Microchip launches advanced, automotive maXTouch touchscreen controller

As the automotive market continues to demand larger touchscreens with more flexibility in size and shape, Microchip Technology has launched a new maXTouch touchscreen controller, which lets automotive designers satisfy various and unique aspect ratios for touch displays in cars.

This new offering includes additional functional safety support specifically requested by OEMs.

The MXT1296M1T can reconfigure its driving and receiving touch channels to match the exact screen format, from 1:1 to 5:1 aspect ratio, including the popular 8:3 automotive aspect ratio.

This feature enables the customer to efficiently use the number of touch channels available, without the need to select a larger, more expensive touch controller. Furthermore, customers can save additional development and validation time and resources by reusing a common PCB design to support different touch sensor aspect ratios.

The MXT1296M1T is an industry first to enable the sensor-channel reconfiguration by parameters. These settings do not require firmware modification, leading to lower design risk and faster time to market.

“As touch displays have become more popular in automotive user interfaces, car manufacturers are using various display formats and shapes to accommodate their interior design and emphasize their brand identity,” said Clayton Pillion director of the HMI business unit at Microchip Technology. “As the number one automotive touchscreen controller supplier, we know that products with enhanced diagnostic features are a significant advantage to customers who are designing with unique features and increasing ISO 26262 functional safety requirements in mind.”

Microchip’s new maXTouch touchscreen controller offers two communication interfaces operating simultaneously, which allow a bridge-less connection to the back channel of the LVDS video link for touch information and a connection to a local microcontroller (MCU).

The bridge-less topology reduces touch latency to improve the user experience. It also guarantees full compatibility with the maXTouch software driver, available for all major automotive operating systems, including Linux, Android, and QNX. When connected to an appropriate local MCU, the second interface offers:

A redundancy link to the head unit through a CAN bus or 10BASE-T1S automotive Ethernet link for increased functional safety at the system level
Local access and control of the maXTouch touchscreen controller’s features such as a capacitive keys report, live touch sensor diagnostics, and raw data for external and custom post-processing
Over-the-air and secure firmware update capability using Microchip’s TrustAnchor100 companion chip

The MXT1296M1T embeds various functional safety features to constantly check the integrity of the touch-controller operation, as well as that of the connected touch sensors. The Failure Modes Effects and Diagnostic Analysis (FMEDA) and functional safety manual, dramatically ease the customer experience to design, build and certify a system for Automotive Safety Integrity Level B (ASIL-B) applications to the ISO 26262 standard.

The MXT1296M1T allows for high resolution transmit waveform control to lower RF emissions and avoid interference with the car radio or RFID systems. With screen sizes increasing in cars, RF emissions generated by the projected capacitive touch technology are growing. Emission limits vary in amplitude, frequency and bandwidth for each major car manufacturer.

The MXT1296M1T uses a dedicated on-chip 64-level digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to accurately shape the waveform of the transmitting lines. This allows designers to precisely control the frequency response and optimize the harmonic emissions to meet specific OEM defined limits.