TrueTouch touchscreen solution

By eliminating cumbersome buttons and keys, touchscreen technology allows designers to maximize screen-space on our increasingly diminutive personal electronic devices. The latest offering from Cypress Semiconductor Corp. is the TrueTouch touchscreen solution, a single-chip model that can interpret up to 10 inputs from all areas of the screen simultaneously – a capability designed to allow manufacturers to incorporate touchscreen architecture into a wide variety of products.

The “multi-touch all point” feature could be used for inputting multiple locations into a GPS, gaming, keyboard implementations, or the efficient adjustment of sound and video settings. Instead of using “resistive” technology, TrueTouch devices use a “projected capacitive” method, which enhances optical clarity, durability, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.

The TrueTouch uses PSoC programmable system-on-chip technology, a flexible architecture that provides customers with the freedom to incorporate features like driving LEDs, backlight control and I/O expansion in their product designs. The line includes the CY8CTST1xx single-touch devices, the CY8CTMG1xx multi-touch gesture devices and the CY8CTMA100 multi-touch all point device. The products are available in 32 and 56-pin QFN packages, and are scheduled to begin production in September.

“Leading customers in a variety of markets, including smartphones, GPS and PMP devices, have worked with us to help define the TrueTouch family,” said Dhwani Vyas, vice president of PSoC products for Cypress. “We are leveraging our established leadership in the capacitive sensing markets to deliver the next generation of touchscreen solutions that offer user interface designers unparalleled flexibility and integration capabilities via the PSoC architecture.”