A fast and easy way to go from mechanical buttons to modern touch buttons or displays is driven by turnkey touch controllers. Microchip Technology is giving designers an easy method to include touch button functionality into user interfaces with the release of its 12-button MTCH2120 touch controller.
By integrating with Microchip’s unified ecosystem, the low-power, water-tolerant turnkey touch device makes design simpler and makes switching between other turnkey solutions and MCU-based touch implementations easy. The first member of a planned family of I2C-based touch controllers with an extensive built-in ecosystem is the MTCH2120.
The MTCH2120 is said to offer a robust touch experience that is unaffected by moisture or noise events, along with great flexibility to meet the needs of certain products. Buttons can be clustered together thanks to low-power characteristics, which minimize scan activity and power consumption while maintaining button functionality.
The MTCH2120’s Features And Ecosystem Include:
- Easy Tune feature that automatically adjusts sensitivity and filters levels based on real-time noise assessment, removing the need for cumbersome threshold tuning
- An MPLAB® Harmony Host Code Configurator plug-in that removes the need to implement the I2C protocol on the host and allows for a straightforward connection to Microchip MCUs and MPUs
- Design validation via MPLAB Data Visualizer
- I2C port expander capabilities
- Access to, and compatibility with, Microchip’s touch library, which minimizes the need for complex software engineering and firmware handling by the designer, helping reduce design cycles
- The MTCH2120 evaluation board, which comes with a SAM C21 host MCU on board for out-of-the box integration into prototypes
With the newly announced MTCH1010, MTCH1030, and MTCH1060 providing the same strong touch performance and a simple GPIO interface, the MTCH2120 is the first member of Microchip’s MTCH family to integrate I2C.
More solutions with bus-controlled flexibility will be added by the MTCH2XXX family, opening up new markets to the design-in ecosystem’s user-friendliness.
Key Comments
“The MTCH2120 brings together decades of touch experience with Microchip’s comprehensive ecosystem of support and development tools to deliver an easy-to-use, advanced touch experience,” said Rodger Richey, Vice President Of Development Systems And Academic Programs at Microchip Technology. “It’s a win-win solution. Developers can implement the highest level of touch robustness and great design flexibility, without the hassle of tuning or programming.”
Pricing and Availability
For additional information and to purchase, contact a Microchip sales representative, authorized worldwide distributor or visit Microchip’s Purchasing and Client Services website, www.microchipdirect.com.
To Know About Microchip’s Full Portfolio of turnkey touch solutions.