Feature: Displays


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Ways to make today’s touchscreens safe By Mike Fowle, Business Development Manager, Review Display Systems Being chemically strengthened and


rincipally there are two touchscreens technologies, resistive and capacitive, where the first works by sensing pressure and the latter relies on


the human finger as a conductor; see Figure 1. As with all technologies there


are things to consider, such as type and thickness of the cover lens, its protection, and more. The material needs to be considered carefully not only for performance and ruggedness but also its ability to work with screen coatings such as antiglare and antireflective. Then, depending on the touchscreen technology and its application, a touch protector/film might be needed, or have an integrated glass cover lens. Tere are implementation considerations


– especially with resistive touch – whether 4/5/8 wire, or resistive multi-touch, care is required when implementing a cover lens not to affect activation force and sensitivity.


28 March 2021 www.electronicsworld.co.uk


with implanted antimicrobial protection, micro glass (Figure 2) is increasingly a solution of choice. As for capacitive touchscreens,


because of their nature, there are fewer implementation considerations other than the general guidelines; see Figure 3.


Figure 1: Touchscreen structure


New discoveries If anything has come out of Covid-19 pandemic it is the importance of hygiene, with touchscreens drawing attention. Handheld mobile devices, ATMs and information kiosks all use touchscreens, and with heavy usage they easily harbour many types of bacteria, including E.coli, MRSA and most likely Covid-19, with some of them lasting on the screen’s surface for up to three days.


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