Design Article

s 101: Understanding touch screen technology and design

Steve Kolokowsky 
and Trevor Davis, 
Cypress Semiconductor Corp.
6/29/2009 7:00 AM EDT

(Editor's note: there is a list of related articles with links at the end, below the "About the authors" section.) 
Touch screens (sometimes spelled as ) are everywhere: they are embedded in phones, office equipment, speakers,
digital photo frames, TV control buttons, remote controls, GPS systems, automotive keyless entry, and medical
monitoring equipment. As a component, they have reached into every industry, every product type, every size, and
every application at every price point. In fact, if a product has an LCD or buttons, a designer somewhere is probably
evaluating how that product, too, can implement touch screen technology. As with any technology, there are many
different ways to implementation approaches, many promises of performance, and many different technical
considerations when designing a touch screen. 
Anatomy of a touch screen
Knowing what you need is an important first step in designing a touch screen product. Vendors in the touch screen
supply chain frequently offer different pieces of the puzzle, often times combining several to create a value chain for
the end customer. Figure 1 shows a blowup of the touch screen ecosystem. This ecosystem is the same whether it is
in the latest Notebook PC or the latest touch-enabled mobile phone. 

Figure 1: Touch screen contoller "autopsy" 

(Click on image to enlarge)

There are six key elements: 

1. Front panel or bezel: The front panel or bezel is the outermost skin of the end product. In some products, this bezel
will encompass a protective clear overlay to keep weather and moisture out of the system, and to resist scratching
and vandalism to the underlying sensor technology (see item 3 below). Other times, the outmost bezel simply covers
the edges of the underlying touch sensor; in this case, it is purely decorative. 
2. Touch controller: The touch-controller is generally a small microcontroller-based IC that sits between the touch
sensor and the embedded system controller. This IC can either be located on a controller board inside the system or
 it can be located on a flexible printed circuit (FPC) affixed to the glass touch sensor. This touch controller takes
information from the touch sensor and translates it into information that the PC or embedded system controller can
understand. 
3. Touch sensor: A touch screen "sensor" is a clear glass panel with a touch-responsive surface. This sensor is
placed over an LCD so that the touch area of the panel covers the viewable area of the video screen. There are many
different touch-sensor technologies on the market today, each using a different method to detect touch input.
Fundamentally, these technologies all use an electrical current running through the panel that, when touched, causes
a voltage or signal change. This voltage change is sensed by the touch controller to determine the location of the
touch on the screen. 
4. Liquid crystal display: Most touch screen systems work over traditional LCDs. LCDs for a touch-enabled product
should be chosen for the same reasons they would in a traditional system: resolution, clarity, refresh speed, and cost.
One major consideration for a touch screen, however, is the level of electrical emission. Because the technology in
the touch sensor is based on small electrical changes when the panel is touched, an LCD that emits a lot of electrical
noise can be difficult to design around. Touch sensor vendors should be consulted before choosing an LCD for a
touch screen system. 
5. System software : Touch screen driver software can be either shipped from the factory (within the embedded OS
of a cell phone) or offered as add-on software (like adding a touch screen to a traditional PC). This software allows
the touch screen and system controller to work together and tells the product's operating system how to interpret the
touch-event information that is sent from the controller. In a PC-style application, most touch screen drivers work like
a PC mouse. This makes touching the screen similar to clicking the mouse at the same location on the screen. In
embedded systems, the embedded controller driver must compare the information presented on the screen to the
location of the received touch. 
The "big three" of touch screen technology

 Resistive touch screens are the most common touch screen technology. They are used in high-traffic
applications and are immune to water or other debris on the screen. Resistive touch screens are usually the lowest-
cost touch screen implementation. Because they react to pressure, they can be activated by a finger, gloved hand,
stylus, or other object, such as a credit card.
 Surface-capacitive touch screens provide a much clearer display than the plastic cover typically used in a
resistive touch screen. In a surface-capacitive display, sensors in the four corners of the display detect capacitance
changes due to touch. These touch screens can only be activated by a finger or other conductive object.
 Projected-capacitive touch screens are the latest entry to the market. This technology also offers superior
optical clarity, but it has significant advantages over surface-capacitive screens. Projected capacitive sensors require
no positional calibration and provide much higher positional accuracy. Projected-capacitive touch screens are also
very exciting because they can detect multiple touches simultaneously.

How touch screens work

Let's look inside the two most common touch screen technologies. 
The most widely used touch screen technology is resistive. Most people have used one of these resistive touch
screens already, in the ATM at the bank, in the credit card checkout in most stores, or even for entering an order in a
restaurant. Projective-capacitance touch screens, on the other hand, are not as broadly available yet, but are gaining
market momentum. Many cellphones and portable music players are beginning to come to market with projective-
capacitance interfaces. Both resistive and capacitive technologies have a strong electrical component, both use ITO
(Indium-Tin-Oxide, a clear conductor), and both will be around for a long time to come. 
A resistive touch screen (Figure 2, left side) consists of a flexible top layer, then a layer of ITO (Indium-Tin-Oxide), an
air gap and then another layer of ITO. The panel has 4 wires attached to the ITO layers: one on the left and right
sides of the 'X' layer, and one on the top and bottom sides of the 'Y' layer. 

Figure 2. Stackup layers for "resistive" (left) and "capacitive" (right) screens 
(Click on image to enlarge)

A touch is detected when the flexible top layer is pressed down to contact the lower layer. The location of a touch is
measured in two steps: First, the 'X right' is driven to a known voltage, and the 'X left' is driven to ground and the
voltage is read from a Y sensor. This provides the X coordinate. This process is repeated for the other axis to
determine the exact finger position. 
Resistive touch screens also come in 5-wire, and 8-wire versions. The 5-wire version replaces the top ITO layer with
a low-resistance "conductive layer" that provides better durability. The 8-wire panel was developed to enable higher
resolution by enabling better calibration of the panel's characteristics. 
There are several drawbacks to resistive technology. The flexible top layer has only 75%-80% clarity and the resistive
touch screen measurement process has several error sources. If the ITO layers are not uniform, the resistance will
not vary linearly across the sensor. Measuring voltage to 10- or 12-bit precision is required, which is difficult in many
environments. Many of the existing resistive touch screens also require periodic calibration to realign the touch points
with the underlying LCD image. 
Conversely, projected-capacitive touch screens have no moving parts. The only thing between the LCD and the user
is ITO and glass, which have near 100% optical clarity. The projected-capacitance sensing hardware consists of a
glass top layer (Figure 2, right side), followed by an array of X sensors, an insulating layer, then an array of Y
sensors on a glass substrate. The panel will have a wire for each X and Y sensor, so a 5 x 6 panel will have 11
connections (Figure 3), while a 10 x 14 panel will have 24 sensor connections. 
 Figure 3. Signal intensity at rows and columns denote location of touch 
(Click on image to enlarge)

As a finger or other conductive object approaches the screen, it creates a capacitor between the sensors and the
finger. This capacitor is small relative to the others in the system (about 0.5 pF out of 20 pF), but it is readily
measured. One common measuring technique known as Capacitive Sensing using a Sigma-Delta Modulator (CSD)
involves rapidly charging the capacitor and measuring the discharge time through a bleed resistor. 
A projected capacitive sensor array is designed so that a finger will interact with more than one X sensor and more
than one Y sensor at a time (See Figure 3). This enables software to accurately determine finger position to a very
fine degree through interpolation. For example, if sensors 1, 2 and 3 see signals of 3, 10, and 7, the center of the
finger is at: 
[(1 × 3) + (2 × 10) + (7 × 3)]/(3 + 10 + 7) = 2.2

Since projected-capacitive panels have multiple sensors, they can detect multiple fingers simultaneously, which is
impossible with other technologies. In fact, projective capacitance has been shown to detect up to ten fingers at the
same time. This enables exciting new applications based on multiple finger presses, including multiplayer gaming on
handheld electronics or playing an touch screen piano. 
Without question, touch screens are great looking. They have begun to define a new user interface and industrial
design standard that is being adopted the world over. In everything from heart-rate monitors to the latest all-in-one
printers, touch screens are quickly becoming the standard of technology design. 
Beyond just looks, however, touch screens provide an unparalleled level of security from tampering, resistance from
weather, durability from wear, and even enable entirely new markets with unique features such as multi-touch touch
screens. With touch screens making their way into so many types of products, it's imperative that design engineers
understand the technology ecosystem and technology availability. 
About the authors
Steve Kolokowsky is a Member of the Technical Staff in Cypress Semiconductor's Consumer and Computation
Division (CCD). Steve's focus is high-speed USB peripheral products. He has participated in the design of many of
today's highest-selling MP3 players. Steve has a BS in Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in
Troy, NY. He is based in sunny San Diego, California, USA and can be reached at [email protected]
Trevor Davis is currently the Director of Marketing for Cypress's Consumer and Computation Division (CCD) focused
on Universal Serial Bus (USB) in consumer products. Trevor received his undergraduate degree from the United
States Air Force Academy and also holds his Masters in Business Administration. Trevor served as an Air Force
Officer for five years before joining Cypress. Trevor lives in San Diego, CA and can be reached at [email protected]
Related articles of interest 
1. Using capacitive sensor user interfaces in next generation mobile and embedded consumer devices, Mariel Van
Tatenhove and Andrew Hsu, Synaptics, Inc. 
2. Designer's guide to rapid prototyping of capacitive sensors on any surface,Mark Lee, Cypress Semiconductor
Corp. 
3. Capacitive sensors can replace mechanical switches for touch control, Wayne Palmer, Analog Devices Inc. 
4. Building a reliable capacitive-sensor interface, Wayne Palmer, Analog Devices, Inc. 
5. The art of capacitive touch sensing, Mark Lee, Cypress Semiconductor Corp. 
6. Practical considerations for capacitive touch screen system design (Part 1 of 2), Yi Hang Wang, Cypress
Semiconductor Corp. 
7. Basics and implementation of capacitive proximity sensing (Part 2 of 2),Ganesh Raaja, Cypress Semiconductor
Corp.