Texas Instruments Announce ERM And LRA Haptic Driver

The DRV2605 also features a smart loop architecture that reduces startup and braking time by half, delivers twice the vibration strength, and consumes 50-percent less power to extend battery life, compared to competitive solutions.

“Licensing Immersion’s haptic effects library for the DRV2605 provides customers the convenience of one-stop shopping and rapid time-to-market,” said Shreharsha Rao, manager for Haptics Products at Texas Instruments. “In addition, the DRV2605’s smart loop architecture delivers the high performance consumer designers need to employ haptics in their products. And designers of household appliances can confidently implement capacitive touch buttons with haptics, in place of mechanical buttons, to boost reliability and extend button life.”

Key features and benefits of the DRV2605:

•Reduced system complexity: The pre-loaded Immersion haptic effects library offers a range of distinct and differentiated tactile effects for touch screen feedback, giving users a more satisfying and realistic experience.

•Audio-to-haptics mode: Automatically converts audio from music, movies or games into haptic effects. The audio mode adds a vibrating bass enhancement that allows users to feel and fully experience audio and video content.

•Smart loop architecture: Offers automatic overdriving and braking for ERMs and LRAs, which simplifies software programming and reduces startup and braking time by 50 percent. Automatic resonance tracking for the LRA delivers twice the vibration force at half the power of competitive solutions. In addition, the automatic actuator diagnostics and level tracking feature delivers consistent acceleration over a range of environmental conditions.

•Smallest solution size: At 1.5-mm by 1.5-mm, the DRV2605 offers designers the industry’s smallest package for space-constrained portable applications.

•Complete touch solution: The DRV2605 combines with any member of TI’s touch screen controller family to create a complete touch screen solution.

The DRV2605 joins the DRV2604 ERM/LRA haptic driver, which shares the same core and industry-leading performance and power-saving features, minus the audio-to-haptics mode and Immersion haptic effects library.

Tools and support

Evaluation modules are available for the DRV2605 and DRV2604, each for a suggested retail price of US$99. The EVMs are supplied with user guides and include a fully programmable MSP430G2553 Value Line microcontroller, sample haptic effects and capacitive touch buttons, as well as analog, I2C and PWM digital interfaces for complete standalone and in-system evaluation. The DRV2605 includes an API software driver for the Immersion haptic effects library.

Availability and pricing

The DRV2605 is available today in a 9-ball, 1.5-mm by 1.5-mm by 0.6-mm WCSP package for a suggested retail price of US$1.60 in 1,000-unit quantities. The DRV2604 is also available for a suggested retail price of US$1.15 in 1,000-unit quantities.