English: Multiplexed x/y touchscreens have sensing electrodes that are as wide as the touchscreen.

This limits how wide these touchscreens can be, due to the increased overall resistance of these electrodes . With the diagonal layout( shown in the diagram) the sensing electrodes remain short, no matter how wide the touchscreen . This enables the touchscreen to be widened, by adding an unspecified number of new electrodes, without increasing the resistance. This creates the possibility of "infinitely" wide touchscreens .

If diagonal electrodes are used in touchscreens instead of vertical/horizontal electrodes, electrode resistance is independent of touchcreen width. If these electrodes intersect at 90 degrees, then all electrodes have a resistance that is proportional to 1.414 x the height of the touchscreen. Apart from potentially creating much wider touchscreens, this arrangement also enables much higher resistance electrode materials to be used. All these electrodes come from just one edge - unlike x/y touchscreens where electrodes come from two edges.

Although not essential, the diagram shows that multiple connectors can, if required, be deployed along the length of the touchscreen. This simplifies installation and minimises the number of tracks that need to be crammed into the edges of the touchscreen.

Due to the fact that some electrodes never cross ( e.g. those from Connector 2 and Connector 4 ), different zones of the touchscreen can, if required, be totally independent of each other. These zones can be controlled by different processors.

Touch continuity across the whole touchscreen is maintained by the use of synchronizing sections ( e.g. those from Connector 3) .