Quantum technology helps touchscreens

BOFFINS WORKING FOR a UK firm have come up with a pressure-sensitive touchscreen and keyboard which they claim exploits a quantum physics trick.

Yorkshire-based Peratech is set to make a 'Quantum Tunnelling Composite' for several mobile phone makers.

The composite works by using nanoparticles, scattered evenly in a polymer. The particles are spiky and the closer they get to each other the more likely they are to undergo a quantum physics phenomenon known as tunnelling.

The way we understand it is that electrons are able to pass through insulating barriers.

Basically the material that surrounds the nanoparticles acts like a wall to electric current.

But as the balls draw closer together, when squashed or deformed by a finger's pressure, there is a small chance that one of them will suddenly escape. So by pressing harder on the material you got a smooth increase in the current through it.

While touchscreens have been around for ages the QTC method works really well on a thin device. They can be as little as 70 micrometers thin.

They also don't need to conduct electricity until they are pressed. This makes them more energy efficient.

Peratech's chief executive Philip Taysom told the BBC that the technology gives electronics the ability to sense something about how much we're touching and applying force. µ