These new turnkey capacitive-touch controllers let engineers build visually striking HMIs that are cheaper to produce and much less of a headache to design.
Appliance and equipment manufacturers are constantly hunting for ways to cut system costs without sacrificing the user experience. A growing trend is ditching expensive digital screens for sleek, display-free Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) featuring illuminated, capacitive-touch buttons, sliders, and wheels. Here, adding a high volume of touch sensors usually bogs down acquisition time and degrades the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on standard controllers. To solve this, Microchip Technology just rolled out the MTCH3380P and MTCH3240P.
These new turnkey capacitive-touch controllers let engineers build visually striking HMIs that are cheaper to produce and much less of a headache to design.
The real breakthrough here is parallel sensing, a first for Microchip’s turnkey portfolio. By packing in 12 on-chip analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) that operate simultaneously, these chips can scan massive sensor arrays without the usual lag.
The MTCH3380P handles up to 38 sensors in self-capacitance mode and 64 in mutual-capacitance, while the MTCH3240P supports up to 24 and 32, respectively. The result is lightning-fast response times and rock-solid SNR, even in notoriously noisy environments, all without the acquisition-time penalties that usually plague high-sensor-count designs.
On a practical level, the noise immunity and touch sensitivity are exceptional. These controllers easily register inputs through thick protective materials or heavy gloves, and they don’t glitch out when exposed to moisture.
That makes them a perfect fit for demanding indoor environments like kitchens and laundry rooms (ovens, cooktops, washing machines), as well as brutal outdoor applications like EV chargers, parking meters, and kiosks operating in freezing, wet weather.
Getting your product to market is also much smoother. Built to operate in temperatures up to 105°C and supporting IEC/UL 60730 Class B functional safety certification, they make hitting regulatory targets straightforward.
Plus, Microchip backs these controllers with a robust development ecosystem designed to accelerate prototyping and testing including evaluation hardware, the mTouch® Studio development environment, and ready-to-use host drivers for Linux® and Zephyr®.
Visit the website for information about Microchip’s portfolio of turnkey capacitive-touch controllers.
Leadership Comment
“Manufacturers are increasingly looking for ways to reduce system cost while still delivering intuitive and visually appealing user interfaces. As display-free HMIs incorporate more touch controls, maintaining responsive and reliable touch performance becomes increasingly challenging,” said Giovanni Fontana, senior director of Microchip’s human machine interface division. “Our MTCH3380P and MTCH3240P controllers address the touch-sensing challenges associated with display-free interfaces by delivering fast touch acquisition and high signal-to-noise ratio, helping enable responsive, reliable operation even in demanding applications.”
Pricing and Availability
The MTCH3380P is available starting at $1.06 with the MTCH3240P available starting at $0.80 each in 10,000-unit quantities.
You can purchase directly from Microchip or contact a Microchip sales representative or authorized worldwide distributor.
