Innovative large area touch sensor: Design and tests of a compact acquisition system

A flexible large area touch sensor and its acquisition system are presented in this paper. The sensing device is based on a printed coplanar transmission line on a large area flexible substrate. Having a unique connection port, it avoids matrix connections array. Touching the waveguide generates a reflected wave which is analyzed at the input port in order to extract the position of the touch event. A low complexity acquisition system was developed and tested in the objective of having a compact integrated system. Theoretical background, implementation and results obtained on the overall sensor are presented. We demonstrate here the operation of an integrated acquisition system and compare its performance to Vector Network Analyzer-based operation.