Platform adds safety to home appliance interfaces

The most recent QTouch capacitive touch platform is based on the Atmel SMART SAM D20, integrating an on-chip peripheral touch controller to deliver excellent EMC robustness and short response times, and combining self- and mutual-capacitance sensors for up to 256 channels.

Currently, home appliance designers face stringent certification requirements for safety and EMC robustness. Designers are looking for a platform that supports all applicable safety standards required to pass end product qualification, with minimal design time. Atmel’s QTouch Safety Platform is pre-qualified for the VDE/UL 60730 Class B and UL 1998 certifications, potentially reducing a designer’s overall development time by as much as twelve months. Household appliance designers can now focus on more innovative, easy-to-use interfaces that support capacitive touch buttons, sliders and wheels on an Atmel SMART ARM Cortex M0+-based MCU rather than focusing on safety certification features. The SAM D20 ARM-based Cortex M0+-based MCU is the first device to support the QTouch safety library. Support for future home appliance devices will be added as they become available.

Designers can download the QTouch Safety Library Firmware, FMEA library and QTouch Composer Development Software on an Atmel ARM Cortex M0+-based MCU. The QTouch Safety Library ensures excellent noise tolerance through dynamic hardware and firmware noise filtering through the IEC 61000-4-6 10V conducted immunity with minimal design effort. Additionally, QTouch Safety Platform provides FMEA support and moisture tolerance.

“With the increased regulations in Europe and the US for safer home appliance products, designers are looking for pre-qualified solutions that accelerate this part of the development cycle,” said Geir Kjosavik, QTouch Product Marketing Director, Atmel. “Atmel’s latest QTouch Safety Platform gives designers the pre-qualified features for their home appliances while enabling them to differentiate their products with capacitive touch interfaces in the form of buttons, wheels or sliders. We are excited to help bring more safety critical home appliances to market and are continuing to broaden our portfolio of devices to support the home appliance market.”

Atmel is currently shipping the SAM D20 in volume quantities. The SAM D20 is offered with 16-256KB of Flash, in 32-, 48- and 64-pin packages. Pricing starts at $1.02 in 1,000 unit quantities.