Sunday 7 October 2012

The Truth about Capacitive Touch Screens- Everything you need to know before you make your next purchase

Before I get into the facts about why your next liquid crystal display must have a capacitive touch screen, let me give you a brief history lesson on these screens. 

Capacitive touch screens date back to somewhere around 1965-1967, invented by E.A. Johnson from the Royal Radar Establishment, Malvern, UK. Most historians consider capacitive touch screens to be the first type of touch screens developed. However, the capacitive touch technology did not make its mainstream debut until the 1990’s when it showed up as a ‘behind-the-glass’ discrete touch button technology in high end cooktops and similar devices. Nowadays, you can find this technology in just about every MP3 player, smart phone and tablet computer on the market. Also, it is being tested in everyday items like door knobs, tables and car door handles.

So what really makes capacitive touch screens so unique? Similar to resistive touch screens, they are made up of a glass panel that is coated with a material, like indium tin oxide. Since the human body and this material are both electrical conductors, when you touch the surface of a capacitive touch screen with your finger there is a change in capacitance and the oscillator circuit is able to identify the exact location, as opposed to resistive panels which need to be pressed together to detect a voltage change.



The five main reasons you should choose this type of screen for your next liquid crystal display project are:
  •  It  supports  Multi-Touch
  •  It supports Gestures (like pinch-zoom)
  •  It’s highly sensitive to figure touch, which leads to better ease of use
  •  Its top glass layer is more durable than resistive touch panels
  •  It has a glossy one-piece look and feel

After reading this you are probably ready to build something with a capacitive touch screen and here at Microtips Technology we are excited for you and would like to be a part of your product plan. Some of our most popular products are our color LCD TFT Modules, Monochrome, Character and Graphic LCD modules, both standard and custom-made LCD modules, in addition to our highly complex and customized capacitive touch panels. Now that you are well informed we hope to hear from you soon.  For more information, please log on to www.microtipsusa.com.