"Quantum Research Group was acquired by Atmel Corporation in March 2008. The company develops and markets capacitive sensor ICs for switching and control applications based on its patented charge-transfer (QT) capacitive sensing technology. Quantum Research Group is based in Hamble on the South Coast of England and, as a division of Atmel, offers global sales and marketing support to customers. The company has been providing capacitive touch sensing solutions for over 10 years and has gained extensive knowledge and understanding of widely different markets and applications. Its main markets are high volume consumer applications (including home appliances and audio/video systems), home security, medical, automotive, wireless, RFID, and industrial. Our Technology Our patented QT technology is more stable and more accurate than other types of capacitive switching and has a dynamic range of several decades. It involves charging a sense electrode - which can be anything electrically conductive - then transferring that charge to a detector comprised of another known capacitor. The charge transfer acquisition process is carried out in burst mode using microprocessor-controlled switching of MOSFET transistors. The presence of external capacitance caused by an object such as a finger affects the flow of charge to permit sensing. Spread-spectrum sensing mode uses sparse, randomized charging pulses with long delays between bursts. Individual pulses can be as short as 5% or less of the intra-burst pulse spacing. The benefits of this spread-spectrum approach include lower cross-sensor interference, reduced RF emissions and susceptibility, and very low power consumption."