Cypress Adds SmartSense Auto-Tuning To PSoC 3 Programmable System-on-Chip to Simplify Design of Capacitive Touch Buttons, Sliders and Touchpads

PSoC 3 CapSense Plus lowers system design cost and eases the design process with Cypress’s revolutionary, patent-pending SmartSense™ auto-tuning algorithm, which eliminates the requirement for system tuning. SmartSense enables automatic tuning of more than 10 parameters to achieve optimal touch sensing performance. The graphical CapSense software module in Cypress’s PSoC Creator™ IDE makes it easy for designers to define combinations of buttons, sliders, touch pads and proximity-sensing capacitive sensors, and offers real-time feedback of parameters such as signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), finger threshold, noise threshold, and more.

The new PSoC 3 CapSense Plus devices offer up to 62 General Purpose I/O (GPIO) pins—all of which can handle CapSense signals—enabling the industry’s largest number of capacitive sensing elements in a single chip. In addition, the new solution provides Cypress’s legendary noise immunity that ensures robust operation in the presence of noise from a variety of sources.

Cypress is offering the CY8CKIT-031 PSoC CapSense Expansion Board Kit to speed designs with the new solution. The CY8CKIT-031 includes both button and slider modules, three separate overlays for prototyping, and a resource CD with example projects and application notes. The new kit’s adapter board allows engineers to plug in existing CapSense modules into the CY8CKIT-001 PSoC Development Kit or the CY8CKIT-030 PSoC 3 Development Kit, giving engineers access to the complete PSoC 3 ecosystem to create powerful, customized designs, and ease customers’ ability to re-use CapSense designs within the PSoC 3 environment. The CapSense modules kits include the CY3280-BSM Simple Button Module Kit, the CY3280-SRM Radial Slider Module Kit, the CY3280-SLM Linear Slider Module Kit, and the CY3280-BMM Matrix Button Module Kit. For customer who already have these module kits, they are eligible for a 50 percent discount when purchasing the new CY8CKIT-031kit.

“Designers recognize Cypress as the leader in capacitive touch solutions and also appreciate the power and flexibility of the PSoC 3 architecture,” said Gahan Richardson, vice president of PSoC platform products for Cypress. “We’ve made it easy for designers to combine these two marquis technologies to simplify the system design process in many applications.”

The Cypress PSoC 3 architecture, based on a high-performance 8-bit 8051 processor, has unique programmable analog and digital peripherals that enable capabilities such as motor control, intelligent power supply and battery management, LCD segment display, graphics control, as well as audio/voice processing, communication protocols, and much more. Its integrated 20-bit Delta Sigma ADC delivers better than 18-bit effective number of bits (ENOB) performance.

Cypress’s CapSense technology is the industry’s leading solution for capacitive buttons, sliders and switches. CapSense touch-sensing solutions have replaced 3.5 billion mechanical buttons in mobile handsets, laptops, consumer electronics, white goods, automotive applications, and virtually any system that has a mechanical button or switch, making Cypress the industry touch-sensing leader. The CapSense portfolio, the industry's broadest and most integrated, enhances industrial design and reliability with the most noise-immune and water tolerant capacitive touch-sensing interfaces, including proximity sensing where direct touch is not required.