Touchscreen sensor for touchscreen display unit

A touchscreen sensor for a touchscreen display unit comprising:

• a transparent substrate having a shape that corresponds to the shape of the display;
• a laser light source attached to the transparent substrate;
• a light-delivery ridge waveguide formed on said substrate on one side thereof and optically coupled to the laser light source;
• a photoreceiver array that has a plurality of photoreceivers and is attached to the side of the substrate opposite to the light-delivery ridge waveguide;
• a plurality of light-direction reorientation elements formed on the light-delivery ridge waveguide for reorientation of light that propagates from the laser light source along the light-delivery ridge waveguide to the direction perpendicular to the light-delivery ridge waveguide, the number of light-direction reorientation elements corresponding to the number of photoreceivers;
• a plurality of pairs of parallel illumination ridge waveguides that are formed on the substrate adjacent to each other but spaced from each other and that extend between the light-delivery ridge waveguide and the respective photoreceivers, each pair of the illumination ridge waveguides comprising light-input ridge waveguides that are coupled with butt connections to the light-delivery ridge waveguide in the place near the light-direction reorientation elements and light-output ridge waveguides that are connected to the respective photoreceivers, the mating ends of the light-input ridge waveguides that are opposite to the light-delivery ridge waveguide and the ends of the light-output ridge waveguides that are connected to the respective photoreceivers being located in proximity to each other;
• a plurality of light-sensitive detectors that comprise a pair of light-sensitive elements formed on the mating ends and that are under conditions of mutual optical interaction;
• and
• an external plate that covers at least the illumination ridge waveguides, the light-sensitive detectors being distributed under the external plate with a density that provides change in the optical mutual interaction between the light-sensitive elements of the light-sensitive detectors when an object is brought in contact or in proximity with the external plate.