• S-Tek, Inc

Touch Screen

A touch panel or touch screen is a touch-sensitive transparent screen mounted in front of an LCD. It provides a way for a person to interact with an electronic system. Typically the system will display several icons on the LCD and expect the user to select one by touching it. The touch causes some measurable phenomena that is converted by a controller IC into screen coordinates which are sent into the system. The system then determines which icon was selected and takes appropriate action. The phrases Touch Screen and Touch Panel mean the same thing and are interchangeable. S-Tek is an Agent for is the main supplier of touch screens in the field of PDAs and calculators. Small TN, STN LCDs are especially well suited for handheld devices, where interaction is required but keyboards are impractical Touch screens are so often used. There are several physical phenomena, which can be used to detect a touch including capacitive, infrared, resistive and surface acoustic wave (SAW). Resistive touch screens are the most common because they are simple, low cost and can be activated by fingertip or any type of stylus. Most of Orient Display products are resistive type. Capacitive technology offers higher transparency at a higher cost. Surface acoustic wave technology requires more borders, more power and a touch by finger, but gives more durability for public access applications. Among resistive touch screens, the 4 wire method is most common, and the 5 wire less so. 8 wire resistive is a variation on 4 wire and 6 wire and 7 wire are variants of the 5 wire method.