3D touchscreens for reliable operation when wearing gloves

MSC Technologies, a company of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), presents the first 3D touchscreens with a 15.6-inch (39.62 cm) screen diagonal under their own brand name GE-STAR. The new GE-STAR touchscreens are based on an innovative nanosilver technology and integrate high-performance touch controllers from Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. (SiS) and Microchip. Thanks to the 3D technology, the touch systems can be operated contact-free at a distance, dependent on the diagonal, of up to 35 cm away from the surface. A reliable operation with all types of gloves is possible. Moist or icy surfaces, also with a low salt content, are not an obstacle for a reliable touch event. The touchscreens are manufactured using an advanced roll-to-roll process, meaning that large quantities can be delivered very quickly.
Only a narrow border, surrounding the surface of the linear touch, is integrated for continuous evaluation in the Z-axis, behind which simple sensor bars based on circuit boards are mounted. In addition to the low expenditure for implementation, it is an advantage that no holes must be drilled in the front. The influence of an air gap between sensor and cover glass can be calculated by a simulation and subsequently the sensor geometry can be optimized before prototyping.
The SiS controllers used for evaluation operate, depending on the type, with voltage values up to 30 V, resulting in a very good signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). An intelligent signal filtering is also provided. The low resistance per area of the nanosilver technology of 20-50 Ohm/m² typical ensures high interference immunity (EMC) and short response time. Despite the silver used, whisker growth is excluded since all conducting paths are completely encapsulated and are insulated from one another.
All software tools for tuning, debugging and for final testing of the touchscreens are developed directly by MSC Technologies and are freely available to customers. This allows access to any internal phase of the touch controller. As a rule, USB (multitouch HID device) is used as an interface. Additionally, a serial connection with TTL level and for the particularly lean integration an I²C interface are available.
All common operating systems are supported. A specially developed firmware allows the evaluation of signal width in 256 steps without additional hardware. Security of the display system is thus improved considerably. This is a point that is of decisive importance in numerous applications, for example, in biometric signature recognition.

Further information under http://www.msc-technologies.eu