Projected capacitance overlay

Hey guys, I am prototyping a device that requires a touchscreen, but instead of using an lcd screen, I wanted to put a Projected capacitance touch overlay on top of a custom made piece of acrylic. I've found an IC that will interface with the touch overlay, but it's up to me to find the overlay! If I can build the device without an LCD, I can save a ton of money.

Thanks,

ps. The IC I'm looking at to interface with the touchpad is one of the Capsense products by Cypress Semiconductor. They state the IC will interface with any Capacitance touch sensors.

I'm actually not that sure how capactive touch overlays work, could you provide some more information? I'm guessing the capacitive overlay is actually the expensive bit.

In a nutshell, a small voltage is sent across conductors in the overlay. When you touch the surface of the touch overlay, you are increasing capacitance for that spot as our bodies are natural capacitors. The capacitor reading is measured by a special IC designed to convert that reading into some binary/hex code. The reading will vary depending on how far the contact point is from the IC. An improvement on that is used in Iphones, Nintendo DS, etc. That improvement is instead of using one conductive surface, many rows and columns of conducters are placed in the overlay. None of the conductors touch as to give a much more accurate reading and enable multi-touch.

The conductors are almost always made of ITO (Indium tin oxide) because it is transparent. The overlay is a thin layer that is attached to an LCD with adhesive.

Coming back full circle, I'm looking for that overlay which I can apply to a suface to make it touch enabled. Eventually, I want to attach it to a LCD screen, but for proof-of-concept I want to attach it to a piece of acryllic.

I found this link you should try searching Google longer, you're going to have a very hard time to find something inexpensive or that is easily interfaced to and can be picked up in single units, things like this simply aren't commonly sold to the public.

Touch Screen. Capacitive Touch screen, Resistive Touch screen, Saw Touch screen, Infra-red Touch Screen.

I've googled for a week. All I can find is companies like your link that does that technology, but doesn't sell it.

Umm Compco, the company wouldn't exist if they didn't sell it. Go to the contact page and contact the sales department via e-mail or find their phone number. Tell them you're interested in a sample for prototype testing and describe your needs. They'll either sell you one or not but you're not gonna find a web site that sells them like a shopping mall, they don't work that way. What you're asking for is kind of like going to a simple automotive dealership and expecting them to sell you an engine on site and you can walk out of the storefront with it in a big box =) It just doesn't work like that.