Worldwide mobile phone sales are forecast to dip about four percent to 1.17 billion units in 2009 before rebounding in 2010, but sales of smartphones are growing, according to research house Gartner. Global sales of mobile phones shrank 9.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009, which is the most recent data available.

But sales of smartphones grew 12.7 percent year on year in the same period.

Tiernan said Microsoft Corp's Windows 7, which features an array of new touch-screen functions, should drive additional growth for the company and said Synaptics would begin making touch-based buttons for white goods such as washing machines in the next six months.

Although Synaptics' quarterly earnings lagged in the third quarter, the company is projected to show consistent annual growth, according to Reuters Estimates. 

Synaptics declined to comment on its market share, but said it is the dominant player in the market. Competitors include Cypress Semiconductor Corp, Atmel Corp and Melfas.

Tiernan said Synaptics may consider acquisitions to propel future growth, particularly start-ups focused on improvements in touch or user interfaces, or usage models.

"We're aggressively scaling the company," he said. "We don't just constrain to touch. We are always scanning the environment."

"There are a lot of companies going bankrupt," he added. "It's not just buying a whole company. We could acquire intact teams or buy IP (intellectual property)."

Synaptics has doubled shipments to 600 million units and has doubled employees to 530 in the last two years.

The company is now focused on touchpads for laptop computers and touchscreens for mobile phones and sees its mobile business gaining speed.

"We think as a company that the adoption rate of this technology throughout the handset market over the course of the next few years can go to 20 percent, which on that huge of a market is big number," Tiernan added.