| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as | NASDAQ: SYNA |
| Industry | Computer hardware |
| Founded | California (1986) |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara, California, USA |
| Key people | Federico Faggin, Co-founder Carver Mead, Co-founder Russ Knittel, CEO Kathleen Bayless, CFO |
| Products | TouchPad TouchStyk ScrollWheel ClickPad ClearPad Synaptics Scrybe ClearButtons TouchButtons |
| Revenue | $473 million USD (2009) |
| Employees | 550 (2010) |
| Website | http://www.synaptics.com/ |
Synaptics (NASDAQ: SYNA) develops human interface solutions for many major consumer electronics companies, such as Apple Inc., Asus, Acer, Dell, Gateway, HP, HTC, Lenovo, LG, Logitech, Nokia, Samsung, Sony, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and several others. The products include touchpads and touchscreens for a variety of devices including notebook PCs, PC peripherals, mobile phones, digital music players, and remote controls [1].
Contents |
Synaptics was originally founded as a neural network research company in 1986 by Federico Faggin (co-inventor of the microprocessor) and Carver Mead (VLSI pioneer). The company began to apply semiconductor hardware design techniques to a computing technology known as neural networks.[2]
The company started shipping commercial products in 1995, with its flagship TouchPad interface for notebook PCs. The TouchPad is a touch-sensitive pad for notebooks or keyboards that senses the position of a user’s finger(s) on the surface to provide screen navigation, cursor movement, application control, and a platform for interactive input.
Synaptics went public in 2002 and is currently listed on the NASDAQ exchange. The IPO of 5 million common stock shares at a price of $11.00 per share received a 57% return at the close of Q1 2002.[3]
Synaptics products are based on capacitive sensing technology. Capacitive touch sensing works by sensing the electrical properties of the finger(s) touching the sensor. Whereas the resistive touchscreen senses direct pressure between two clear electrical layers that are separated by a small space, requiring an amount of force.[4] Capacitive touch sensing solutions are solid state making them more robust than resistive solutions.
A Touchpad is integrated into the majority of today's notebook computers. Synaptics' share for TouchPads in the notebook PC market is in the 65-70% range.[5]
Some of Synaptics' products are listed below: