Microchip adds MTCH2120 to its portfolio of turnkey capacitive touch controllers
Turnkey touch controllers are a fast and easy way to upgrade from mechanical buttons to modern touch buttons or displays. With the launch of its 12-button MTCH2120 touch controller, Microchip is providing designers with a straightforward pathway for implementing touch button capabilities on user interfaces. The low-power, water-tolerant turnkey touch device is integrated with Microchip’s unified ecosystem, allowing for an easier design process and facilitating transitions between other turnkey solutions and MCU-based touch implementations. The MTCH2120 is the first of what will be a family of I2C-based touch controllers with a comprehensive design-in ecosystem.
The MTCH2120 provides a robust touch experience independent of noise events and moisture, while offering high flexibility to adapt to individual product requirements. Low-power features allow buttons to be grouped, which reduces scan activity and lowers power while enabling the buttons to remain fully operational.
The MTCH2120’s features and ecosystem include:
• Easy Tune feature that automatically adjusts sensitivity and filters levels based on real-time noise assessment, removing the need for cumbersome threshold tuning
• An MPLAB Harmony Host Code Configurator plug-in that removes the need to implement the I2C protocol on the host and allows for a straightforward connection to Microchip MCUs and MPUs
• Design validation via MPLAB Data Visualizer
• I2C port expander capabilities
• Access to, and compatibility with, Microchip’s touch library, which minimises the need for complex software engineering and firmware handling by the designer, helping reduce design cycles
• The MTCH2120 evaluation board, which comes with a SAM C21 host MCU on board for out-of-the box integration into prototypes
“The MTCH2120 brings together decades of touch experience with Microchip’s comprehensive ecosystem of support and development tools to deliver an easy-to-use, advanced touch experience,” said Rodger Richey, vice president of development systems and academic programs at Microchip Technology. “It’s a win-win solution. Developers can implement the highest level of touch robustness and great design flexibility, without the hassle of tuning or programming.”