Synaptics
 |
|
| Public | |
| Traded as |
NASDAQ: SYNA S&P 400 Component |
| Industry | Computer hardware |
| Founded | California (1986) |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California, USA |
|
Key people
|
Federico Faggin, Co-founder Carver Mead, Co-founder Rick Bergman, CEO Wajid Ali, CFO |
| Products | TouchPad TouchStyk TDDI ClickPad ClearPad SentryPoint PurePrint Touchscreen Controllers DDIC Display Drivers Natural ID Fingerprint Sensors ForcePad SecurePad |
| Revenue |
 $1.67 billion USD (2016) |
|
$75.2 million USD (2016) |
|
|
$72.2 million USD (2016) |
|
|
Number of employees
|
1,763 (2016) |
| Website | www |
Synaptics is a human interface solution developer. It develops and supplies intuitive human interface solutions for a range of electronic devices and products worldwide. Synaptics sells its solutions to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for applications including smartphones, tablets, notebooks, automobiles, wearables and PC peripherals.
Synaptics has 1600+ granted and pending patents for human interface solutions. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California, and trades on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol SYNA.
Synaptics was founded in 1986 by scientists and engineers Federico Faggin and Carver Mead, inspired by their interest in neural networks and their applications in technologies. Faggin and Mead applied their research and discoveries on neural networks and transistors on chips to build touch sensing solutions. The name of the company was derived from this combination, blending synapse and electronics.
During Synaptics' early years, the laptop industry was struggling to make devices thinner because the spherical trackballs included in them required thicker device builds. Synaptics' founders recognized this issue and in 1992, used the pattern recognition techniques it developed to build the world's first touchpad, which Apple adopted in 1995. The touchpad was subsequently adopted by other leading computer manufacturers of the time, including Compaq and Dell, launching Synaptics' growth as a company and establishing touchpads as a standard feature in notebook PCs. As integration of the touchpad grew, Synaptics continued to refine its technology, building a vision to integrate it with other solutions and create a range of human interface technologies to expand the company.
Since then, Synaptics' solutions have been adopted in various markets beyond notebook computers. In 2005, Synaptics' sensor technology was featured in the world's first mobile phone to use capacitive-touch technology, the Samsung B310. In 2007, LG launched its Prada phone featuring Synaptics' touch sensors, marking the world's first capacitive-touchscreen mobile phone. Synaptics' touchscreen technology was also featured in Logitech's Harmony family, which debuted in 2008 and brought capacitive-touch capabilities to universal remote controls.
In 2011, current CEO Rick Bergman was appointed to succeed Francis Lee (CEO from 1999-2011) and drive Synaptics' expansion in to new markets.
In 2012, Synaptics introduced the world's first full-function capacitive-touch solution to incorporate pressure recognition (AKA force sensing), enabling multi-finger and variable-force input. The following year, Synaptics acquired Validity Sensors, a fingerprint sensor vendor based in San Jose, adding biometrics and fingerprint sensing to Synaptics' portfolio of solutions.
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Wikipedia