Touchscreens are playing an increasingly important role in everyday life. From mobile phones, tablets, notebook computers, displays and much more, touchscreens are ubiquitous in our lives.

This is where Synaptics fits in.

Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Synaptics is a 26-year-old company that has become the leading developer of human interface solutions. Synaptics is both a customer and development partner for printed electronics inks, materials and processes, working closely with its OEM and ODM partners. The company’s next-generation interfaces allow users to interact with devices in ways the world couldn’t have imagined a decade ago.

Synaptics also is adding new technologies though strategic acquisition. The company’s recent acquisition of Renesas SP Drivers, Inc. (RSP), a leading supplier of small- and medium-sized Display Driver ICs for smartphones and tablets, enhances Synaptics portfolio of display integration solutions, enabling high-performance touchscreen solutions with a faster time-to-market and a simplified supply chain.

Bob Mackey, Principal Scientist for Synaptics, noted that Synaptics has touchscreens in almost all top tier flagship phones, including Samsung, Nokia, LG and Google. TouchPad™, Synaptics’ flagship product, is integrated into a majority of today’s notebook computers. Synaptics’ capacitive touch sensing technology offers numerous advantages.

“Synaptics’ In-Cell capacitive touch sensing offers the thinnest and low-cost high-performance touch sensing,” Mackey said. “The discrete sensor and its substrate are eliminated, reducing thickness, weight and lamination costs.

“The display and touch drivers can also be integrated as in our TDDI offerings,” Mackey added. “These also allow touch functions to update the display without waking the applications processor. That reduces power consumption as well as cost.”

R&D plays a key role in creating state-of-the-art touchscreens, which utilize screenprinting among other manufacturing processes.

“Touchscreen integration is always a challenge,” Mackey said. “We have reduced the complexity of physical integration by shifting from two-layer to single-layer sensors, and now to touch-display integration which is effectively a zero-layer design.”

Mackey noted that raw materials suppliers are also working on technologies that will enhance the performance of touchscreens.

“The performance of transparent conductors continues to improve,” he said. “The incumbent ITO (indium tin oxide) as well as relative newcomers such as Ag nanowire, carbon nanotubes (CNT) and metal mesh (M#) all must continue to improve to support better optics and faster design cycles.”

Mackey said that further advancements in touchscreens can be expected in the coming years, with some flexibility a possibility.

“We are starting to see some demand for very thin displays that are somewhat flexible, although I have not yet seen much substantive commercial interest in fully flexible displays,” Mackey said.

“Another area where Synaptics is developing printed electronics is in biometric sensors,” he added. “The smaller features are more challenging than those in TouchPads or touchscreens, but the progress made in M# processes in the last two years will apply directly to fingerprint sensors.”