A Brief Guide to Mutual Capacitance Touchscreens
Projected capacitance is a form of touchscreen technology that offers increased accuracy, resolution and performance over its surface capacitance counterpart. In the past few years, device manufacturers have been transitioning to projected capacitance for these reasons. But not projected capacitance touchscreen devices use the same technology to identify and detect touch commands. Some use a special type of projected capacitance technology known as mutual capacitance.
What Is Mutual Capacitance?
Mutual capacitance is a form of projected capacitance touchscreen technology that identifies and detects touch commands by measuring the capacitance between two electrodes. When you touch the surface of a mutual capacitance touchscreen device, your finger will absorb some of its electrical current at the nearest intersection of the electrodes. As a result, the capacitance at that intersection decreases, allowing the device to register your touch command.
While invisible to the naked eye, mutual capacitance touchscreen devices feature a grid of intersecting electrodes in two layers. On one layer, electrodes are arranged vertically. On the other layer, electrodes are arranged horizontally. Because they are used together, these two layers of electrodes create a grid of intersecting electrodes.
