Elo's New Surface Capacitive Touchscreens and Touchmonitors

Elo's New Surface Capacitive Touchscreens and Touchmonitors

Elo TouchSystems, Inc., a leader in touch technology and a business unit of Tyco Electronics, has announced the addition of surface capacitive touchscreens to its portfolio of touch technologies and touchmonitors. Elo's new family of surface capacitive touchscreens utilising the company's ZBorder, a patentpending linearisation electrode pattern firmly positions the company as the primary singlesource solution for all mainstream touch technologies: CarrollTouch infrared, IntelliTouch/SecureTouch/iTouch surface wave, AccuTouch fivewire/AT4 fourwire resistive, and DirectTouch/ThruTouch projected capacitive. In addition, customers will now be able to receive surface capacitive technology on Elo's portfolio of Entuitive "designed for touch" touchmonitors, the world's largest offering. Elo's new surface capacitive touchscreen and touchmonitors were recently demonstrated at CeBIT 2004, Hannover, Germany.

Elo's new surface capacitive touchscreens are ideal for use in markets such as financial/ATM, entertainment/gaming and retail, including ticketing machines, pointofsale (POS) and kioskbased applications. Elo's surface capacitive touchscreens will be available in 12, 15, 17 and 19in flat, as well as customised sizes. Surface capacitive touch technology is environmentally resilient and offers superior sensitivity, including exceptional drag characteristics, with an accurate and fast touch response. A transparent protective coating makes the overlay resistant to scratches and abrasions and also increases durability. In addition, touch performance is unaffected by everyday abuse and mishaps such as dirt, dust, condensation, liquid spills, contaminants or cleaning solutions.

Elo Europe's marketing manager Mike Sigona said, "With the addition of surface capacitive touchscreens, the Elo family provides the largest touch technology offering from any manufacturer. Developers, integrators, OEMs and resellers now have a reliable alternative resource for surface capacitive touchscreens one backed by a company that has provided the global standard in touch technology for over 30 years. Customers will also have the additional choice of surface capacitive technology when choosing among a range of Elo desktop and chassis touchmonitors designed for a variety of applications."

Elo's surface capacitive touchscreen consists of a glass panel with a surface coating of capacitive or chargestoring material. The four corners of the touchscreens are connected to amplifiers that integrate the current needed to periodically charge up the touch capacitance through the screen resistance. These integrated charges are measured with an analoguetodigital converter on the electronic controller; the microprocessor determines the exact position of the touch from the different amount of charge injected into each touchscreen corner. "Our surface capacitive touchscreens utilise our patentpending ZBorder which significantly improves edge and corner linearity performance," Mr Sigona said. ZBorder has proved successful on Elo's popular AccuTouch fivewire resistive touchscreens. The surface capacitive touchscreen with Elo's internally developed electronic controller is compatible with industryleading software protocols including Elo's SmartSet protocol. Elo drivers are included for Microsoft Windows 98, Me, NT, 2000 and XP. The sensors are designed to fit on standard Elo monitors with serial/USB connectivity and for compatibility with other capacitive offerings.