Microchip unveils inductive touch sensing AFE

CHANDLER, USA: Microchip Technology Inc.  announced from the Sensors Expo in Chicago the MCP2036 Analog Front End (AFE) for inductive touch-sensing applications.

Complementing the company’s royalty-free mTouch Inductive Touch-Sensing Solutions, the fully-integrated MCP2036 AFE works with almost any 8-, 16- or 32-bit PIC MCU or dsPIC DSC, making it even easier and more cost-effective for designers to enhance user interfaces with inductive touch-sensing technology.

This inductive-touch AFE includes a multiplexer, a frequency mixer, an amplifier, a driver, and a voltage reference, which drastically lowers component count and reduces design size and cost. Additionally, the AFE can be easily configured for a variety of applications in the appliance, industrial and automotive markets, among others.

Inductive touch sensing’s fundamental operating principles enable it to work through a front panel, such as plastic, stainless steel or aluminum. The technology also works through thick gloves and on surfaces where liquids are present.
These characteristics make inductive touch sensing suitable for applications in the appliance market because of the possibility of a stainless steel front panel; the industrial market because of the technology’s robustness; and the automotive market because of the technology’s sleek aesthetics and ability to reduce accidental-touch triggers.