Synaptics Patent Grants

Semiconductor device and mobile terminal

Granted: January 8, 2019
Patent Number: 10176773
A semiconductor device and a mobile terminal are described herein. In one example, a semiconductor device is provided that includes: a power-source part; an interface part; a logic part; and a driving part. In the semiconductor device, the power-source part includes a power-source-cutoff-detection circuit operable to detect a first state in which supply of an external power source is cut off. The logic part includes: a data-cutoff-detection circuit operable to detect a second state in…

Compressed data transmission in panel display system

Granted: January 8, 2019
Patent Number: 10176761
A host device divides original data into first to Nth stream data for N being an integer of two or more, generates first to Nth compressed stream data by sequentially compressing the first to Nth stream data with a variable length compression, divides the first to Nth compressed stream data into fixed-length blocks, and sequentially transmits the fixed-length blocks to the display driver. The display driver includes a memory storing therein the fixed-length blocks and a decompression…

Systems and methods for a gradient-based metric for spoof detection

Granted: January 8, 2019
Patent Number: 10176362
A system and method for performing spoof detection are disclosed. The method includes: receiving an input image of a biometric; computing a gradient image of the biometric based on the input image of the biometric; dividing the gradient image into blocks of pixels; computing, for each block, a variance value corresponding to a variance of the pixels in the block; and, determining whether the input image is a replica of the biometric based on the variance values of the blocks of the…

Optical sensor for integration in a display

Granted: January 8, 2019
Patent Number: 10176355
Systems and methods for optical imaging are disclosed. An optical sensor for imaging a biometric input object on a sensing region includes a transparent layer having a first side and a second side opposite the first side; a first set of apertures disposed above the first side of the transparent layer; a reflective layer disposed below the second side of transparent layer configured to receive light transmitted through the first set of apertures and to reflect the received light; and a…

Optical sensor for integration over a display backplane

Granted: January 1, 2019
Patent Number: 10169630
Systems and methods for optical imaging are disclosed. An optical sensor for imaging a biometric input object on a sensing region includes a transparent layer having a first side and a second side opposite the first side; a set of apertures disposed above the first side of the transparent layer; a first set of reflective surfaces disposed below the second side of the transparent layer configured to receive light transmitted through the first set of apertures and to reflect the received…

Sensor electrode path error diagnosis

Granted: January 1, 2019
Patent Number: 10168847
A processing system comprises a sensing module, a first internal diagnostic mechanism, and a determination module. The sensing module is configured to couple with a first sensor electrode path of a plurality of sensor electrode paths, wherein the sensing module is configured to drive the first sensor electrode path with a first signal. The first internal diagnostic mechanism configured to couple with a second sensor electrode path and configured to acquire a test signal output while the…

System and method for determining user input from occluded objects

Granted: January 1, 2019
Patent Number: 10168843
Devices and method are provided that facilitate improved input device performance. Specifically, the systems and methods are configured to identify a portion of an image of sensor values as corresponding to at least one sensed object in the sensing region, determine a polygon corresponding to the identified portion of the image, and determine a contact characterization of the at least one sensed object based on the polygon. The determination of a polygon corresponding to a sensed object…

Haptic feedback wire mount

Granted: December 25, 2018
Patent Number: 10162418
An input device may include a wire element and a moveable substrate coupled to the wire element. The moveable substrate may include various wire alignment features. The input device may further include an input surface disposed above the moveable substrate. The input device may further include various sensor electrodes coupled to the input surface. The input device may further include a haptic actuator coupled to the moveable substrate. The haptic actuator may displace the moveable…

Integrating capacitive sensing with an optical sensor

Granted: December 25, 2018
Patent Number: 10162462
Embodiments herein provide a dual optical and capacitance sensor. During a first time period, the dual sensor uses optical sensing to capture a fingerprint (e.g., to identify or verify the fingerprint). During a second time period, the dual sensor uses one or more capacitive sensor electrodes to perform capacitive sensing. The capacitive sensing may be absolute capacitive sensing or transcapacitive sensing.

Sensor side charge cancellation

Granted: December 25, 2018
Patent Number: 10162453
An input device includes a receiver electrode, a transmitter electrode and a processing system coupled to the receiver electrode and transmitter electrode. The processing system is configured to transmit a transmitter signal with the transmitter electrode during a first time period, inject a charge onto the receiver electrode during a second time period, and receive a resulting signal from the receiver electrode during a third time period. The resulting signal includes effects…

Non-contact eye gaze tracking

Granted: December 25, 2018
Patent Number: 10162413
A method and apparatus for determining an eye gaze direction of a user through one or more non-contact capacitive sensors. For at least some embodiments, a differential capacitance associated with a users' eye may be determined through at least one of the non-contact capacitive sensors. The differential capacitance may be based on capacitance measurements associated with the users' eye performed at different times. The eye gaze direction may be based, at least in part, on the determined…

Shape memory haptic actuator device

Granted: December 25, 2018
Patent Number: 10161391
A haptic actuator and method for manufacturing the same. The haptic actuator may include a slider having first interlocking sliding features and a first engagement surface; and a base having second interlocking sliding features and a second engagement surface. The second interlocking sliding features may be configured to engage with the first interlocking sliding features. The haptic actuator may also include a shape memory alloy disposed between the first engagement surface and the…

Overdrive amplifier and semiconductor device

Granted: December 18, 2018
Patent Number: 10157585
The overdrive amplifier may include: a differential input circuit arranged by connecting, in a folded-cascode style, input transistors supplied with an input signal at gates, and feedback input transistors accepting the feedback of an output signal at respective gates; a current mirror load having mirror input current paths connected to current paths of the feedback input transistors, and mirror output current paths connected to current paths of the input transistors; an output circuit…

Drive circuitry configuration in display driver

Granted: December 11, 2018
Patent Number: 10152921
a display driver is provided which drives a display panel. The display driver includes first and second buffer amplifiers associated with first and second pixels positioned adjacent in a horizontal direction; first and second connection switches; and a controller. Each of the first and second buffer amplifiers includes: a differential input circuit including a MOS transistor pair, first and second drain interconnections; an active load circuit connected to the first and second drain…

Methods and apparatus for capacitively detecting key motion and finger presence on keyboard keys

Granted: December 4, 2018
Patent Number: 10148268
A keyboard including a plurality of key assemblies configured to be pressed by an input object. A subset of the plurality of key assemblies each includes a key cap and a first electrode pair underneath the key cap and configured to detect key motion in response to downward force applied by the input object. The key cap also includes a second electrode pair disposed underneath the key cap and configured to detect positional information about the input object interacting with the key cap.

Image sensor structures for fingerprint sensing

Granted: December 4, 2018
Patent Number: 10147757
Methods and systems for integrating image sensor structures with collimator filters, including manufacturing methods and associated structures for forming collimator filters at the wafer level for integration with image sensor semiconductor wafers. Methods of making an optical biometric sensor include forming a collimator filter layer on an image sensor wafer, wherein a plurality of light collimating apertures in the collimator filter layer are aligned with a plurality of light sensing…

Capacitive sensing in an LED display

Granted: December 4, 2018
Patent Number: 10146388
A processing system for an integrated display and capacitive sensing device, where the display includes light-emitting diode (LED) pixels. The processing system includes isolated supply domains having inputs that receive an anode voltage and a cathode voltage, first outputs that supply modulated anode voltages, and second outputs that modulated cathode voltages, where the modulated anode voltages and the modulated cathode voltages are constant with respect to each other and modulated…

Hybrid capacitive and resistive sensing for force and touch

Granted: December 4, 2018
Patent Number: 10146360
An input device described herein includes at least one hybrid electrode that is used to perform both capacitive sensing to detect an input object (e.g., a finger or stylus) and force sensing to determine the force applied by the input object on the input device. During a first time period, the input device drives a modulated signal on one more capacitive sensor electrodes to perform capacitive sensing. However, during a second time period, the input device drives a DC voltage across one…

Optical image sensor for display integration

Granted: December 4, 2018
Patent Number: 10146258
An electronic device including an optical sensor for optically sensing an image of an input object such as a user's fingerprint is provided. The electronic device includes a display layer, a detector, a pinhole layer, a cover layer and an illuminator. The display layer is configured to generate light within a visible light spectrum. The detector is configured to be sensitive to a wavelength of light. The pinhole layer is located above both the display layer and the detector. The cover…

Systems and methods for touch and press detection using a sensor

Granted: November 27, 2018
Patent Number: 10140499
Disclosed are systems and methods for detecting a finger touch and/or finger press. A method includes: detecting presence of a finger on a fingerprint sensor; causing the fingerprint sensor to take measurements using multiple successive frames of the fingerprint sensor; for each measurement, computing a metric associated with the measurement at a given frame corresponding to the measurement; at a first particular frame, determining that the finger has settled on the fingerprint sensor,…