Cypress claims CYAT817 is most advanced automotive touchscreen controller
An addition to the automotive capacitive touchscreen controller family delivers the market’s most advanced feature set for next-generation infotainment systems, claims Cypress Semiconductor. Cypress designed the TrueTouch CYAT817 touchscreen controller family specifically to meet rigorous automotive quality standards.
The family’s advanced hover capability can detect a finger up to 35mm above the screen and a force touch capability that provides accurate measurement of the pressure applied by multiple, independent fingers. The family’s integrated acoustic and haptic feedback control provides faster response times and deliver a better user experience, claims Cypress, compared to systems where the processing of a touch and pressure applied are not measured on-chip.
Car makers’ requirements for the infotainment user interface are different from those of consumer electronics touchscreens, so Cypress designed the TrueTouch CYAT817 family by focusing on providing automotive-grade quality and user experience for in-vehicle applications.
The Automotive TrueTouch CYAT817 controller family implements its Hover and Force Touch features while meeting stringent automotive EMI and EMC requirements. With a power-efficient 32-bit Arm Cortex-M processor and optimised analogue front-end, each controller can replace the mechanical on/off button of an infotainment system with a capacitive touch sensor, for sleek, modern interior designs, counsels Cypress. The controllers deliver faster response times by integrating decision and control processing on-chip for acoustic and haptic feedback so that systems are no longer required to transmit data on a touch input via CAN or LVDS back channel for distributed implementations to be processed in the head-unit.
The CYAT817 controllers can support two standard host interfaces such as I2C and SPI, along with a CAN interface for either higher system integration or to implement redundancy for safety relevant applications per ISO 26262. The controllers protect with a cryptographic engine that securely encrypts communication with the head-unit, preventing unauthorised access of touch data containing sensitive user information that could allow reverse engineering of PINs or passwords.
Cypress AutoArmor meets car manufacturers’ most challenging EMC requirements for chip-level emissions (IEC 61967), conducted (IEC 62132) and radiated (ISO 11452) immunity, as well as for system-level (CISPR 25) specifications. AutoArmor uses automatic frequency hopping to prevent false touches caused by EMI from other electronic systems, and it uses TX frequency spreading to reduce electromagnetic emissions by up to 30 per cent.
The Automotive TrueTouch CYAT817 controllers are currently sampling, with AEC-Q100 fully automotive-qualified products expected in Q2 2018. The controllers are available in automotive-friendly 128-pin and 100-pin TQFPs.
