The New Vision of Touchâ¢

The New Vision of Touch 

Company & Technology 

Overview 

2006 

CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION 

Copyright © 2006 QRG Ltd

Technology Overview 

Quantum’s History 

•Founded 1996, Hamble, UK – 2 hours south of London 

•Based on outgrowth of work in industrial & commercial sensing 

•55 employees worldwide; 43 at Hamble HQ 

•50-80% growth PA; average ~65% past 5 years 

•Focus only on capacitive sensing using charge-transfer 

•Strong patent portfolio 

•Licensing section – will establish in Ireland - 2007. 




Quantum’s Current Business Model 

•Sell chips only – do not make modules 

•Sales via distribution & direct accounts 

•Licensing – Direct to OEM (example: Motorola) 

•Licensing – to Semiconductor maker (example: STMicro) 

Electrolux Frontline series appliances use 

Quantum QT6 family chips for touch control 




What Are Product Designers Looking For? 

•Unique designs – functionality with a sense of drama 

•Easily customizable for added functions 

•Flexible sensing effects –‘not just buttons’ 

•Solutions – don’t want to worry about internal software programming 

•All kinds of designs & construction methods 

- Backlighting capability, curved surfaces, thin panels 

•Low Risk: ‘Just works’ 

•Reasonably priced 

•Reliable source of chips 

•Service & Support. 

GE Monogram refrigerator panel construction with 

hand proximity sensing and backlighted keys 




Touch Technology Essentials 

•Good basic capacitive sensing mechanism 

-Stable over temperature & humidity 

-Excellent EMC characteristics 

•Ability to easily alter functionality without silicon change 

•Ability to post-process signals on-chip 

-Digital filtering, drift compensation, auto-calibration 

-Adjacent Key Suppression - AKS 

-Enhanced power supply rejection 

•Ability to create a variety of sensor types – 

-Wheels, sliders, touchpads, touchscreens. 

Jenn-Air (USA) single-chip blender 

with backlighted buttons 




Quantum’s ‘Peak Value’ Proposition 

•Service and Support 

•Best in Class Technology – robust, problem free, ease of design 

•High Value – lowest cost, yet highest performance 

•Analog-Free Circuits – 100% Digital for robust sensing 

•Reference designs – important to show design concepts 

•Respected foundry partners – Atmel, Microchip, STMicro 




Quantum Technology Variants 

QTouch 

QMatrix 

QSlide / QWheel 

QField 

Simple electrode key 

shapes, easy to wire, 

but limited to 12 keys 

16 to 48 keys, small 

package size; water 

resistant; high temperature 

Linear or rotary touch 

position sensing with 

only 3 channels 

Single-layer rearsurface 

touchscreen at 

resistive screen prices 




Common Features to All Quantum Technologies 

•Analog-Free – Chips are just standard CMOS logic 

•Single-chip solutions: No external active circuits or second chips 

•Self-calibrating, self-compensating for environmental conditions 

•Microwatt power using sleep modes 

•Spread-spectrum modulation of acquisition bursts 

– extremely high noise immunity 

– lowest possible RF emissions 

•Use with standard PCB, FPC, or clear conductors (ITO, Orgacon) 

•Works through panels at least 5mm thick 

•RoHs compliant packages 

•Custom packages possible including bumped die. 




QTouch Family – 1 to 10 Keys of Discrete Touch 

•Extremely popular family; easy ‘drop-in’ design 

•Example customers: Apple, Bose, Sony, Audi, BMW 

•Two IC pins for each sensing key 

•AKS Adjacent Key Suppression (Patented) 

•1.8V operation on newer parts 

•Interfaces: Discrete, serial (UART, SPI, I2C) 

QT110 single key chip 

Representative Chips: QT100, QT1081, QT1106 

Customized software programming available. 

E1080 Eval board 




QTouch Applications 

Monitor/TV Controls • Small Appliances • MP3 / PMP Players 

Remote Controls • Home Audio • PCs • Phones 

NuVo Grand Concerto Media Controller 

NuVo, Kentucky USA 

Attrezzi Kitchen Blender 

Jenn-Air, USA 

DAV-LF1 Wireless Home Cinema System 

Sony, Japan 




QMatrix Family – Up to 48 Keys of Discrete Touch 

•Efficient X-Y interleaved electrodes - Small pincount package for lots of keys 

•Popular with General Electric Appliances, Whirlpool, Electrolux and many others 

•Best technology for water film suppression 

•Becoming extremely popular in Mobile Telecom 

•Interfaces: Discrete, serial (UART, SPI, I2C) 

Representative Chips: QT60486, QT60240, QT60248. 

Silver traces on PET film 

construction with QMatrix key 

layout, behind 5mm of glass 




QMatrix Applications 

Appliance Controls • Touch Screens • Mobile Phones • MP3 / PMP • Industrial 

Monogram Cooking Appliances 

General Electric, USA 

Pininfarina Cooktop 

Gorenje, Slovenia 

Frontline Cooktop 

Electrolux/AEG, Europe 




QSlide & QWheel Technologies 

•Uses 3 QTouch sensing channels 

•Up to 256 points per revolution 

•Interfaces: SPI, I2C, quadrature (on request) 

•Public-domain electrode design (expired patent) 

•iPod functionality – but no patent problems 

Representative Chips: QT511, QT411, QT1106. 

GE’s 1978 patented 

wheel design (expired) 

E511 QWheel Eval Board 




QSlide / QWheel Applications 

MP3 / PMP • Remote Controls • Phones • Appliances • Control Panels 

Mobile Phone 

QT511 QWheel chip 

DBTel, China 

Remote Control 

QT511 + QT1080 

Remote Solutions, Korea 

Microwave Oven 

QT511 QWheel chip 

Samsung, Korea 




QField Single Layer Touch Screens 

•Rear-surface, single-layer ITO or Orgacon electrode film 

•Extremely high transparency: >90% 

•1” to 7” diagonal screens; larger in future 

•Interfaces: I2C, SPI, UART 

•Representative Chips: QT702, QT801, QT802. 

1- layer film interferes with light much less 

than 2-layers, for highest transparency and 

lowest backlighting power needs, and 

improved contrast 

ITO coated PET film adheres to rear 

of front panel allowing a seamless, 

damage-resistant front surface 




QField Touchscreen Applications 

Velos Microwave Oven Touchscreen & Controls 

Whirlpool, USA 

X-Y Touchscreen Networked Lighting Control 

Colorado VNet, USA 




A Few Quantum Customers 

Home Appliances 

Consumer / Mobile 

PC / Peripherals 

Automotive 




Mobile Telecom Sector Activity 

•Motorola Mobile is a licensee with 3 announced phones 

(MAXX, K1M, V1100) 

•Nokia Mobile 

– several design starts 

•Samsung Mobile 

– several design starts including touch screens 

•Over 25 mobile designs underway 

•Only Quantum has 1.8V operation for mobile designs 

•Multiple designs in Mobile underway with touch screens 

(QField). 

* 

Only Quantum has captured the top mobile 

makers for touch sensing. Moto V1100 GSM 

phone shown with QTouch buttons 




Quantum 

•Superior, patented Charge-Transfer method 

•All-Digital Design – best possible performance 

•Software based – easy to customize 

•Spread Spectrum – superb SNR / EMC characteristics 

•AKS Adjacent Key Suppression – standard feature 

•Works with very low cost materials (CEM-1 etc) 

•Experienced in ‘Extreme’ applications – Appliances, Automotive etc. 

•Lots of added value & advice to ease design: 

Springs, construction methods, 

backlighting designs, etc. 

Alessi kitchen scale is an 

excellent example of stylish 

design brought about by the 

use of Quantum QTouch 

technology 

Touch springs are only one of many 

proprietary construction methods Quantum 

offers to aid in product design 




Thank You!

The New Vision of Touchâ¢

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