Touch Screens
By Emma Aldred
What is it?
A touchscreen is a display which does what you want when you click on it with your finger or a stylus.
The touchscreens found on smartphones are either capacitive touchscreens or resistive touchscreens. These are the two main touch screen types.
How do they work?
Resistive Touch Screens
They have a thin layer of glass on top which are covered in conductive and resistive metallic layers. The two layers are held apart by spacers, but when the device is turned on, there is an electrical current running between them. When the screen is touched, the two layers make contact and the device will coordinate where it has been touched and load whatever is wanted by the user.
Capacitive Touch Screens
They have a glass screen which is covered by a thin transparent conductor layer that stores electrical charge. When the screen is touched by a finger, the electrical field distorts and that is how the device knows what the user has touched.