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ApplePatent applicationPhones & computersInterest 6/10

Apple patents touch screen that detects water by checking charge direction

Apple describes a touch screen design where pixels are arranged in a checkerboard pattern to detect liquid. The system measures how water changes the electrical charge between pixels, distinguishing it from a finger touch based on the direction of the change.

Why it mattersThis could help smartphones and tablets ignore accidental touches caused by rain or spills, improving reliability in wet conditions.

In the filing’s own words

A pixelated mutual capacitance sensing configuration to detect the presence of floating water is disclosed. An integrated touch screen can be configured in a checkerboard arrangement of alternating drive pixels and sense pixels, where each drive or sense pixel can include a plurality of sub-pixels. The sense pixels can include sense sub-pixels surrounded by ground sub-pixels to reduce the baseline mutual capacitance between the drive and sense pixels. Stimulated drive pixels can capacitively couple onto the sense sub-pixels of the sense pixel, forming a baseline (no touch) mutual capacitance between the drive pixels and the sense sub-pixels. The presence of grounded objects shunts some charge to ground and reduces the mutual capacitance, while floating water provides and additional parallel mutual capacitance path that increases the mutual capacitance. Floating water can be distinguished from a grounded touch based on the direction of the change in mutual capacitance.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A touch sensor panel, comprising: an array of configurable first pixels and second pixels in an alternating checkerboard arrangement configurable into a first pixelated mutual capacitance configuration; and at least one sense circuit communicatively couplable to one or more of the first pixels and second pixels; wherein in accordance with the first pixelated mutual capacitance configuration, the first pixels are first drive pixels configured to receive a stimulation signal for mutual capacitance sensing, the second pixels are first sense pixels, each first sense pixel including a first sense region and a first ground region, each first sense pixel positioned with respect to the one or more first drive pixels for capacitively coupling with the one or more first drive pixels, the first ground region of each first sense pixel is positioned between the first sense region of the first sense pixel and a plurality of first drive pixels to capacitively couple with the plurality of first drive pixels, and the at least one sense circuit is communicatively coupled to one of the first sense regions for detecting changes in mutual capacitance between one or more of the first drive pixels and the first sense region.

Facts

Company
Apple (Apple Inc.)
Official title
PIXELATED MUTUAL CAPACITANCE SENSING FOR WATER DETECTION
Publication number
US20260277365A1
Application number
19670909
Filed
May 7, 2026
Published
Sep 17, 2026
Inventors
2
Claims
20

Classified under

G06F 3/04186 Physics & computingG01N 27/223 Physics & computingG01N 27/228 Physics & computingG06F 3/041662 Physics & computingG06F 3/044 Physics & computingG06F 2203/04107 Physics & computing
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.