Microchip – New family of touchscreen controllers designed for large-screen automotive HMI designs

Microchip has a new family of maXTouch touchscreen controllers available now. The MXT1665T-A family of automotive-qualified touchscreen controllers is designed for large-screen automotive HMI designs. The technology brings multi-touch HMI, such as that experienced on a mobile phone, to car drivers and passengers on screen sizes from eight to 15 inches. The family features the company’s adaptive touch technology that uses self-capacitive touch as well as mutual-capacitive touch scanning. This combination provides a multi-touch experience even through thick cover lenses, thick gloves or in the presence of moisture and water. The product family is fully AEC Q100-qualified to address the unique needs of automotive system designs. The family complements the successful family of products and shares many of the same features developed for the automotive industry. It also supports larger screen sizes above 10 inches in addition to smaller multi-finger pinch separation. The wide range of screen size options within their touchscreen controller families enables greater scalability and helps to shorten design time as well as lower system and development costs. The family consists of three controllers: the MXT1665T-A supports 1664 touch-node sensors; the MXT1189-A supports 1188 touch-node sensors; and the MXT799T-A with support for 798 touch-node sensors. A designated evaluation kit is available for each of the parts in the MXT1665T-A family. Each kit includes a PCB with maXTouch controller; a touch sensor on a glass/plastic lens; the FPC to connect to the sensor display; a converter PCB to connect this kit to the PC via USB; and cables, software and documentation. The controllers are also compatible with maXTouch Studio, a full software development environment to support the evaluation of maXTouch.