Microchip Launches Industry’s Most Versatile maXTouch® Touchscreen Controller

Microchip Launches Industry's Most Versatile maXTouch® Touchscreen Controller, Offering Unparalleled Screen Format Flexibility

MXT1296M1T offers various communication options, ISO 26262 functional safety support and flexible RF emission control

As the automotive market continues to increase demand for large touch screens and flexible form factors, Microchip Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MCHP) has announced the launch of a new maXTouch® touchscreen controller to help automotive developers meet the various unique aspect ratio requirements of in-vehicle touch displays. This new product includes additional functional safety support required by OEMs.

The MXT1296M1T can reconfigure the driver and receiver touch channels to match the exact screen format, from 1:1 to 5:1 aspect ratios, including the mainstream 8:3 automotive aspect ratio. This feature enables customers to effectively utilize the number of touch channels they already have without having to choose a larger, more expensive touch controller. In addition, customers can support different touch sensor aspect ratios by reusing a common PCB design, saving additional development and verification time and resources. The MXT1296M1T is the industry's first product to enable sensor channel reconfiguration via parameters. These settings do not require firmware modifications, reducing design risk and accelerating time to market.

“As touchscreen displays become more prevalent in automotive user interfaces, automakers are using a variety of display formats and form factors to fit interior designs and enhance their brand identity,” said Clayton Pillion, director of Microchip’s Human Machine Interface business unit. “As the world’s number one supplier of automotive touchscreen controllers, we know that products with enhanced diagnostic capabilities are a significant advantage for customers who are designing with unique features and the increasing functional safety requirements of ISO 26262 in mind.”

Microchip's new maXTouch touchscreen controller provides two simultaneously running communication interfaces that can be bridgeless connected to the back-end channel of the LVDS video link to obtain touch information and connect to the local microcontroller (MCU). The bridgeless topology reduces touch latency, thereby improving the user experience. It also supports full compatibility with maXTouch software drivers for all major automotive operating systems, including Linux®, Android™ and QNX®. When connected to a suitable local MCU, the second interface provides:

Redundant link to the head unit via CAN bus or 10BASE-T1S automotive Ethernet to improve system-level functional safety

Native access and control of maXTouch touchscreen controller features such as capacitive button reporting, real-time touch sensor diagnostics, and raw data for external and custom post-processing.

Over-the-air and secure firmware update capabilities using Microchip’s TrustAnchor100 companion chip

The MXT1296M1T embeds a variety of functional safety features to continuously check the integrity of the touch controller operation and the connected touch sensors. Failure Mode Effects and Diagnostic Analysis (FMEDA) and Functional Safety Handbook greatly simplify the customer experience in designing, building and certifying automotive safety integrity level B (ASIL-B) application systems in accordance with ISO 26262 standard.

The MXT1296M1T enables high-resolution transmit waveform control to reduce RF emissions and avoid interference with the car's radio or RFID systems. As car screen sizes increase, RF emissions from capacitive touch technology are expected to increase. The radiated limits of major car manufacturers vary in amplitude, frequency, and bandwidth. The MXT1296M1T uses a dedicated on-chip 64-stage digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to precisely shape the waveform of the transmit line. This enables designers to precisely control the frequency response and optimize harmonic emissions to meet the limits specified by specific OEMs.

Development Tools

The latest version of maXTouch Studio integrated development environment (IDE) supports configuration and debugging of the MXT1296M1T.

The orderable development kit includes:

-ATEVK-MXT1296M1T-A: Various evaluation kits including a development board with USB bridge, 12.3"/8:3 format/1.1mm One Glass Solution (OGS) touchpad, and touch key add-on boards for mutual and self-capacitance

-ATMXT1296M1T-I2C-PCB: Development board for connecting customer touch sensors

Availability

The MXT1296M1T is available in production quantities now. The ISO 26262 FMEDA and Functional Safety Handbook will be available in Q1 2022. For additional information, contact a Microchip sales representative, authorized worldwide distributor or visit Microchip’s website.

The TrustAnchor100 companion chip is available in production quantities now. For more information, contact a Microchip sales representative, authorized worldwide distributor or visit Microchip's website.

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