TouchNetix is a global leader in creating innovative and safety-enhancing user experiences based on touch technology. The aXiom product family creates new and innovative features for modern product development. The company manufactures chips and touch sensor modules for a world-wide customer base with offices in Norway, United Kingdom, Germany, USA, Korea, Taiwan and through several distribution partners.
Interview with Vegard Wollan, Chief Executive Officer at TouchNetix.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Vegard Wollan: TouchNetix are experts in capacitive touch technology and provide our industry leading aXiom user interface chips and chrominance sensor modules.
Our technology is primarily designed for the automotive and industrial sectors, but is widely used in medical, appliance, consumer, and marine settings as well.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
V.W: We recently announced the release of the AX198A chip which supports touch displays up to 65”. This solution is supported by our aXiom technology and offers the markets highest report rate. Alongside traditional touch features our product offers:
- 3D proximity and hover sensing, enabling air gestures.
- Unique multi-force sensing and low-latency haptic feedback.
- Parallel multi-touch and multi-force, enabling safety-enhancing systemic redundancy.
- Integrated support for passive and active Dial-on-Display.
- Supporting curved shapes, thick lenses and finger guiding overlays.
- Unique sensing system which detects and suppresses moisture and water, even when using gloves.
- Ultra-high Signal-to-Noise (SNR) system and narrow-band architecture lowers emissions while providing high immunity to conducted interference and injected noise.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
V.W: Our key product ranges are the aXiom user interface chip family and our Chrominance sensor modules.
Within the aXiom family we offer 4 chips which are designed for varying aspect ratios, ranging from 8” to 65”.
Our Chrominance touchscreen modules are designed for use in everyday touch applications through to the harshest environments that behave flawlessly in critical applications.
Chrominance standard touchscreens are available from 7.0” through 21”, but we can build your custom touchscreen module to any dimension up to 55”.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
V.W: Touchscreens have for some time been the natural choice for new and modern HMIs. Though this trend is set to continue, particularly within the automotive and industrial sectors we see that new functionalities are now being integrated into touchscreen HMIs, including mechanical button integration, smart surfaces and curved shapes.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
V.W: We see a continued trend towards higher performance touchscreens, which have increased responsiveness, report rate and display quality. Additionally, we see manufacturers wanting to integrate more intuitive touchscreens.
Given this demand for high quality display technology, our aXiom technology is being utilized in this market by a growing number of OEM’s.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
V.W: Following the coronavirus pandemic, we are finding that customers are keen to explore how to interact with displays without touching the screen. Through our aXiom chip, customers can use our touchless and 3D sensing to control the display. This has been found to be perfect for kiosks and payment terminals where multi-user interaction occurs.
Customers can take advantage of both our proximity (10-15cm) and hover sensing (5-6cm) in these scenarios. We also offer several 3D touch functions where users can control the display with distinct movements: Air Tap, Air Swipe and Air Spin.
