Touch buttons

What are the most popular types of touch sensors and how do they work?

Among the two most popular touch button technologies, a distinction is made between capacitive and resistive buttons . Capacitive buttons operate on the principle of detecting the presence of materials with dielectric permittivity significantly different from air, and such properties are represented by, among others, human body including fingers. Maneuvering your fingers on the glass surface of the capacitive buttons causes local changes in the intensity of the electrostatic field on this surface and changes in the electrical capacity between the touch fields, which are constantly monitored by the microprocessor in order to correctly recognize the coordinates where the changes in electrical capacity occurred. Most touch displays are based on this technology, including: tablets, industrial control panels and phones. Another touch sensor technology is resistive buttons, which use a glass and plastic surface coated with indocin oxide on a layer opposite the touch layer. The glass layer is also coated with indocin oxide. When a finger or stylus presses on a plastic surface, this surface comes into contact with the glass surface and the measurement system measures the resistance between these surfaces, providing touch data to the microprocessor in the same way as in the case of capacitive sensors.

Touch button modules for embedded systems

You can use the touch button in various projects involving manual control of devices. The multi-channel button modules offered by the Botland store are compatible with Arduino, thanks to the ability to communicate via I2C and SPI buses. Thanks to such sensors, you can design an interface controlling roller blinds and other building automation elements, build a pocket-sized music synthesizer, and even construct simple games to train reflexes for two people. Our offer also includes specialized integrated circuits that work with touch buttons.