Date: 04/11/2009

Low power 4-wire resistive touchscreen controller for portable electronics

Semtech has introduced the SX8650, a low power 4-wire resistive touchscreen controller with enhanced ±15kV on-chip electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection. The SX8650 is suitable for the applications such as mobile phones, digital still cameras, MP3 players, PDAs, personal navigation devices and handheld gaming devices.

The SX8650 incorporates a high accurate 12-bit analog-to-digital converter for data conversion and supports the 400 kHz fast-mode I²C serial bus data protocol with operating input voltage ranges from 1.65V to 3.7V.

The key features of the SX8650 resistive touchscreen controller are,

Low power consumption of 23uA at 1.8V 8kSPS
On-chip ESD protection of ±15kV HBM (X+, X-, Y+, Y-), ±2kV CDM, ±25kV air gap discharge, ±15kV contact discharge, ±300V MM
Integrated preprocessing block to reduce host
Loading and bus activity
Four-user programmable operation modes provides flexibility to address different application, Needs-Manual, automatic, pen detect, and pen trigger
High precision 12-bit resolution
Low noise ratiometric conversion
Selectable polling or interrupt modes
Touch pressure measurement
Hardware reset & I²C software reset
Windows CE 6.0, Linux driver support available

"The SX8650 addresses the field returns issue prevalent in touchscreen applications due to destructive ESD events. Each analog input was specifically designed to enable robust ESD protection up to ±15kV in both human body model (HBM) and IEC 61000-4-2 standards, thus eliminating the need for external transient voltage suppression devices while minimizing cost and board space," said Sam Massih, Product Line Manager, Consumer Analog Products for Semtech. "Coupled with the extremely low operating current and tiny footprint, this makes Semtech's SX8650 the premier solution for today's portable touch-sensing devices."

Operating temperature range: -40°C to 85°C

Package: 12-LD (3.0 mm x 3.0 mm) DFN, 12 Ball (1.5 mm x 2.0 mm) WLCSP package

Price:
For DFN package: At $0.76 for 3k pieces
For WLCSP package: At $0.78 for 3k pieces
Availability: Available in production quantities

For more details visit www.semtech.com

Editorial Product Rating: Average