Atmel Launches New Automotive-Qualified maXTouch Controller Family; Enables Single-Layer Shieldless Touchscreen and Touchpad Designs in Car Center Stacks

The new mXT336S and mXT224S devices further strengthen Atmel’s position as a market-leading touch supplier to support consumer, industrial and automotive applications with maXTouch. The new touch devices are AEC-Q100-compliant and fully automotive qualified.

They offer superior performance, multitouch, faster response time, more precise touches, robust operation and lower power consumption. The new mXT336S and mXT224S devices also provide dedicated embedded functionality that meet current automotive design requirements.

Dedicated firmware and a high signal-to-noise ratio makes these devices ideally suited for very noisy environments. Since only a high signal-to-noise ratio enables detection of touches with a gloved finger, the devices provide full support for gloved hand operation on automotive touchscreens.

One key requirement for automotive designs is the support for shieldless sensors. Conventional touch controllers are unable to handle LCD noise, so an additional shield layer is required to prevent noise coupling, said Stephan Thaler, Atmel Marketing Director for Automotive Touch Products. Thanks to the superior noise handling and filtering capabilities of our new automotive-qualified maXTouch devices, shields are no longer required, and designers can use single-layer sensors instead of dual or triple layers, which are typical in many current applications. By eliminating an additional layer, designers have a thinner stack which reduces the overall system complexity, lowering the overall cost and power consumption, and resulting in higher product yields during production.

Further Embedded Automotive Functionalities

The mXT336S/mXT224S devices support touch detection, up to 10 simultaneous touches, touch size reporting, single- and dual-touch gesture calculation, communication of X/Y positions, gesture support, and the ability to eliminate unintended touches. Users can perform multi-touch gestures (pinch, stretch, etc.), while unintended touches are rejected, such as a resting hand on the screen. All these key features bring the smartphone experience into contemporary cars.

Availability

Samples of the automotive-qualified mXT336S and mXT224S touch controllers are available now in TQFP64 packages. Demo kits for both devices are also available to support design-in and shorten time–to-market.