As a leading touch screen manufacturer, CSI Keyboards offers both custom touch screens and standard touch screen products utilizing the most cutting edge touch screen technologies available. Each type of touch screen has unique characteristics that can make it the best choice for certain applications.
CSI Keyboards offers tailor made solutions with touch screens integrated with displays into bezels or overlays; membrane and rubber switches; and elastomeric and plastic enclosures. CSI can design and turnkey the entire interface assembly. CSI also offers custom capacitive touch screen, custom resistive touch screen and custom surface acoustic wave touch screen technology in addition to our fully integrated touch screen solutions.

Integrated Touch Screen and Display Solutions

CSI Keyboards’ Integrated Touch Screen and Display Solutions are second to none, combining our many technologies and utilizing our interface expertise to meet your specific product requirements. CSI is able to provide a full all in one, turnkey touch screen assembly incorporating the touch panel, display, and controller integrated into a bezel, open-framed design, panel mount, or keypad. Using optical bonding or adhesive bonding, CSI Keyboards can provide a fully integrated touch screen + display solution to meet your interface requirements. Our touch screen solutions can then be integrated with a graphic overlay, membrane keypad, rubber switch, or bezel for a complete value added assembly. CSI interfaces are carefully designed and built to survive in any environment. Our touch screen solutions can be sealed to prevent moisture and contaminant ingress and are designed to withstand repeated use and chemical cleaning. Applications include medical, POS, industrial, kiosks, military, retail, gaming, office automation, transportation, and commercial.

Capacitive Touch Screens

The capacitive touch screen relies on the user’s conductive finger to cause “on” activation, as a field is created on the face of the touch screen using only one coating of conductive material. When an area of the touch screen comes into contact with another conductive object, such as a finger, the sensors in the corners of the touch screen are able to detect what area was activated. CSI offers both custom surface capacitive and custom projected capacitive touch screen technology.

Projected Capacitive (PCAP) Touch Screens
The projected capacitive touch screen is essentially a more ruggedized and accurate version of the surface capacitive touch screen. This is made possible by the etching of the conductive material, forming a grid. This grid not only allows for more accurate activation, but also allows for the ITO to be placed behind another layer of reinforced glass for added protection.

CSI’s PCAP touch screen technology delivers precise accuracy with multi-touch functionality required in medical, industrial and consumer industries. CSI offers the below standard projected capacitive touch screens. Any other sizes not listed below can be custom built to meet your requirements at an extremely competitive price. Applications include interactive digital signage, gaming, kiosks, industrial controls, medical equipment, transportation and retail automation.

CSI offers the most cutting edge glass to glass PCAP touch screen technology available. The benefits of our PCAP touch screens:

Capacitive Switches

A capacitive switch detects the presence or absence of a conductive object, such as a finger, by measuring changes in capacitance. There are no mechanical components within the switch eliminating any potential mechanical failure and offering excellent durability in even the harshest environments.

A capacitive switch consists of three main layers: the graphic overlay, the circuit, and the backer. The overlay consists of the graphic artwork and can also include windows, embossing, coatings, adhesives, and selective texturing. The switch will either be a Flexible Printed Circuit or a Printed Circuit Board. The backer is the final part of your capacitive switch, and may or may not include an adhesive that must bond to your specific substrate. The most common materials used for overlays are plastic, acrylic, and glass due to their durability and versatility. Any adhesives that are used on the overlay must make good mechanical contact, as air gaps reduce the dielectric constant and sensing uniformity. The adhesive must also be non-conductive.

Backlighting the capacitive switch has become very common and can be accomplished by incorporating light guide film and side-firing LEDs for uniform lighting. Other options for backlighting are fiber optic backlighting and EL backlighting. Depending on the requirements of your application such as thickness preference, shape, environmental exposure, and other unique specifications, the backlighting options would vary and be selected specifically to fit the function of your device.

Resistive Touch Screens

Resistive touch screen technology is essentially two conductive layers of material separated by a small gap. When an area is pressed together by the user, a contact is made. These layers are usually composed of a glass backer, with a conductive coating of ITO on its face, an air gap, and a polyester cover sheet with ITO on the inside, and a clear hard coat on the outside facing the user. When the polyester layer is pressed by the user, the two ITO coatings make contact with one another, and the controller reads it as an activation in a specific part of the grid. Applications include Point-of Sale (POS) Solutions, Industrial Solutions, Medical Solutions and Transportation.
CSI Keyboards offers 4-wire, 5-wire and 8-wire custom resistive touch screen technology.

4-Wire Touch Screen
4-wire touch screens are suited for small to medium sized products, such as PDA and hand-held devices. 4-wire utilizes four edges of the screen presenting X+, X-, Y+ and Y- lead outs. When contact is made, X/Y read-outs are then read by the controller and converted into the correct coordinates.

5-Wire Touch Screen
5-wire touch screens can be produced in screen sizes from 3” to 24”. In the 5-wire touch screen, the top layer is a sense layer while the main circuitry is located in the bottom layer.

8-Wire Touch Screen
8-wire touch screen circuit structure is best suited for screens ranging in size from 6” to 22”. The 8-wire function is similar to 4-wire circuitry but instead has 4 additional screen read-outs. These additional read-outs are used to better adjust possible distortion on the corner or edges of a larger screen.

Complimentary Samples Available Upon Request
Samples of our touch screen technologies are available upon request. Please feel free to fill out a Quote Form or Contact Us by telephone or email to request samples of our products which will further demonstrate our touch screen capabilities.