See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/344477490

An Overview of Capacitive Touchscreen Display Technology

Article · October 2020

CITATIONS READS
0 952

1 author:

Mahadi Hassan Anik

United International University
1 PUBLICATION   0 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

An Overview of Capacitive Touchscreen Display Technology View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Mahadi Hassan Anik on 05 October 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 An Overview of Capacitive Touchscreen
Display Technology
Mahadi Hassan Anik
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, United International University
Dhaka- 1216, Bangladesh
Abstract—The investigation about the
capacitive touchscreen display is introduced
here. How capacitive touch screen display
invented and what is the working method of
this capacitive touchscreen display is
introduced here. The capacitive display is
mostly used display in our world rather than
other displays. Other displays are not
working correctly like capacitive display. So,
the capacitive display is very good to use in
our daily electric appliances where the screen
technology is used. While there is other
display is very costly but the capacitive
display is very cheap and durable.
Index Terms—Capacitive display,
Touchscreen technology, Resistive display,
Infrared touchscreen display, Electrode
pattern, CRT, History of the Display and
TSP, Current flow, Innovation.
I. INTRODUCTION
In our modern world, we are using many
technological tools. In this tool display is the tool
we use most frequently. The display is part of
our life. We can not imagine a single day without
display. The display has 2 kinds one is a
touchscreen display and another one is a non-
touchscreen display. We can see a non-
touchscreen display in our old generation
Television and a touchscreen display on a
smartphone and some smart TVs. In touchscreen
display, many touch sensors are used to play an
active role in touchscreen technology.
There are 3 types of touchscreen we use
nowadays. One is a resistive touchscreen and the
second one is an infrared touchscreen and the
third one is a capacitive touchscreen display. So,
first of all, I am going to tell you about the
resistive touchscreen display. Is has two types of
layer one are resistive and another one is
conductive. In this display where we touch that
is made of polyester and the lower part of that
display is made of glass. Both of this part is
separated by a spacer in between. A small
amount of current is flowing through this two-
layer. When we touch that screen the upper layer
touches the bottom layer and a small amount of
current in that section is changed and this change
is recognized by a processor and then the
coordinate is found by the processor. This is how
the resistive display works. But it has some
problems too. It does not support the multitouch
functionality and we cannot zoom any picture
and the screen visibility rate is very poor due to
the high reflection of ambient light from the two-
layer system and it is quite harder to know
what’s is written there in a sunny day. For this
problem, our method is the exact solution. Our
system capacitive touchscreen display has
multitouch functionality and the screen is very
clear to visible.
Fig. 1: Resistive Touchscreen Display
The second one is the Infrared touchscreen
display. It has two layers made of glass. This
touchscreen follows the light beam interruption
technology. Many small LEDs (light-emitting
diode) are placed in both the horizontal and the
vertical axis. For both sides of the LEDs, the
light sensor is placed in front of this exact
opposite side of these LEDs. The LEDs start
emitting light and the sensor receives the light.
 When we touch the screen the beam of this light
break and the sensor correspond to this led does
not receive the light and this change is detected
by the processor by calculating the coordinate
where we had touched. This kind of display has
some problems too. It has lower resolution and
slower response time and this display id so
sensitive that if any mosquito touches this
display it senses that as an input command. So
this type of problem can not accept. So our
system capacitive touchscreen display doesn’t
have this kind of problem. The capacitive display
has a very large screen resolution over that and it
doesn’t accept any touch command of mosquito.
So, a capacitive touchscreen display is a blessing
to us.
Fig. 2: Infrared Touchscreen Display
II. BRIEF HISTORY
One of the earliest electronic displays is the cathode
ray tube (CRT), which was first demonstrated in
1897 and made commercial in 1922. The CRT
consists of an electron gun that forms images by
firing electrons onto a phosphor-coated screen. The
earliest CRTs were monochrome and were used
primarily in oscilloscopes and black and white
televisions. The first commercial color CRT was
produced in 1954. CRTs were the single most
popular display technology used in television
sets and computer monitors for over half a century; it
was not until the 2000s that LCDs began to gradually
replace them. A derivative of CRTs was storages
tubes, which could retain information displayed on
them, unlike standard CRTs which need to be
refreshed periodically. In 1968, Tektronix introduced
the direct view bistable storage tube, which went on
to be widely used in oscilloscopes and computer
terminals. Between 1948-1950 the first color CRT-
TV was invented by RCA laboratories. On December
17, 1953, CRT-TV began its commercial
broadcasting.
In 1957 the flip-flap/disk display in invented. In
1964 monochrome plasma display was invented. In
1968 LED display was invented. In 1968 egg-crate
display was invented. In 1967 Vaccum fluorescent
display was invented. In 1971 twisted nematic field
effect LCD was invented. In 1888, liquid crystals
were first discovered in cholesterol extracted from
carrots by Austrian botanist and chemist, Friedrich
Reinitzer.In 1962, RCA researcher Richard Williams
generated stripe patterns in a thin layer of liquid
crystal material by the application of a voltage. This
effect is based on an electrohydrodynamic instability
forming what is now called “Williams domains”
inside the liquid crystal. James Fergason holds some
patents in LCD with US patent number is 3,731,986.
The touchscreen technology first invented in
between 1965 to the 1967 year. E.A. Johnson is the
first touchscreen technology inventor of the world
who lived in Malvern, UK. In 1968 E.A. Johnson
published an article named touchscreen system for air
traffic control. There he described what he invented
most clearly.
In 1971, a "touch sensor" was developed by Doctor
Sam Hurst (founder of Elographics) while he was an
instructor at the University of Kentucky. This sensor
called the "Elograph" was patented by The University
of Kentucky Research Foundation. The "Elograph"
was not transparent like modern touch screens,
however, it was a significant milestone in touch
screen technology. The Elograph was selected by
Industrial Research as one of the 100 Most
Significant New Technical Products of the Year
1973. In 1974, the first true touch screen
incorporating a transparent surface came on the scene
developed by Sam Hurst and Elographics. In 1977,
Elographics developed and patented a resistive touch
screen technology, the most popular touch screen
technology in use today. In 1977, Siemens
Corporation financed an effort by Elographics to
produce the first curved glass touch sensor interface,
which became the first device to have the name
"touch screen" attached to it. On February 24, 1994,
the company officially changed its name from
Elographics to Elo TouchSystems. Elographics
patents
In 1983, the computer manufacturing company,
Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP-150, a home
computer with touch screen technology. The HP-150
had a built-in grid of infrared beams across the front
of the monitor which detected finger movements.
However, the infrared sensors would collect dust and
require frequent cleanings.
The nineties introduced smartphones and handhelds
with touch screen technology. In 1993, Apple
released the Newton PDA, equipped with
handwriting recognition; and IBM released the first
smartphone called Simon, which featured a calendar,
notepad, and fax function, and a touch screen
interface that allowed users to dial phone numbers. In
1996, Palm entered the PDA market and advanced
touch screen technology with its Pilot series.
In 2002, Microsoft introduced the Windows XP
Tablet edition and started its entry into touch
Fig. 4: Surface Capacitive Display Measuring
technology. However, you could say that the increase
Technique
in the popularity of touch screen smartphones defined
the 2000s. In 2007, Apple introduced the king of
smartphones, the iPhone, with nothing but touch In a projected capacitive display it senses the
presence and location of conductive materials, such
screen technology.
as our fingertip. This touchscreen is composed of two
transparent diamond grid patterns printed on
III. OPERATING PRINCIPLE
polyester with an optically clear insulator in the
A touchscreen display is used on our smartphone. middle. The diamond grid pattern is printed with a
Three technology is used in our touchscreen display. transparent, material called Indium Tin Oxide or ITO.
which acts as a conductor. But it can be made from
And they are
copper oxide too. If we assume a bunch of electrons
• Toughened glass.
on this blue diamond, however, because there is an
• Capacitive touchscreen. insulator in the way, the electrons cannot move. The
• And many types of display. electrons generate a negative electric field which
causes a bunch of positive charges to build upon the
These technologies are combined. Now we are
yellow diamond. This is called a capacitor. Now,
going to discuss the touchscreen display layers. On
when we move a conductive material such as the tip
the top, we have toughened glass that protects our
of our finger close to this capacitor it disrupts the
capacitive display. Chemically toughened glass in
electric field which changes the ammount of positive
normally five times stronger than the normal glass.
charges that build upon the yellow diamond. Here are
Chemically toughened glass is more popular than the
finger completes the circuit which leads to a voltage
plastic screen because it is scratch-resistant and low
drop on the screen. The change in positive charges
cost. A smartphone’s glass is an aluminosilicate glass
caused by this disruption on the yellow diamond is
that is toughened by soaking it in a bath of molten
measured, and the processor registers this as a touch.
potassium nitrate. This causes the sodium atoms in
The location of the touch is detected by scanning the
the glass to migrate out, and much larger potassium
charges or voltage along the blue diamond rows,
atoms to take their place. Because the potassium
while actively measuring each yellow diamond
atoms are bigger, the substantial compressive force is
column. Each row of blue diamonds is connected,
operated on the surface of the glass.
also each column of yellow diamonds is connected.
This setup makes a grid of blue columns and yellow
rows. All of these components are made with
transparent materials. Measuring each point requires
too much circuitry, so we only measure each column.
The charge or voltage gets sent to each row in quick
succession, so the processor can register multiple
touches at once.
Fig. 3: Toughened Glass Making Process

Below this glass capacitive display is situated. The

capacitive display is two types. One is surface
capacitive and the other one is projected capacitive
display. The surface capacitive touchscreen is like
When we touch the screen the electric current will
flow through our fingers from all the four electrodes
ratio of the electric current flowing will be measured Fig. 5: Projected Capacitive Display Measuring
to detect the touch location by the processor and this Technique
ratio is calculated by the sensors attached to every
electrode at the corners. This touch screen is made of 40 rows colored in
blue and 80 columns colored in yellow. The result is
a grid with over 3 thousand intersections, and our
phone can sense a touch at each of those
intersections. If we type out a message, our phone
detects a pattern. If we have large fingers, our
smartphone can find the center of our touch. It can
see the size, shape, and location of the tap or gesture
and then calculates the X, and Y coordinates. It also
determines whether we left our fingers on the screen
or not if we swiped it in any particular direction. The
electric field of this display rises above the surface of
the glass. So the touchscreen will work through
protective covers. In the multitouch screen system,
while all the rows of electric fields are active, we run
into a few issues. If we touch any yellow plate it can
not determine where we are tapping in the yellow
matrix. It can not determine the exact point of it but
there is a solution too. We have to measure the entire
column simultaneously. Because if we break up the
column and measure individual diamonds, we will
end up measuring thirty-two hundred points. So in
the solution, we implement to scan or sweep the
electric field along the rows very quickly at a rate of
about 10 microseconds per row. At any given time
only one row is on, thus only one row of intersections
can detect a touch at a time. Circuitry in the
smartphone controls this sweep of the electric field
across each of the rows, and at every row, a
measurement along each column is recorded. Before
the electric field moves to the next row, each column
resets its measurement. The smartphone then
correlates when the row was active with the output of
each column to reconstruct a complete grid. This
scanning happens within a couple of milliseconds and
it allows for the smartphone to distinguish between 3
or more touches in all different locations. The
drawback is that a new time delay is introduced and
if the touchscreen gets too big, there would be a
rather noticeable delay from the scanning across so
many rows.
Fig. 6: Projected Capacitive Display’s Multitouch
Measuring Technique
In the bottom part, there are many types of display
can be situated. The most common display use in our
modern technology is LCD, an LED display, and an
OLED display. This high-resolution OLED display is
what generates the high-quality images that we see
whenever we look at our smartphone. Current 2018
high-end phones can have over 3.3 million pixels.
That means there are 10 million microscopic
individually controlled dimmable red green and blue
lights in the palm of our hand. OLED displays are
composed of a massive grid of individual pixels and
each pixel is composed of a red-green and blue
subpixel. Each subpixel’s light intensity is controlled
by a small thin film transistor that acts as a dimmer
switch. There are many layered structures in each
sub-pixel. Photons are produced in the subpixel by
electrons that are driven from the negative to the
positive terminal. When photons pass through this
middle layer here, called the emissive layer, photons
are emitted through a release of energy. The
compounds used to make up the emissive layer
determines the color of the light emitted, and the
intensity of this light is dependent on how many
electrons pass through. A noble prize is given for the
discovery of efficient blue light-emitting diodes. on
the bottom is an OLED display composed of a 10
million little colored lights. On top of that is a
transparent projected capacitive touchscreen that can
sense one or multiple fingers touches at a time And
on top of that is strengthened glass that protects our
screen from scratches and most falls.
Fig. 7: OLED Display Technology
IV. APPLICATIONS
The capacitive display is using is many commercial
sectors. Most commonly this display is used in smart
mobile phone technology. Though it consumes low
power and durable and its resolution are very high so
that’s why its uses are very high demand. Mobile
phone displays can not bethink without this
capacitive display technology. Because it is the only
display that supports multi-touch functionality. Other
display that supports multitouch functionality that is a
very high price. The most popular mobile phone
which is I phone is also made of the capacitive
display.
In some areas smart TV is also made by the
capacitive touch screen display. The TV which is
made by a capacitive touch screen display is a very
high-resolution picture frame. Nowadays hospital's
electric appliances are also used capacitive display
because of its low-cost price. ATMs (automated teller
machine) are also made by this capacitive touch
screen display. In some industries, many electrical
appliances are made of a capacitive touch screen
display. Our Laptop and tablet are made of this
display. This display is used in-game console too. We
know about EVM (electronic voting machine) that’s
also made of the capacitive display. This display is
used in the bank system too for giving the customer
token slip by touch screen technology. This display is
used in the POS (point of sale) system too. This
capacitive touch screen display is also used in the
classroom too instead of a blackboard. It is used in
the room automation system too. Our smart watcher
is also using this technology. The restaurants are also
using this technology. Nowadays touchscreen
keyboard is made by the capacitive display.
V. CURRENT RESEARCH TREND
In this capacitive touchscreen display, much research
happens nowadays. The capacitive display is using
with OLED, LCD, and LED displays. Research is
happening because everyone wants to build a cheaper
display with capacitive touchscreen technology. So
it's like a rase who will win first. In 2007 AMOLED
(Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) is
introduced but after more research, it is commercially
introduced in 2014. In 2018 most power full display
is invented by research and that is Super AMOLED
display. All of this AMOLED and Super AMOLED
is used and research by Korean giant technology
company SAMSUNG and other companies like
Xiaomi and Huawei are brought this high-end
technology from SAMSUNG. On the other hand, the
American giant company APPLE is using Super
Retina XDR OLED capacitive touchscreen display
on their I-PHONE series. So research is happening
between Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
display by SAMSUNG and Super Retina XDR
OLED capacitive touchscreen display by APPLE.
Both of their display uses the same touchscreen
technology but the display type is different. So let's
see what they will invent in the future.
On the other hand, if we see the touch screen
technology research is much more improved. New
types of touchscreen technology are invented and
scientist is always researching with that new method
of touchscreen technology. The new touchscreen
research method is surface acoustic wave
touchscreens. To detect our finger, this technology
uses sound, not light. The screen creates ultrasonic
sound waves at its edges, and they get reflected back
and forth all over its surface. As soon as we touch the
screen, we are not only disturbing the sound beams
but also absorb their energy! That's how the built-in
microchip controller understands where we've hit the
screen. These ultrasonic sounds are too high-pitched
for the human ear to hear. One more type of
touchscreens is called near field imaging. It's suitable
for the most challenging environments. That's why
it's widely used in the military. When we move our
finger closer to this screen, we change the glass
screen's electric field. As a result, it immediately
recognizes our touch. Such technology allows us to
control the screen with the help of a pen, stylus, and
even while wearing gloves.
VI. CONCLUSION
Though all these merits it has some demerits too.
Like when we touch the screen with the gloves in our
hand the touch screen will not work properly And if
we go to under the water this touch screen can not
work because the water is conductive material it
doesn’t pass our body current through the
touchscreen panel that’s why this display can not
work in underwater. But using this display we can
find the high-resolution picture quality and
multitouch system which can not be found in other
resistive touchscreen panels. This displays response
time is very high.
VII. REFERENCES
[1] Johnson, E.A. (1965). "Touch Display - A novel
input/output device for computers". Electronics
Letters. 1 (8): 219–220
DOI: 10.1049/el:19650200.
[2] Walker, Geoff (August 2012). "A review of
technologies for sensing contact location on the
surface of a display". Journal of the Society for
Information Display. 20 (8): 413–440.
DOI:10.1002/jsid.100.
[3] M. Trend et al., “Electrode layout for touch
screens,” U.S. Patent 2011/ 0025639 A1, Feb. 3,
2011.
[4] J. A. Harley, “Capacitive touch screen or
touchpad for finger or stylus,” U.S. Patent
2010/0026655 A1, Feb. 4, 2010.
[5] Kent, Joel (May 2010). "Touchscreen technology
basics & a new development". CMOS Emerging
Technologies Conference. CMOS Emerging
Technologies Research. 6: 1–
13. ISBN 9781927500057.
[6] auburn.edu – Note on the Liquid Crystal Display
Industry Archived 2012-09-29 at the Wayback
Machine
[7] B. S. Kim et al., “Electrode pattern of touch panel
and forming method for the same,” U.S. Patent
2013/0155011 A1, Jun. 20, 2013
[8] B. L. Mackey, “Sensor patterns for a capacitive
sensing apparatus,” Patent Patent 7129935 B2, Dec.
2, 2004.
[9] US3662105: Electrical Sensor Of Plane
Coordinates
Inventor(s)Hurst; George S., Lexington, KY - Parks;
James E., Lexington, KYIssued/Filed Dates: May 9,
1972, / May 21, 1970
[10] US3798370: Electrographic Sensor For
Determining Planar Coordinates
Inventor(s)Hurst; George S., Oak Ridge,
TNIssued/Filed Dates: March 19, 1974, / April 17,
1972
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/
[12] https://www.researchgate.net/
[13] https://www.youtube.com/
[14] https://www.mikroe.com/blog/capacitive-vs-
resistive-touch-panel-feels-better
[15] https://www.google.com
View publication stats