Optimized solution based on touch technology

　　The success story of the iPod is the latest and most powerful proof that touch sensing technology is bringing breakthroughs to the industry. There is no doubt that this technology has significant advantages. Attractive applications such as sliding or zooming will expand the boundaries of human-machine interface (HMI) design compared to traditional solutions based on mechanical components. On the other hand, displays with touch functions are more reliable and resistant to wear and dust. For system designers, the advantages include lower bill of materials costs and higher design flexibility. Therefore, the demand for improving HMI design with innovative touch technology to make it more intuitive, durable and economical is increasing. With inTouch, Infineon provides cost-effective, scalable and optimized microcontroller solutions for intuitive HMI design.

　　In addition to the outstanding functionality in motor control applications, the new 8-bit microcontrollers of Infineon's XC800 family - the XC82x and XC83x series - have dedicated peripheral units and settings for touch display applications. The integrated capacitive touch sensing function provides designers with new possibilities for designing more attractive switches. It is unique in the industry because it can drive an LED matrix of up to 64 LEDs through the same pin and support touch sensing. In addition to directly driving the stepper scale, overcurrent detection and slew rate control that optimizes electromagnetic compatibility performance ensure efficient and intelligent design. LED displays or stepper motors can be driven directly by the microcontroller with a current of up to 50mA.

　　Innovative touch control method

　　Infineon's technology uses the capacitive touch sensing principle and is optimized for easy application in highly integrated industrial and automotive products. The capacitive sensing system is a set of wires that interact with an electric field. Its operation relies on the following physical effect: the human body (i.e. finger) changes the capacitance of the system. To design a product using this concept, a microcontroller is required. The microcontroller-based control circuitry senses and determines if a touch event has occurred and what action must be triggered. There are many ways to develop such a solution using a microcontroller.

　　The relaxation oscillator topology used in the Infineon solution offers greater electrical noise immunity and higher reliability, helping to reduce errors. Infineon offers an optimized software library with basic algorithms for this solution as part of the ROM code, which helps to reduce the calibration and adjustment workload. This saves flash and CPU resources occupied by customer-specific solutions, and designers do not need to waste time on handling such basic functions. The special peripheral units of the XC82x and XC83x families use a combined solution to achieve touch and LED matrix control through time-division multiplexing operation. For example, touch sensing can be combined with display LED matrix control under high-frequency operating conditions. This facilitates the design of inexpensive single-layer PCB products with a reduced number of pins. For example, a standard 12-button keypad only needs 15 pins.

　　inTouch is a solution from Infineon Technologies to meet the increasing demand for ease of use and cost-effectiveness of touch control. The solution includes a scalable set of microcontrollers with touch functions - suitable for the industrial and automotive industries. The product portfolio includes a variety of models with different flash memory sizes, number of analog input channels, packaging methods and coprocessor support capabilities.

　　Color Wheel Application Kit

　　To demonstrate the capabilities of its advanced touch solutions, Infineon Technologies has launched a color wheel application kit. KIT_AK_INTOUCHCW The KIT is based on the new XC822T 8-bit microcontroller and is a ready-to-use solution. This solution can be used to adjust the color, saturation or brightness of light by using a capacitive touch wheel and buttons as an HMI. The application example code is stored in the microcontroller's flash memory and can be called and modified via Infineon's free development tool chain DAVE™ Bench. Designers can easily use this code to develop their own solutions, thus accelerating time to market.

　　The kit includes application example code for the touch wheel/button and LED color control, complete documentation and software tools on a CD-ROM. Standard USB I/F for power and programming calls makes the device compact and easy to use, and the price is only 19.99 Euro.

　　New XC82x and XC83x Microcontroller Families

　　The XC82x and XC83x microcontroller families added to the XC800 family enable the development of very cost-effective and energy-efficient control solutions. The various devices in the XC82x family integrate an MDU and a fast analog-to-digital converter to provide fast PWM units (with Hall sensors) for sinusoidal commutation, while the XC83x family devices integrate an enhanced vector calculator (MDU and CORDIC) with full hardware support for FOC functions.

　　To address efficient power conversion for lighting applications (such as LED current control devices or HID power control devices and ignition devices) and single-switch topologies with quasi-resonant control (such as induction cookers), the XC82x/XC83x MCUs use a CapCom6 unit with a clock frequency of 48MHz and a fast 16MHz analog-to-digital converter (sampling time of only 125ns and conversion time of about 820ns). The direct hardware connection between the analog-to-digital converter and the CCU6 provides powerful PWM control capabilities. In addition, the integrated analog-to-digital converter limit checker is equipped with an 8-bit digital comparator.

　　In addition, the low-cost XC82x and XC83x families include several new features that provide greater value to customers, including touch sensing and LED matrix control, RTC with 32kHz and 75kHz crystals, and high-current pads to directly drive stepper meter devices.