Cirque Creates the World’s Smallest Touchpad

Capacitive touch available in three Circle touchpad sizes  

Cirque is thrilled to announce updated GlidePoint® Circle Touchpads, with Gen6s IC and three size options. 35mm, 23mm and now a 16mm circle touchpad option which is smaller than a US Dime. All circle touchpads offer true xy tracking for a smooth and responsive user experience, especially in tasks that require precise cursor control, such as graphic design, gaming, or detailed document editing.

The 16mm Circle Touchpad is smaller than a US dime.

The GlidePoint Circle Touchpads are a great solution for:

• Virtual reality controllers

• PC and console game controllers

• Remote controls

• Headphones

• Wireless keyboards

• Industrial control panels

• Medical instruments

Gen6s IC

The updated circle trackpads feature the Gen6s touch controller. Gen6s represents the latest evolution of Cirque’s precision capacitive sensing technology. Designed for flexibility and performance, Gen6 touch controllers can be utilized for various trackpad, touch screen and proximity sensing applications.  Gen6s is a size-reduced package targeted for space constrained applications like game controllers or consumer electronics.

• 30 programmable TX or RX electrodes, 16 ADCs.

• 6 electrodes can be configured as dedicated button inputs.

• Up to 4 GPIO (with PWM) in addition to dedicated I2C. 

The Circle Trackpad Dev Kit

Cirque offers the Circle Trackpad Dev kit to demo the 35 and 23mm touchpad with the option of using the 16 mm as a stand-alone attachment. The dev kit makes it easy to get up to speed with Cirque's feature-rich GlidePoint® circle trackpads.

The dev board includes an Arduino-compatible Teensy 4.0 module and a thru hole design for prototyping your project. Connectors for easy attachment to the circle trackpads are pre-mounted. Together with sample code provided by Cirque, this development kit can serve as the foundation for your next product design.

About Cirque

Cirque Corporation is one of the original inventors of capacitive touch technology and continues to push the innovation envelope for new input methods in markets such as notebook computers, virtual reality, and secure payment.

Cirque is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alps Alpine, a world leading electro-mechanical components supplier. To learn more about the wide range of solutions offered by Alps Alpine, visit alpsalpine.com

 Cirque, GlidePoint and all associated logos are registered trademarks of Cirque Corporation

Cirque at CES 2024 with AlpsAlpine

Come see our incredibly small GlidePoint™ circle Trackpads measuring 16,23, and 35 mm.

Showcasing with AlpsAlpine
Cirque will be at CES 2024 with our parent company AlpsAlpine. We will be showcasing our haptic and force sensing technology along with proximity demonstrations. Come see our latest circle trackpads with our new 16mm sensor.

 Let’s meet up at the show!
Cirque will have representatives at the booth throughout the show. Stop by anytime or reach out to schedule a specific time at the booth or alternate location.

Cirque Announces Opening of a New Taiwan Office

April 26th 2021 – Taipei - Cirque Corporation, the original capacitive touch solutions company, is excited to announce the opening of a new business development and engineering office in Taiwan. Located in the heart of Taipei, the new facility will enable us to better support our customers in Asia and continue our trajectory of growth.

Location:

Room 201, 2/F-A, 170 Dunhua North Road

Taipei Hung Tai Centre

Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan

10548

宏泰大樓

10548 台北市松山區

敦化北路170號2樓A室之201

The new office space will provide meeting room facilities, workspaces and shared spaces for collaboration and co-working. Cirque is in the process of expanding our team in Taiwan with a particular focus on adding engineering capability. This team will work closely with our customers located in Taiwan and China, providing in-time zone and native language support.

Up to this point Cirque’s Taiwan team has been primarily working remotely. With the opening of the new office, and also improvements relating to COVID-19 in Taiwan, the team is looking forward to having a shared workspace.

Jessica Tsai, Cirque’s key account manager located in Taiwan had this to say: “Although we don't have to meet every day, the establishment of the Cirque office allows us to find a sense of belonging, touches our motivation for work, and also shortens the distance between us and our customers. ”

( 雖然我們不用天天見面，但Cirque辦公室的成立，讓我們找到了歸屬感，觸動了我們的工作動力，同時也縮短了我們與客戶之間的距離。)

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About Cirque: Cirque is one of the original inventors of capacitive touch technology and continues to push the innovation envelope for new input methods in markets like notebook computers, virtual reality, and secure payment. For more about Cirque and the range of solutions we offer, visit www.cirque.com.

Cirque is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alps Alpine, a world leading electro-mechanical components supplier. To learn more about the wide range of solutions offered by Alps Alpine visit https://www.alpsalpine.com

Cirque, GlidePoint and all associated logos are registered trademarks of Cirque Corporation

Cirque Celebrates 30 Years Providing Innovative Touch Solutions

April 1st 2021 - Salt Lake City, UT – In the late 1980s George E. Gerpheide, PhD began work on the capacitive sensing technology that would become the GlidePoint® trackpad. In 1991, Cirque Corporation was founded and today we celebrate 30 years of providing world class human/machine interface solutions.

At the time GlidePoint launched, portable computers still used track balls or point sticks as their main input device. These technologies were imprecise, and prone to mechanical failure. The capacitive trackpad is impervious to environmental contaminants, has no moving parts and provides precision finger tracking. In 1994 the first notebook computer with a trackpad launched using Cirque’s technology to power the trackpad.

Throughout the 1990s, trackpads would become the de-facto standard for portable computers. Cirque also maintained a heavy retail presence providing desktop touchpads as a flexible mouse alternative device. GlidePoint would go on to win various industry awards and eventually Cirque expanded into the keyboard market with products like the Wave Keyboard and the Cirque Input Center.

Cirque always had a close relationship with Alps Electric, now Alps Alpine (Nikkei 225: APELY), particularly for supporting the notebook market. In 2003, Cirque became a wholly owned subsidiary of Alps Alpine.

Eventually Cirque would expand into other markets. Today, touch solutions evolved from the original GlidePoint platform can be found in industrial/medical devices, luxury vehicles, game and virtual reality controllers and point of sale touchscreens. Notebook computers continue to be a main market segment for Cirque and GlidePoint trackpads are used daily by millions of computer users around the globe.

Cirque was named for the mountain Cirques of the Wasatch range. Our home has always been Salt Lake City, and our strength has always come from our team of engineering professionals who work every day to bring innovation and quality to our customers.

Anna Williamson, Cirque CFO, has been with the company for 25 years. She shared these these thoughts:

“I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of Cirque for many years and can honestly say it has been an amazing experience. There have been challenging times and many chances to grow and learn as an individual. Thank you to all my co-workers throughout the years. Thank you to our founders and the technologies they envisioned. Thank you to our customers and our vendors. And thank you to AlpsAlpine for allowing us to continue to be Cirque: A company of smart people working together to solve hard problems in our own unique way. I feel blessed to be a part of Cirque, surrounded by people that make my days better.”

Brian Monson, Cirque president, had this to say:

“30 years is an amazing accomplishment and fills me with gratitude for all the great current and past employees, customers, and vendors which have been instrumental in making this happen. I'm excited for the challenge the next 30 year presents. I'm confident that continued innovation in human interface solutions will be required.

I'm also confident that once again it will require close collaboration and partnerships with our customers and vendors. With those great partnerships I'm sure we can do innovative and amazing things that make me excited for the future.”

As we look towards the future, we wish to extend our sincerest thanks to our past and present employees and their families, to our customers, to our vendors, and to Alps Alpine. What we do would not be possible without these close partnerships. We are excited for the opportunities and challenges that the next 30 years will bring and look forward to continuing to explore the technology of touch.

Cirque® releases standalone trackpad that supports Microsoft® PTP

Salt Lake City, UT - December 21, 2020 – Cirque is pleased to announce the release of a plug and play USB trackpad with support for Microsoft’s Precision Touchpad Protocol (PTP). PTP is a standard for high quality trackpads that specifies certain performance criteria and adds support for native Windows multi-finger gestures and controls. PTP has been the quality standard in notebook computers for several years, and now with the launch of our first stand-alone PTP touchpad Cirque is making this feature available for keyboards, external trackpads and industrial devices.

The first product to be released with this capability is an updated version of our TM105065 USB trackpad. With a size of 105 x 65 mm, this unit meets Microsoft’s recommended requirements for PTP touchpad size. Featuring a standard USB cable, the module is plug-and-play with any Windows 10 PC, featuring the full set of PTP gestures and native control panel settings, with no driver installation required.

For embedded applications, a PTP I2C version of the TM105065 will be coming soon. We also plan to update our complete line of Gen4 trackpads with PTP support for additional sizes and formfactors.

For more information on PTP, check out this post, or the documentation available from Microsoft.

For our complete list of our off-the-shelf standard GlidePoint® trackpads or custom solutions, visit these pages at cirque.com:

• Off the shelf trackpads

• Custom solutions

Cirque is one of the original inventors of capacitive touch technology and continues to push the innovation envelope for new input methods in markets like notebook computers, virtual reality, and secure payment. For more about Cirque and the range of solutions we offer, visit www.cirque.com.

Cirque is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alps Alpine, a world leading electro-mechanical components supplier. To learn more about the wide range of solutions offered by Alps Alpine visit https://www.alpsalpine.com

Cirque, GlidePoint and all associated logos are registered trademarks of Cirque Corporation

Microsoft is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

New Headquarters - New Synergy

9883 South 500 West,
Sandy Utah 84070

New Headquarters - New Synergy and Commitment
in Providing Industry-Leading Technology

Cirque Corporation, a human interface solutions provider using capacitive touch technology, is excited to announce that the Cirque headquarters is moving from West Valley City, Utah to Sandy, Utah. The new facility will house R&D labs and work areas, testing equipment, and a new townhall for employees to meet, eat and hangout. The townhall will also be a place staff can bring their families to gather and test out some of Cirque’s own VR and gaming technology. The new Cirque HQ address is 9883 South 500 West Sandy, Utah 84070.

Brian Monson, Cirque’s President said “The new building will reinforce our synergistic culture and enable us to collaborate better across all teams. The new office will create more streamlined and efficient communication and development of the products our customers have come to rely on.” Monson also stated that “the lab and experiment areas are bigger and more equipped to expand our in-house testing and design capabilities.” The end result for customers will be faster design completion, more capability for immediate in-house testing, and more efficient communication with them along the way.

Jon Bertrand, Head of Engineering also agrees. “The improved layout of the new office will foster better collaboration for our engineers. With better spaces to explore areas such as RF and PTP (Precision TouchPad) testing, I foresee Cirque leading the way in capacitive and proximity technology for a very longtime.”

“The new space definitely has a cool factor that we haven’t had in the past. To me it feels like we’re making a step up in presenting ourselves as a cutting-edge tech company for the world to see. We hope this also translates to employees feeling proud and supported by the company they work for.” Anna Williamson, CFO reflected.

Cirque’s new office will also be a significant step forward in the journey to be a greener company. Being within walking distance of the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) high-speed rail, Cirque anticipates lots of employees utilizing mass transit to commute to work. To further encourage use of mass transit Cirque will provide all employees with passes for the UTA transit system. The office is also conveniently located near a major freeway which will improve commute times for employees throughout the area.

Overall Cirque is very pleased with the move to Sandy and looks forward to serving the community, employees and customers for a very long time in the new headquarters.

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Sandy Utah

Sandy is one of the many cities located in the Salt Lake County area and has a population of over 95,000 people. Sandy has lots to offer families and young professionals who work in the technology industry. Sandy is home to Hale Center Theater, RSL Soccer Arena, and many restaurants, coffee shops, and parks. If you like you can even catch a shuttle to Snowbird for a day on the slopes!

Cirque Corporation

Cirque continues to push the innovation envelope today by providing customers with both custom and standardized solutions for notebook touchpads, VR gaming accessories, secure point of sales touch screens, and proximity sensing capabilities. Cirque leads the way in capacitive touch and proximity technology.

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To our customers and partners,

Between earthquakes and COVID-19, it is undoubtedly an "interesting" time. Most importantly, we hope that you and your families are staying healthy and safe. It is critical that we all take care of ourselves and each other as we navigate these uncertain waters. At Cirque, we are continuing to build and deliver amazing touch solutions, and we want to take a few moments to provide you with an update on our operations.

A few weeks back, we performed testing of our IT systems and rolled out a work from home program. As a result, we were ready to go when government-mandated social distancing was ordered. Everything continues to function well, and most Cirque staff are successfully working from home.

Key personnel such as production and shipping/receiving are still operating in the Cirque office to make sure that orders get out the door on time. Staff working in the office are practicing enhanced cleaning routines and alternative scheduling to minimize interpersonal contact.

And yes, we did have an earthquake in the Salt Lake Valley last week. Those that were in the office got a pretty good shake, but there was no damage or power loss, and things were quickly back to normal.

Now more than ever we need effective technologies to help enable teams to stay productive, and we at Cirque are committed to continuing to provide touch solutions that make mobile work possible. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us with any concerns you may have.

The Cirque Team