LG Prada was the first capacitive touchscreen consumer smartphone on the

market.

What is "capacitive touchscreen"?

In the cell phone industry there are two major categories of touchscreen displays:
capacitive touchscreens and resistive touchscreens. Capacitive touchscreen displays
rely on the electrical properties of the human body to detect when and where on a
display the user touches. Because of this, capacitive displays can be controlled with
very light touches of a finger and generally cannot be used with a mechanical stylus or
a gloved hand. Examples of devices with capacitive touchscreens are the Apple iPhone
and the T-Mobile G1. However, some modern displays like the Nokia Lumia 1520 are
designed to support ultra sensitivity that can detect touches while gloves are worn.

Definition - What does Capacitive Touch Screen mean?

A capacitive touch screen is a device display screen that relies on finger pressure for
interaction. Capacitive touch screen devices are typically handheld, and connect to networks or
computers via an architecture that supports various components, including satellite navigation
devices, personal digital assistants and mobile phones.
A capacitive touch screen is activated by human touch, which serves as an electrical conductor
used to stimulate the electrostatic field of the touch screen. However, special gloves that
produce static electricity or specialized stylus pens may be used.
Capacitive touch screens are built into input devices, including all-in-one computers,
smartphones and tablet PCs.

Working: Capacitive Touch Screen

The first method that is sometimes found in touchscreens is a system that uses self-capacitance.
When a human finger (or anything with a dielectric constant different from that of air) comes
close to the screen, it senses the capacitance between the electrode or wire and the human body.
This change in capacitance can be measured, and the location of the touching finger can be
pinpointed. The screen can be calibrated so that it only responds to a change in capacitance
approximately equal to that induced by a human finger touching the screen, thereby eliminating
accidental touches to the screen from other environmental factors. One of the problems with
using a grid of wires in a self-capacitance system is that the two layers operate independent of
one another, and so it is impossible to consistently and accurately pinpoint a second touch on the
screen - there are "ghosting" artifacts that indicate a finger is touching the screen in a place it is
not.
The other method that is often used is a mutual-capacitance system. In this system, if you have a
grid of wires, the x-axis and y-axis of the grid work together, with one direction of wires carrying
current, and the other sensing the capacitance between them. You can also just have a capacitor
at each location instead of an electrode. In either construction, when a finger gets close to the

screen, because it has a dielectric constant different from air, it changes the local electric field,
and therefore the mutual capacitance of the wires or the capacitor array. The location data is then
sent to the processor. Just like in a self-capacitance system, the sensitivity can be calibrated so as
to only respond to a human finger.

The capacitive touch screen is built with an insulator-like glass coating, which is covered with a
see-through conductor, such as indium tin oxide (ITO). The ITO is attached to glass plates that
compress liquid crystals in the touch screen. User screen activation generates an electronic
charge, which triggers liquid crystal rotation.
Capacitive touch screen types are as follows:

Surface Capacitance: Coated on one side with small voltage conductive layers. It has
limited resolution and is often used in kiosks.

Projected Capacitive Touch (PCT): Uses etched conductive layers with electrode grid
patterns. It has robust architecture and is commonly used in point-of-sale transactions.

PCT Mutual Capacitance: A capacitor is at each grid intersection via applied voltage. It
facilitates multitouch.

PCT Self Capacitance: Columns and rows operate individually via current meters. It has
stronger signal than PCT mutual capacitance and functions optimally with one finger.

Capacitive vs resistive touchscreens

What is a resistive touchscreen?
Resistive touchscreens work on the basis of pressure applied to the screen. A resistive screen
consists of a number of layers. When the screen is pressed, the outer later is pushed onto the next
layer the technology senses that pressure is being applied and registers input. Resistive
touchscreens are versatile as they can be operated with a finger, a fingernail, a stylus or any other
object

What is a capacitive touchscreen?

Capacitive touchscreens work by sensing the conductive properties of an object, usually the skin
on your fingertip. A capacitive screen on a mobile phone or smartphone usually has a glass face
and doesn't rely on pressure. This makes it more responsive than a resistive screen when it comes
to gestures such as swiping and pinching. Capacitive touchscreens can only be touched with a
finger, and will not respond to touches with a regular stylus, gloves or most other objects.

Advantage
capacitive touchscreens usually provide a more pleasant user experience. Actions like swiping
through contact lists, zooming in and out of Web pages and maps, typing e-mails and text
messages and scrolling through photos are best suited to capacitive touchscreens; unlike resistive
screens, you can swipe across them gently and still get a response. Resistive screens are often
found in cheaper devices, as they cost significantly less to manufacture.