New touchscreen controllers for smartphone, e-reader and low-cost tablets

Enabling smartphones, e-readers and low-cost tablets to offer multiple advanced features, Cypress Semiconductor has unveiled the TrueTouch CYTT21X/31X capacitive touchscreen controller family. The CYTT31X controller supports input from a passive stylus with a tip as fine as 2.5mm, which is essential for writing in languages that require enhanced character recognition for reliable text input, such as Chinese, Korean and Japanese. The CYTT21X controller supports a face detection feature that prevents unintended touches from accidentally hanging up a call. This feature eliminates the need for infrared proximity sensors by using the touchscreen sensor to detect a face 25mm away, thus cutting bill-of-material (BOM) costs. The TrueTouch CYTT21X/31X controllers enable ultra-thin smartphone and tablet form factors by leveraging Cypress's Single-Layer Independent Multi-touch (SLIMR) sensor structures, further reducing BOM costs. The controllers provide best-in-class accuracy and linearity for fingers of different sizes and gloves of various materials and thicknesses up to 5mm, including ski gloves. In addition, they automatically switch between glove, stylus and finger tracking without requiring the user to switch settings. The family offers industry-leading water rejection and wet finger tracking with best-in-class immunity to electronic noise generated by aftermarket chargers and displays. The CYTT21X/31X controllers include up to 48 IOs with an I2C interface, and up to 44-IOs with an I2C and SPI interface, says the company. "With these new additions to our TrueTouch touchscreen controller family, Cypress now offers our customers in the most cost-competitive markets the most feature-rich solutions for smartphones, e-readers and low-cost tablets," said Yi Hang Wang, Director of TrueTouch Marketing for Cypress. "Passive stylus support is a key feature for this market, and no other touchscreen solution supports the combination of face-detection, gloved-finger tracking, and SLIM single-layers sensors."