4.

Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Technology

4.1

Shopping Mall Information Kiosk

Among the huge varieties of touch screen application, we have chosen the application of information kiosk used in shopping mall. The information kiosks are to be placed in indoor environment throughout several location of the shopping mall. It main functions are to provide information to customers of the regarding the locations of shop lots, advertisement, announcements as well as some basic interaction software application with customers.

Since the information kiosks are placed indoor, thus it will be not exposed to harsh environments. However, certain degree of integrity and protections to the touch screen are required. At the same time, the kiosks will be continuously used by all of the customers throughout the long opening hours; a long serving period and repetitiveness are some of the other requirements that need to be taken into consideration. Another important point of consideration is that the large amounts of customers are children, vandalism and rough usage on the information kiosks can be predicted. Thus toughness is another essential properties required.

4.2

Mechanism

The Surface Acoustic Wave aka. SAW is another alternative technology used in touch screen. Acoustic wave which more commonly known as sound wave is an oscillation of pressure that travels through solid, liquid, or gas in a wave pattern. The acoustic wave caused the organs in the ear to vibrate, allowing us to hear sounds. Although acoustic wave is very common in our daily life and widely used in many applications, but it is one of the recent and most advanced technology used for touch screen applications.

As the name suggested, SAW touch screen functioned based on the transmitting and receiving of ultrasonic waves across the surface of the touch panel through two pairs of transducers and a series of reflectors. The controller sends out electric signal to the

transmitting transducers. From there, the signal is converted into ultrasonic waves through the transmitting transducers which emits to the reflectors along the surface of the touching penal. These reflectors are placed along edge both axes on the touch panel presumably X and Y. After the waves are refracted through the reflectors and received by the receiving transducers, it is converted back into electrical signal and sends back to the controller. An invisible grid by the acoustic waves is created across the screen.

Fig 4.1 : Schematic diagram of a SAW touch screen

Any physical contact says when a finger touches the screen; instantaneously, the waves are broken, absorbed and changed, resulting in changes of electrical signal sent by the receiving transducer. These changes allow the detection of the specific coordination of the touch event. The coordinate data along with the relation to time are then processed by the controller and actions are executed accordingly.

4.3

Advantages and Disadvantages

SAW touch screen has been chosen to be used for our information kiosks due to the following reasons. Compared with other touch technologies, SAW technology provides perfect image clarity and excellent resolution. This is mainly due to the fact that the panel is all glass, thus allowing very high percentage of light transmissions. This is perfect for shopping mall usage where high image clarity is important under the lighting in the building. For the same reason, the excellent worn resistance characteristic of glass surface provides highest durability factors available, allowing long serving periods and repetitive usage.

At the same time, usage of glass at the active area also provide SAW active touch site with excellent chemical resistance to chemicals that are inert to glass. This making it excellent for our information kiosks as it might be exposed to all sorts of things in the public. SAW also provides drift-free stable performance which allowing high consistent accuracy. Therefore, there is no distortion over time and the maintenance required is minimal compared with other touch screen technology. Aside of the fast touch response, SAW also able to recognize the amount of pressure applied along with the coordinates. It is by far the only touch screen technology that able to produce a Z-coordinate axis response, making the development of 3D touch screen possible in future.

However, the SAW technology only functional by the touch by fingers, gloved hand and soft-tip stylus. Anything hard such as pen and card wont be able to function. Although most of the parts can be sealed to provide certain degree of protection but complete sealing is not yet achievable. Thus, the performance can be affected by enormous quantities of dirt, dust and/or water in the surrounding environment. This is a challenge faced by using SAW touch screen as our information kiosk. But since it is used in a control indoor environment, the risk is not big. Considering the risks of public usage, certain improvements on protection are still needed to be done.

4.4

General Specification Mechanical

Construction

Glass panel with transducers attached to the front surface of the glass

Positional Accuracy

Standard deviation of error is less than 2.03 mm. Equates to less than 1% error on most displays.

Touch point Density Touch Activation Force Expected Life Performance

More than 15,500 touchpoints/cm Typically less than 85 grams No known wear-out mechanism, as there are no layers, coatings, or moving parts. SAW technology has been operationally tested to more than 50 million touches in one location without failure, using a stylus similar to a finger (Unlimited touch life).

Sealing

Unit can be sealed to protect against splashed liquids, dirt, and dust

Surface Durability Touch Resolution

Surface durability is that of glass, Mohs' hardness rating of 7. 4096x4096, size independent Optical

Light Transmission Environmental Operating Relative Humidity Chemical Resistance

up to 92%. Operating: -20C to 50C; Storage: -40C to 71C.

90% RH at 40C, no condensing.

The active area of the touch screen is resistant to all chemicals that do not affect glass.

Altitude Operating Storage/transport: Electrostatic Protection Fire Retardation

10,000 feet. 50,000 feet. Meets Level 4 (15 kV air/8 kV contact discharges) Meets the requirements of UL 94HB

4.5

Applications

Due to the high clarity, supreme wear resistance and surface durability, Surface Acousitc Wave touch screen is very suitable for applications which require massive usage, minimal maintenance and long serving time. Thus, it is very suitable for public or shared applications that used by large group of peoples or public on daily basic. This technology is mostly applied for ATMs and other banking machines, Amusement Parks, public information kiosks, computer based training, vending and ticket sales, public pay phones, industrial control room and so on. In this project, most of the discussion will be focused on our main application which is information kiosk used in shopping mall.

4.6

Material Selection and Design

4.6.1 Glass

Glass is the main parts used for the body in SAW touch screen. Thus the glass properties and integrity is very crucial as it will represent the reliability of the whole touch screen. Since this part is not responsible for the mechanism in the SAW touch screen technology, it can be constructed from any type of glass. Generally, most glass is made by melting silica sand, soda ash, dolomite, limestone, and salt cake to around 1500C. Next it would go though float process where the melts will float out on top of a molten tin pool as a continuous process. After that, it will go through annealing process that controls the cooling of the melts. The end products are glass. Following shows a series of 3 standard glass selections available in the market.

I.

Annealed Glass Annealed glass is the most common and lost cost flat glass product. It is the first results from the float process. It is also used as the starting material for other more advance glass type through further processing. Relative to other types of glass,

annealed glass is weak and brittle. It tends to break easily under impact into large, jagged shard.

II.

Heat-strengthened (HS) glass Heat-strengthened (HS) glass is product of annealed glass subjected to a heating and cooling cycle which improves the strength of the glass. It is twice as strong as annealed glass and more resistance to thermal loads. According to ASTM C1048, HS glass needs to achieve residual surface compression between 3,500 and 7,500 PSI for standard 6mm glass. When broken, it will break into large fragments. However, as defined by various code organizations, HS glass still hasnt reached the requirements of a safety glass.

III.

Tempered glass A fully tempered glass is product of annealed glass treated with thermal tempering process. The annealed glass is heated to above 600 C, after that the surface is rapidly cooled while inner portion remains hot. The differences in cooling rate results in compressive stress in the surface balanced with the tensile stress in the body. The counteracting forces provide tempered glass the improved mechanical properties. Generally, tempered glass is about four times stronger than annealed glass and has better resistance to breakage/ According to ASTM C1048, residual surface compression must be over 10,000 PSI for standard 6mm glass. When a tempered glass breaks, it will break into smaller fragments where severe injuries are less likely to be occurs.

Fig 4.2 Schematic Diagram of Tempered Glass

IV.

Laminated glass Laminated glass is made of two or more layers of glass permanently boned together with one or more interlayer of polymeric material usually polyvinyl butryal (PVB) using heat and pressure. The main advantage of laminated glass comparing other glass is the safety factor. When the laminated glass breaks, rather than shattering into fragments, the laminated glass is held together by the PVB layer, minimizing the risk of causing injuries. Aside of that, by altering the polymeric layer, improvement such as colouring, resistance to fire, UV filtering can be achieved.

Fig 4.3 Schematic Diagram of Laminated Glass

The main concerns in selecting the type of glass in information kiosks are the strength and safety issue. It is very important to avoid any injuries to the customers visiting the zoo, especially when large parts of them are children. Comparing the selection of glass type available, annealed glass and heat-strengthen glass cant be used due to its low strength and safety issue. Considering safety factor, laminated glass would be a better choice compared with tempered glass. This is mainly caused by the ability of laminated glass to hold the broken pieces intact, minimizing the risk of injuries as well as contamination to the surrounding.

4.6.2 Transducers

There are two types of transducers used in SAW touch screen which are transmitting transducer and receiving transducer. A transmitting transducer is used to converts electrical signal into surface acoustic wave while a receiving transducer converts the acoustic wave back into electrical signal. Both of the transducer operates in the same principal which make use of substrate material with piezoelectric properties. Generally, Piezoelectricity refers to the phenomenon of production of electrical charges by the imposition of mechanical stress or vice verse. The design of transmitting and receiving transducer basically is the same, which consist of many pairs of electrodes forming a grating like structure, placing on the top of the piezoelectric material as shown in the following figure.

Transmitting transducer or input transducer is connected to a power source which provides the electrical charge to the electrodes to create the oscillating signal which generates the SAW. As for the receiving transducer or output transducer, it is connected to a load which absorbed the SAW and converts it back to electrical signal for analysis. Some of the

commonly used piezoelectric substrate materials are quartz (SiO2), lithium tantalate (LiTaO3), and lithium niobate (LiNbO3). Other materials selection with commercial potential include gallium arsenide (GaAs), silicon carbide (SiC), langasite (LGS), zinc oxide (ZnO), aluminum nitride (AlN), lead zirconium titanate (PZT), and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVdF).

Fig 4.5 Schematic Diagram for Transmitting and Receiving Transducer.

4.6.3 Reflectors

The reflectors are made of powdered glass with 0.005 mm thick by 2.5 cm wide. The reflectors are placed along the edge of the touch screen, forming arrays of reflectors with diagonal and parallel lines as shown in the following figures. In during the operation, the SAW generated by the transducer will travel along the axis of reflector array. At each reflector, small amount of the wave energy is deflected orthogonally, travel over the surface of the glass until it meet the opposite reflector. Again, the wave will be deflected orthogonally towards the receiving transducer. Since the energy in the wave is reduced as it travels along the reflector array, the reflectors are placed increasingly closer together to compensate for the decreasing energy level. Thus the allocations of the reflectors along the array needed to be calculated and aligned accordingly to ensure the reflections of surface acoustic wave are stable and able to produce usable readings.

Fig 4.6 Placements of Reflectors

4.6.4 Frame protections

The reliability of the information kiosks can be further improved by applying protection to the transducers and reflectors. The transducers and reflectors places along the sides of the kiosk are sealed with a frame. The frame used to seal the transducers and reflectors are ABS plastic, a common thermoplastic used for mechanical purposes. Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) with the chemical formula (C8H8)x (C4H6)y(C3H3N)z is a copolymer made by polymerizing styrene (40-60%), acrylonitrile (15-35%) and butadiene (5-30%).

Following shows some of the basic properties of ABS polymer

Maximum Temperature: 80C Minimum Temperature: -20C Melting Point: 221F 105C Tensile Strength: 4,300 psi Hardness: R110 UV Resistance: Poor Translucent Rigid Specific Gravity: 1.04

ABS plastic is chosen over other polymers due to the good impact resistance and toughness, which is essential in providing the sufficient protection to the transducers and reflectors against any impact. ABS polymer is also resistant to aqueous acids, alkalis, alcohols, animal oils and vegetables oils. These are some the common substances that very likely to be contact with our information kiosks.The ABS frame also functioned as a dustproof mechanism that prevents dust and dirt from accumulating on the reflectors and transducer. The gap between the plastic frame and glass is sealed with glue to prevent water infiltration, making the touch screen water proof.

E-touch technologies, products, SAW http://www.etouchtechnologies.com/saw.html#2 Technical Information on Glass (2009) Guardian Sun Guard Industry corps

Conclusion

The application of touch screen is continuously increasing over time which resulting in the rapid growth in touch screen technology. Theoretically, any touch screen technologies will work for most of the applications. However, some will be better suited than others to specific application. For instance, capacitance touch screen technology is chosen for mobile phones such as Iphone due to its lalallalalalalalalalalla In the other hand, SAW touch screen technology is chosen for information kiosks because of high image clarity, excellent wear resistance, chemical resistance, long serving period and minimal maintenance required. Although both of the discussed technology consists of its own advantages and disadvantages, but it serve better for each applications. There is simply no right wrong or better technology but only the suitable one. Thus, one must understand the application before choosing the ideal touch screen technology.