Processor supports capacitive touch sensing for button and slider replacement

Cypress Semiconductor’s CapSense Express devices, working with the PSoC (programmable-system-on-chip) Express visual embedded-system-design tool and the CapSense Express configuration tool, enable designers to monitor and tune the performance of as many as 10 button-and-slider interfaces in real time using a graphical user interface. The CY8C201X0 and CY8C201X2 CapSense Express devices support capacitive or general-purpose I/Os to implement combinations of buttons, multisegment sliders, and LED controls. These devices consume 1 mA of active current and 2.6 µA in sleep mode and support an operating voltage of 2.4 to 5.25V across the industrial-temperature range of –40 to +85°C. The CY8C201X0 and CY8C201X2 CapSense Express devices are available in eight- and 16-pin SOIC and 16-pin QFN packages for less than $1 (10,000). These devices feature 2 kbytes of flash memory and an I²C communication interface to support programming loading over I²C at power-up.

Three evaluation kits are available for the CapSense Express devices. The CY3218-CAPEXP1 kit features three CapSense buttons, three backlighting LEDs, three LEDs for status, and one mechanical button. The CY3218-CAPEXP2 kit offers a five-segment slider with four status LEDs and one mechanical button. The CY3218-CAPEXP3 features two CapSense buttons with two status LEDs using the smallest eight-pin SOIC package. The three kits sell for $45 each. Developers can complete CapSense designs with preconfigured and verified user modules within Cypress’ PSoC Designer 4.4 integrated design environment.