CAPACITIVE TOUCH SENSORS

A substitute for mechanical sensors

INTRODUCTION
Capacitive sensing, a rising technology .

Phenomenal growth of touch mechanism.

Apples i-phone: great popularity among the masses. Touch screen, touch pad, touch lamp, capacitive humidity sensor, capacitive pressure sensor etc. are some of its applications.

SOME CONCEPTS
(1)Capacitance (2)Relationship b/w capacitance and distance (3)Sensor

CAPACITANCE
Electric charge stored for a given electric potential. A group of plates which can store electric charge is a capacitor. C= q/V, Where, q: Charge in coulombs V: Potential in volts C: Capacitance in farads.

HOW CAPACITANCE VARIES WITH DISTANCE

For a parallel plate capacitor, C= K.E.A / d K: relative permittivity, E: absolute permittivity, A: area of the plates, d: distance between the plates. C varies as 1/ Gap.

SENSOR
It measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which can be read by an observer or by an instrument. Rate of change of sensors output with the measured quantity: sensitivity. MEMS: A sensor on microscopic scale. Other examples of sensors: Touch-sensitive elevator buttons and lamps which dim or brighten by touching the base

SENSING CAPACITANCE

OPERATING PRINCIPLE AND CONSTRUCTION

Components: Electrode Assembly, Oscillator Circuit, Evaluation Circuit and Output Circuit. Read device of capacitive sensor includes a signal source supplying an electrical read signal for driving the capacitive sensor; and a discrete-time sense circuit for generating an electrical output signal.

WORKING PRINCIPLE

Use of a thin, transparent, capacitive sensor touch screen that designers can place over any viewable surface for input and navigation. As shown in above figure, a finger on top of a grid of conductive traces changes the capacitance of the nearest traces. The capacitive sensor's surface receives touch information from contact with the user and sends this information to the controller board.

FOCUSING THE ELECTRIC FIELD

Electric field is emitted from every surface when a voltage is applied to the conductor. The electric field from a capacitive sensor needs to be contained within the space between the probes sensing area and the target for accurate gaging. Any conductor beside or behind the probe form an electric field with the guard instead of the sensing area.

EFFECTS OF TARGET MATERIAL

Capacitive sensors measure all conductors: brass, steel, aluminum, or even salt-water, with equal accuracy. The electric field from the probe sensing area seeks a conductive surface. Nonconductors can be measured by passing the electric field through them to a stationary conductive target behind. Fringing can be used to measure nonconductive targets without a conductive background target.

WHY CAPACITIVE SENSING

RTS TECHNOLOGY: Current generations of cell phones are facing issues due to a crowded keypad and touch screen combination. Packed with sophisticated communications subsystems, PDAs have evolved into fullfledged computers with Internet connectivity. Designers are migrating toward the extra UI space resistive touch screens (RTS) offer.

DRAWBACKS OF RTS
Optics of the underlying display are severely impaired. Poor durability. Device's main hardware input is eliminated, if the RTS panel breaks, rendering the device useless. Requires a top bezel to protect the edges of the screen. Have poor electrostatic discharge (ESD) resistance. Prone to condensing humidity damage.

CAPACITIVE SENSING, A BETTER ALTERNATIVE.

A thin, transparent capacitor sensing screen is a better alternative. (1)Mechanical simplicity. (2)Operates even when the sensor is placed beneath a durable surface like polycarbonate or acrylic. (3)Consistent optical quality. (4)Can sense through curved surfaces without functionality loss and critical spacing between sensor layers is not required.

RTS AND CAPACITIVE SENSORS

Fig. 1. A resistive touch panel is a mechanical sensor with two layers of material, typically separated by air. Fig. 2 The capacitive sensor module comprises four regions, active and viewing areas, opaque PET inactive borders on three sides, and tail region housing the capacitive sensing electronics.

APPLICATION IN MOBILE KEYPAD

A mobile phone keypad best illustrates an efficient manner to size capacitive buttons to improve accessibility. Equally sized buttons are not equally accessible. Corner buttons are the easiest to access for several reasons. Upper buttons should be slightly larger than the lower corner buttons. Lower corner buttons can be smaller because they have two edges nearby .

KEYPAD LAYOUT OF MOBILE

Figure: In this mobile phone keypad layout, with the capacitive approach, buttons can be resized to make each button equally accessible.

MOBILE HANDSET DESIGN LINE

The success of the capacitive sensor scroll wheel used in devices such as the iPod has caused other consumer product development teams to evaluate capacitive sensors to enhance the user interface and aesthetic look of their products. Capacitive touch sensor interfaces aren't limited to MP3 players, but can be developed for any product currently using traditional mechanical switches, such as the menu control buttons found on today's latest mobile handsets. These advanced feature menu control switches could easily be restyled with a highly reliable, attractive, and costeffective capacitive touch sensors.

OTHER APPLICATIONS

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