The growing popularity of touch screens in mobile devices is fueling new touch-sensitive interfaces for everything from automobiles to industrial controllers, according to Freescale Semiconductor. In response, Freescale has unveiled an initiative to enable touch screens on any device, upgrade capacative- to resistive-touchscreens that handle multitouch interfaces, and support transparent ITO (indium tin oxide) panels.
The emerging touch-sensing market is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 23.8 percent, according to iSuppli Corp. (El Sugundo, Calif.). The market researcher predicts the market will top $3 billion by 2011, when touch sensing formobile phones alone is expected to grow to 400 million units. Freescale currently offers a range of touch sensing chips for adding flat-panel keypads and rotary dials. It is expanding into new features like ultra-lower power consumption for battery-powered devices. Freescale is now offering a software solution for its microcontrollers that enables designers to add touch panels with no additional hardware.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=220600806
