Cirque Corporation Launches GlideSensor Development Kit for Use in Embedded Devices

Cirque’s GlideSensor provides rapid development of touch input solutions for consumer products

[ClickPress, Mon May 21 2007] Cirque Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alps Electric Co., Ltd. and a leader in the capacitance technology industry, today announced the launch of its GlideSensor® Development Kit for use in embedded devices.

The GlideSensor Development Kit provides a flexible tool set that allows original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to rapidly design and integrate custom touch input solutions into their latest consumer electronics products. GlideSensor touch sensors may take the form of thin films, flexible or rigid panels, irregular shapes and optically clear Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) panels.

“We are very excited to bring our new GlideSensor technology to market as an extension of our proven GlidePoint technology,” said Douglas Moore, vice president of Cirque. “The GlideSensor Development Kit allows engineers to design products with custom touch input solutions more rapidly than previously possible. The developer has full support from Cirque to ensure the design process goes smoothly, whether GlideSensor is purchased as a module or as an ASIC component (application-specific integrated circuit).”

GlideSensors can be placed behind and sense through most dielectric materials and can quickly be programmed to provide a variety of custom input functions, including text entry, buttons, linear and circular controls, scroll bars and more. A complete GlideSensor solution combines a low-power Cirque mixed-mode ASIC controller and a touch input sensor. Interface to the host microcontroller is facilitated through either a serial peripheral interface (SPI) or inter-integrated circuit (I2C) protocol.

“We had been researching various capacitive input solutions to complete our line of touch input devices when we began looking at Cirque,” said Christoph Keist, director of research and development at Abatek Group, a Switzerland-based global marketer and producer of silicone elastomer keypads, assemblies and connectors. “We found that Cirque was very responsive in working with our development efforts, and the GlideSensor Development Kit offered a very fast and simple solution for the prototyping and proof of concept work we needed to do.”

Cirque’s GlideSensor Development Kit provides the tools and documentation necessary to introduce the capabilities of GlideSensor touch input and quickly evaluate, design and integrate a touch solution.

For more information or for sales, please visit www.cirque.com or call 800-454-3375.

About Cirque
Founded in 1991, Cirque is the original developer of capacitive touchpad technology. From the beginning, its original GlidePoint technology has provided the core of each new development of its touch-input solutions. In early 2003, Cirque was acquired by Alps Electric Co., Ltd., a $5.9 billion world leader in manufacturing electronics. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Alps, Cirque is considered the center of technology development for capacitive touch solutions. Cirque maintains independent development, production, sales and distribution facilities in Salt Lake City. For more information, please visit www.cirque.com.

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