US-20260126870-A1 - SENSOR, SENSOR CONTROLLER, AND POSITION DETECTION DEVICE

US20260126870A1US 20260126870 A1US20260126870 A1US 20260126870A1US-20260126870-A1

Abstract

A sensor includes sensor electrodes extending in a first direction and arranged in a second direction intersecting the first direction, and routing lines connecting the sensor electrodes to a sensor controller. In the second direction, a first group of sensor electrodes on a first side of the sensor is connected to routing lines at a first end in the first direction, a second group of sensor electrodes on a second side of the sensor opposite to the first side of the sensor is connected to routing lines at a second end in the first direction, and a third sensor electrode between the first group and the second group includes a first sub-electrode connected to one of the routing lines at the first end in the first direction, and a second sub-electrode connected to one of the routing lines at the second end in the first direction.

Inventors

Jun Kadowaki
Ryutaro NITOBE

Assignees

WACOM CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251231
Priority Date: 20240201

Claims (10)

1 . A sensor comprising: a plurality of sensor electrodes, wherein the plurality of sensor electrodes extend in a first direction and are arranged in a second direction intersecting the first direction, and wherein the plurality of sensor electrodes includes at least three sensor electrodes; and a plurality of routing lines that respectively connect the plurality of sensor electrodes to a sensor controller, wherein, in the second direction, a first group of one or more sensor electrodes located on a first side of the sensor are respectively connected to routing lines at a first end in the first direction, a second group of one or more sensor electrodes located on a second side of the sensor opposite to the first side of the sensor are respectively connected to routing lines at a second end in the first direction, and a third sensor electrode located between the first group and the second group includes a first sub-electrode and a second sub-electrode, wherein the first sub-electrode is connected to one of the routing lines at the first end in the first direction, and wherein the second sub-electrode is connected to one of the routing lines at the second end in the first direction.
2 . The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein a length of the third sensor electrode in the second direction is shorter than a length of the sensor electrodes other than the third sensor electrode.
3 . The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein a length of the third sensor electrode in the first direction is same as a length of the sensor electrodes other than the third sensor electrode.
4 . The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein the first sub-electrode is located on the first side of the sensor in the second direction relative to the second sub-electrode.
5 . The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein: each of the sensor electrodes is a mesh-shaped conductor, and an interconnect density of each mesh-shaped conductor forming the first sub-electrode and the second sub-electrode is higher than an interconnect density of each mesh-shaped conductor forming the sensor electrodes other than the third sensor electrode including the first sub-electrode and the second sub-electrode.
6 . A sensor comprising: a plurality of sensor electrodes, wherein the plurality of sensor electrodes extend in a first direction and are arranged in a second direction intersecting the first direction, and wherein the plurality of sensor electrodes includes at least three sensor electrodes; and a plurality of routing lines that respectively connect the plurality of sensor electrodes to a sensor controller, wherein, in the second direction, the plurality of sensor electrodes include: a first group of one or more sensor electrodes located on a first side of the sensor, a second group of one or more sensor electrodes located adjacent to the first group, and a third group of one or more sensor electrodes located adjacent to the second group, wherein: each of the sensor electrodes in the first group is connected to the sensor controller only via a routing line connected to a first end in the first direction; each of the sensor electrodes in the second group is connected to the sensor controller via both a routing line connected to a first end in the first direction and a routing line connected to a second end in the first direction opposite the first end; and each of the sensor electrodes in the third group is connected to the sensor controller only via a routing line connected to a first end in the first direction.
7 . The sensor according to claim 6 , wherein a length of each of the one or more sensor electrodes in the third group in the second direction is shorter than a length of the sensor electrodes other than the one or more sensor electrodes in the third group.
8 . The sensor according to claim 6 , wherein a length of each of the one or more sensor electrodes in the third group in the first direction is same as a length of the sensor electrodes other than the one or more sensor electrodes in the third group.
9 . The sensor according to claim 6 , wherein each of the one or more sensor electrodes in the third group includes a first sub-electrode and a second sub-electrode, and wherein the first sub-electrode is located on the first side of the sensor in the second direction relative to the second sub-electrode.
10 . The sensor according to claim 6 , wherein: each of the sensor electrodes is a mesh-shaped conductor, each of the one or more sensor electrodes in the third group includes a first sub-electrode and a second sub-electrode, and an interconnect density of each mesh-shaped conductor forming the first sub-electrode and the second sub-electrode is higher than an interconnect density of each mesh-shaped conductor forming the sensor electrodes other than the one or more sensor electrodes in the third group.

Description

BACKGROUND Technical Field The present disclosure relates to a sensor, a sensor controller, and a position detection device. Background Art A position detection device of the active capacitance system includes a sensor disposed in a touch surface and a sensor control that detects the position of a pen by use of this sensor. The sensor includes a plurality of sensor electrodes having a plurality of linear electrodes disposed to be arranged in an X direction (hereinafter, referred to as “X electrodes”) and a plurality of linear electrodes disposed to be arranged in a Y direction (hereinafter, referred to as “Y electrodes”), a terminal group having a plurality of terminals disposed along one side extending in the X direction in the touch surface, and a plurality of routing lines that connect each of the plurality of sensor electrodes to a corresponding one of the terminals in the terminal group. The plurality of terminals forming the terminal group are each connected to the sensor controller by an interconnect line in a flexible printed board. The sensor controller receives a pen signal transmitted by the pen through each of the sensor electrodes, and derives the position of the pen in the touch sensor on the basis of the distribution of the reception intensity thereof. Examples of the position detection device having such a configuration are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2021-149161 (Patent Document 1), International Patent Publication WO 2019/235322 (Patent Document 2), and International Patent Publication WO 2019/069696 (Patent Document 3). However, the above-described position detection device of the related art has a problem that the amount of attenuation of the pen signal in the reception path of the pen signal from the sensor electrode to the sensor controller differs depending on the position of the pen in the touch surface and thus, it is difficult to enhance the accuracy of the position detection of the pen. Specifically, the reception path of the pen signal from the sensor electrode to the sensor controller is configured by the sensor electrode, the routing line, and the interconnect line in the flexible printed board. The length of the reception path of the pen signal in the sensor electrode differs depending on the position of the pen in the extension direction of the sensor electrode. Furthermore, the length of the routing line differs depending on the sensor electrode. As a result, the interconnect resistance of the reception path of the pen signal differs depending on the position of the pen in the touch surface. Thus, the amount of attenuation of the pen signal differs depending on the position of the pen in the touch surface as described above. Regarding this, in a configuration disclosed in FIG. 3 of Patent Document 3, one part (parts indicated by symbols A and B in FIG. 3 of Patent Document 3) of each of a plurality of routing lines connected to a plurality of Y electrodes is formed with a larger line width than the other part. Particularly regarding the part indicated by symbol A among them, only the routing lines corresponding to approximately half of the Y electrodes disposed at positions relatively remoter from a terminal group are treated as the subject. Thus, the part indicated by symbol A has an effect of decreasing the interconnect resistance of approximately half of the routing lines from the longest routing line and consequently plays a role in decreasing the interconnect resistance difference from the other routing lines (approximately half of the routing lines from the shortest routing line). However, with the configuration of Patent Document 3, it is impossible to decrease the interconnect resistance difference among approximately half of the routing lines from the shortest routing line. Furthermore, it is also impossible to decrease the difference in the interconnect resistance caused depending on the position of the pen tip in the sensor electrode. Therefore, the effect of improvement in the accuracy of the position detection of the pen, obtained by the configuration of Patent Document 3, is extremely limited. BRIEF SUMMARY Therefore, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a sensor that can improve the accuracy of position detection of a pen more effectively than the background technique. Moreover, in the position detection device of the related art, due to a demand to reduce the size of a bezel in a display disposed to overlap with a sensor, there is a case in which a routing line is connected to one end in the X direction for half of the Y electrodes from one side in the Y direction and the routing line is connected to the other end in the X direction for the remaining half of the Y electrodes. In this case, when the position of the pen tip is present near the boundary of switching of the connection position of the routing line and the position is close to a single side in the X direction, the length of the reception path of the pen signal in the Y elect