Boréas Piezo Adaptive Trigger Buttons Turn Smartphone Surfaces into Responsive Gaming Controllers

Boréas Piezo Adaptive Trigger Buttons Turn Smartphone Surfaces into Responsive Gaming Controllers

New piezo sensing platform delivers force-sensing, gesture detection, localized HD haptics to Android smartphones

BROMONT, Québec — February 28, 2022 — The market for mobile gaming is surging, yet the smartphone controls that gamers use are poor representations of the mechanical buttons and switches used in console-based gameplay. Semiconductor company Boréas Technologies aims to change that through piezo adaptative trigger buttons, its integrated development platform that lets Android smartphone designers turn the phone’s edges into an interactive touch zone for realistic gameplay.

According to analyst firm Newzoo’s most recent Global Games Market Report, 2.8 billion gamers worldwide played on mobile devices in 2021—significantly outpacing gameplay on PCs at 1.4 billion and consoles at 0.9 billion over the same period. And revenues from mobile games are growing rapidly, up from $68.3 billion in 2019 to an estimated $116.4 billion by 2024, according to Newzoo. Despite this growth, the user experience is severely limited by current smartphone technologies.  

“It’s time for smartphone gameplay to offer the same satisfying tactile experiences as older technologies such as consoles,” said Stuart Nixdorff, senior vice president, Boréas Technologies. “That’s the sweet spot for our piezo adaptive trigger buttons, a miniature ultra-low-power hardware-software platform that opens smartphones to richer, more satisfying gameplay for the first time. Imagine, for example, using piezo haptic trigger buttons to change the haptic feel of the rifle you’re using in a first-person shooter game, or experiencing context-sensitive vibrations when you open different locks in a puzzle-box game. Boréas piezo adaptive trigger buttons opens previously inaccessible real estate on the sides of the phone to more personalized touch-sensing and force-feedback experiences that will delight mobile gamers.”

About Piezo Adaptive Trigger Buttons

Piezo adaptive trigger buttons is an ultra-compact hardware platform that leverages Boréas’ ultra-low-power piezoelectric semiconductor and software technology to enable a host of customizable touch experiences for gaming smartphones.

Availability and Information

The platform, piezo adaptive trigger buttons, is available now to qualified smartphone manufacturers. For more information on the technology, visit https://www.boreas.ca/pages/gaming-piezo-shoulder-buttons or email: info@boreas.ca.

About Boréas Technologies

Named a top semiconductor company to watch in the EE Times Silicon 100, Boréas Technologies Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company commercializing product-differentiating piezo IC platforms in consumer and industrial markets. With origins in research conducted at Harvard University, Boréas was founded in 2016 in Bromont, Québec. Its proprietary CapDrive™ technology platform—on which the company’s ICs are based—is ideal for resource-constrained devices such as PC trackpads, smartwatches and fitness trackers, smartphones and gaming phones, game controllers, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The Boréas logo is a registered trademark, and CapDrive is a trademark, of Boréas Technologies Inc. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Press Contacts

Nicolas Duchesne-Laforest, Boréas Technologies

Email:  nduchesnelaforest[@]boreas.ca