Have you heard of surface acoustic wave (SAW) touchscreens? Like all touchscreens, they are devices that support touch commands. SAW touchscreens, though, are distinguished from other types of touchscreens by their use of ultrasonic sound waves. They project ultrasonic sound waves over the display interface, which they use to detect touch commands. Below are five common myths about SAW touchscreens.
#1) Requires a Bare Finger
You can perform touch commands on SAW touchscreens with a bare finger or a gloved finger. You can even control them using a stylus as well. Unlike capacitive touchscreens, SAW touchscreens don’t require contact with a conductive object. As long as you touch the display interface with a solid object, you’ll disrupt the ultrasonic sound waves. Therefore, SAW touchscreens support all types of touch commands.
#2) Short Lifespan
Some people assume that SAW touchscreens have a short lifespan. Most touchscreens don’t last forever. Nonetheless, SAW touchscreens oftentimes last longer than those powered by other touchscreen technologies. It’s not uncommon for SAW touchscreens to exceed over 50 million touches. That’s far more touches than supported by most other touchscreen technologies.
#3) Low Resolution
You don’t have to worry about low-quality images with SAW touchscreens. With their high-resolution displays, they produce high-quality images. The resolution of SAW touchscreens is typically 4096 x 4096 pixels. This high-definition resolution allows for crystal-clear, detailed images.
#4) Features a Coating
While most touchscreens feature an invisible coating over the top layer, SAW touchscreens don’t have this same coating. They are designed with a glass top layer that’s devoid of any coating. And with an all-glass top layer, you don’t have to worry about the coating degrading. This is one of the reasons why SAW touchscreens last for such a long time. Other types of touchscreens feature a coating that, over time, will wear down. This isn’t a concern with SAW touchscreens because they are designed with an all-glass top layer and not any coatings.
#5) Moving Parts
There are no moving parts in SAW touchscreens. While resistive touchscreens do, in fact, have moving parts, SAW touchscreens feature an entirely different design. They are designed with a glass top layer that has ultrasonic sound waves traveling over it. When turned on, SAW touchscreens emit ultrasonic sound waves. Performing a touch command will block or interrupt these sound waves in the area of your touch command, which the SAW touchscreen will identify. Therefore, SAW touchscreens don’t have moving parts.
