltage change at node P₄ at the beginning phase of the charge redistribution process. As shown in FIG. 10, because the time t₇ where RC curve A₁ descends beneath the reference voltage of the comparator V_m, is faster than the time t₈ where RC curve A₂ descends beneath the reference voltage of the comparator V_m, the signal processing chip 300 is able to tell that the human resistive element at sensing point 47 is larger than the human resistive element at sensing point 44.

[0057] Because there are many selecting nodes, if the sensing of the level of human body contact is carried out at each selecting node, then the signal processing chip 300 is able to tell the relative magnitude of resistance of each region of the same human body contact.

[0058] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, after all capacitors are discharged, multiple sensing points, in this example 63 and 64, are selected while all other selecting nodes are grounded. The selected selecting nodes 63 and 64 are charged to a voltage V_DD simultaneously. If this charging action occurs in a sufficiently short time compared to the RC time constant, the amount of charge stored at the storage node is given by Equation 5. $\begin{array}{cc}Q=\left(C_3+m\frac{C_4{C}_5}{C_4+C_5}\right)V_{\mathrm{DD}}& \left(5\right)\end{array}$
where m is the number of selecting nodes that have not been selected in the charging process, and have remained grounded. After a time which is sufficiently shorter than the RC time constant of this circuit, if all the selection nodes except the one which corresponds to the sensing point which is to be observed are brought to the ground potential, the voltage at the storage node fades to the value of Equation 6. $\begin{array}{cc}{V}_i=V_{\mathrm{DD}}-\frac{\left(m-1\right)\frac{C_4{C}_5}{C_4+C_5}}{C_3+n\frac{C_4{C}_5}{C_4+C_5}}& \left(6\right)\end{array}$
where n is the total number of selection node, and m is the number of selecting nodes that have not been selected, By choosing the number m of selection node to be grounded and the number (n−m) to be lifted to V_DD during the pre-charge period, the V_i can be adjusted to an appropriate level as shown in FIG. 12.

[0059] The evaluation procedure thereafter is exactly the case with the embodiment shown in FIG. 9, because the final value of the voltage at the storage node is only determined by the amount of the charge injected to the storage node during the pre-charge period.

[0060] The advantage of this method compared to that of FIG. 9 is that, here, comparator 61 can be replaced by an inverter because the voltage level V_m in FIG. 12 can be adjusted to a value at or near V_DD/2.

[0061] The embodiments and operational methods disclosed up to this point are adequate for fingerprint related sensor applications, where each sensing point has its own value of resistances. For other applications, such as a touch pad, there is a region where there is a human body contact and where there is no contact. In such cases, the area of interest is the transition region between the contact and non-contact regions.

[0062] For this type of application, the sensing point can be split into several electrodes as shown in FIG. 13. Here, selecting node 73 is used for selecting sensing points 74, 75 and 76, selecting node 77 for sensing points 78, 79 and 80, and so on. If any of sensing points 74, 75 or 76 is in contact with a human body, operation with node 73 selected reveals a contact signal. Therefore, it is conceptually a kind of “wired OR” equivalent operation. These split electrodes can also be distributed as shown in FIG. 14, where the sensing area of a touch pad is partitioned to several areas and the sensing points are repeated regularly. Because the result of evaluation does not reveal which of the multiple sensing point is in contact with human body, the output signal showing the contacted area of a touch pad with ‘image’ areas.

[0063] The “real position detecting sensing points” implemented at appropriate positions (in the figure, the points a, b, c, d) on the touch pad can show which of the multiple ‘image’ area is the real one. These “real position detecting sensing points” can be a small number, because the purpose of a touch pad is usually to detect the position and movement of the finger on it.

[0064] By way of an example, assume that the total number of sensing points on a touch pad is a×b (a=40, b=30). If multiplexed with k selection node (k=8), and split sensing electrodes on a portioned touch pad area (l=6), the number of connecting pins to the signal processing chip is given by Equation 7. $\begin{array}{cc}\begin{array}{ccc}\#\mathrm{of}\mathrm{pins}=\frac{a\times b}{k\times l}& & \left(\frac{40\times 30}{8\times 6}=25\right)\end{array}& \left(7\right)\end{array}$

[0065] This means, for example, that without the multiplexing method of this invention an impractical 40×30=1200 pins would have been needed, while with this invention only 25 pins are needed.

[0066] As explained in detail previously, this invention improves on the structure of the device that senses the level of human contact and changes the mechanism of sensing from one that sends charge through the human body to one that uses the redistribution of charge. This minimizes the amount of direct current flowing through the body and prevents the discomfort and anxiety felt by the user of the prior art devices.

[0067] Next, by employing multiplexing methods with passive circuit elements only in it's internal circuitry, this invention maximizes the sensing device's function and minimizes of the number of pins required on the signal processing chip. Thus, the costs of the device is minimized.

[0068] Therefore, this invention can be used very effectively in devices which can be equipped with it such as fingerprint sensors, laptop computers, PDAs, mobile communication devices, electronic calculators, and digital cameras.

[0069] Although certain exemplary embodiments have been disclosed, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto but may be variously embodied within the scope of the following claims.