NKK's Extended Life OLED SmartSwitch Honored as Finalist For Design News' Golden Mousetrap Award

SCOTTSDALE, AZ--(Marketwire - Apr 11, 2011) - NKK Switches, the world's leading designer and manufacturer of innovative electromechanical switching devices, today announced it has been honored as a finalist for the 2011 Design News Golden Mousetrap Awards in the electronics and test category for its Extended Life OLED SmartSwitch.

The annual Design News Golden Mousetrap Awards honor outstanding engineering professionals and products. NKK's OLED SmartSwitch product was a finalist for the Best New Products award, which recognizes unique, state-of-the-art electronics products in several categories.

"It's an honor to have NKK's Extended Life OLED SmartSwitch named as a finalist for the Golden Mousetrap Awards," said Kiyoko Toyama, president of NKK Switches. "It signifies NKK's commitment to providing engineers with innovative switching and interface technology designed to meet even the most demanding requirements."

NKK Extended Life OLED SmartSwitch features a traditional SPST pushbutton with a built-in OLED display all in one device. The OLED SmartSwitch pushbutton and display are capable of running full color video or image sequences.

The display life of the OLED SmartSwitch pushbutton has been doubled to 30,000 hours with 40 percent pixels on at 100 candelas per meters squared (100cd/m²). For equipment used round the clock, this translates to a display life of greater than three years.

Further increases in the OLED display life can be achieved in many applications where the requirement for candelas per meter squared is reduced, or the equipment usage is less than 24/7.

With a footprint the size of a coin, SmartSwitch products are the smallest off-the-shelf OLED switches and displays available in the industry today.

The SmartSwitch OLED products are emissive devices operated by commands and data supplied via the SPI communications protocol. The pushbutton switch is capable of 64RGB x 48 pixel resolution.

NKK's OLED devices are ideal for a wide variety of applications requiring a dynamic user interface or real-time sequencing, such as control panels and custom keyboards. Applications include audio-video broadcast workstations, security systems, industrial control panels, medical equipment, communications systems, transportation and military uses.

"The products highlighted in this year's Golden Mousetrap winners and finalists clearly demonstrate both cutting-edge design ideas and the practical evolution of technologies for systems and product design engineers," said David Greenfield, Design News' editorial director. "Design News congratulates all the engineers and their companies who have been recognized with the Golden Mousetrap Award, and we are grateful for their contribution to this year's competition."

About NKK Switches
A leading designer and producer of electromechanical switches, NKK Switches offers one of the industry's most extensive selections of illuminated, process sealed, miniature, specialty, surface mount and programmable switches. NKK manufactures more than 3.5 million toggle, rocker, pushbutton, slide, rotary, DIP rotary, keypad and keylock switches, each of which can be used as the foundation of a customized design. All switches are designed and manufactured to provide the quality and dependability that has made NKK the benchmark for reliability for over half a century.

NKK continues to lead the industry in responding to the needs of the marketplace with innovation, high reliability, customization and a commitment to excellence. The company provides a full suite of customization solutions that include: design, programming, printing and support. Downloadable 3D CAD models of the company's switches are available, allowing design engineers to quickly integrate complex models into their designs at no charge. NKK maintains a complete network of qualified representatives and distributors through the United States, Canada, Central and South America, Europe and Asia.

Engineers who design the human-machine interface for their products rely on the broad product line, specialized design expertise and customer support of NKK Switches. For more information, contact NKK Switches, 7850 E. Gelding Dr., Scottsdale, AZ 85260. Phone: (480) 991-0942. Fax: (480) 998-1435. Visit the NKK Web site at www.nkkswitches.com.

About Design News
Design News, founded in 1946, is the leading technical resource for design engineers. It is the only engineering resource to provide both highly useful and practical editorial content both in print and online. They are committed to packaging and delivering this content in a format that is both quick and intuitive for busy engineers to access.