Microchip Unveils New maXTouch Touchscreen Controller
The MXT1296M1T can reconfigure its driving and receiving touch channels to match the exact screen format, from 1:1 to 5:1 aspect ratio.
Microchip Technology has unveiled a new maXTouch touchscreen controller, that allows automotive designers to satisfy various and unique aspect ratios for touch displays in cars.
This new offering includes additional functional safety support requested by OEMs.
“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 human-machine interface 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.”.
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.
Microchip’s new maXTouch touchscreen controller offers two communication interfaces operating simultaneously, which allow a bridgeless connection to the backchannel of the LVDS video link for touch information and a connection to a local microcontroller (MCU). The bridgeless 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.
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.
