How Do Touchscreens Work?
How integral has the touchscreen become in our daily lives? From ATMs, self-serve checkouts, ticketing kiosks to our own cell phones… Living without a touch screen seems to be a pretty hard ask!
If you are the inquisitive type, you might wonder exactly how do touchscreens work – you’re in the right place…
There are two main types of touchscreen, a resistive or a capacitive touchscreen. Although both are different in terms of how they work, there is a major addition to both that is a requirement in terms of getting a touchscreen to work – namely ITO (That’s Indium Tin Oxide in full).
ITO is a transparent substance that is also electrically conductive and can be deposited with relative ease onto substrates including plastic and glass.
Capacitive Touchscreen
This is potentially the easiest to explain as capacitive touchscreens are in simple terms, a sheet of glass with ITO deposited onto the surface. This conductive glass screen registers a user’s touch as there is a change in charge at that point. This is because the human touch is marginally conductive itself.
A capacitive screen can identify multiple touches and gestures and are mostly used within cell phones. These types of screens are also used in other commercial and industrial settings, although resistive screens might offer a longer lifespan due to continuous and demanding usage.
Resistive Touchscreen
With a resistive screen, although ITO is integral, it works differently to a capacitive screen. Instead of forming a thin layer on the surface of the screen, resistive screens have two layers of (normally) plastic with an ITO layer in between. When downward pressure is applied to the surface, the ITO layer can pinpoint the location due to a break in the charge.
Resistive screens are therefore better suited to more public facing environments Your ATMs and ticket kiosks, for example),
Diamond Coatings Touchscreens
Operating from our purpose-built processing plant in Phoenix, Arizona we supply both resistive and capacitive screens, providing anything from development to production volumes in both resistive and capacitive touch screens. Available in sizes up to 1,000 mm x 1,000 mm, screens can be produced on plastic (flexible or rigid) or glass and provided with anti-glare and/or other required finishes.
Resistive touchscreens offer variable X-Y touch-point detection and approximately 70% visible transmission. A capacitive touch screen offers 90% visible transmission.
How Can We Help?
Whatever your requirements for touchscreens, please get in touch with us today. A member of our tech team will assist you with your enquiry.