Microchip Announces New Solution for Knob on Display Touchscreen Designs

Microchip Technology launched a new maXTouch Knob on Display (KoD) controller, the first automotive-grade touchscreen controller family to natively support the detection and reporting of capacitive rotary encoders, as well as mechanical switches on top of a touch panel. Unlike traditional mechanical rotary encoders, this new technology enables the mounting of the knob directly onto the display without an opening in the panel or any customization of the touch pattern, increasing design flexibility. 
 
The new Microchip maXTouch Knob on Display (KoD) touch controller disrupts traditional touchscreen designs, enabling innovative Human Machine Interface (HMI) solutions by combining mechanical knobs with existing multi-touch displays. This is a new important design option for both automotive and audio applications, where manufacturers have long wished to combine mechanical rotary encoders with the flexibility of modern multi-touch displays. 

The KoD technology eliminates the need for custom touch sensor patterns, providing designers the ability to easily implement a different knob count, shape and position to accommodate a variety of end-user products. The customized configurations are adjustable without changing the embedded firmware of the maXTouch KoD touch controller, leading to a faster and more flexible development cycle. The maXTouch KoD controller allows designers to keep the comfort of a rotary encoder input device but combine it with a modern and innovative interior design using smart surfaces and multi-touch displays.

An added benefit designers can expect to experience is the ease of building a sealed Human Machine Interface (HMI) module, which is increasingly popular for in-home appliance and industrial applications. Using a knob on a display will also increase safety for the end user, for example, they won’t need to look at the display while driving to adjust their sound or air conditioning.

“Modern user interfaces commonly use multi-touch displays, removing mechanical keys for cutting-edge designs. Yet, functions like temperature or audio volume remain best controlled though a rotary encoder,” says Clayton Pillion, vice president of the Human Machine Interface business unit at Microchip Technology.  “The new maXTouch KoD technology offers the benefits of both worlds by providing the support of a capacitive rotary encoder with a turn-key touch controller family and a comprehensive suite of dedicated tools for a fast implementation.”

With the release of the maXTouch KoD family, Microchip offers two variants to allow developers the design freedom and flexibility to choose how they will implement the capacitive rotary encoder. The KD variant enables companies to choose their knob design partner and create their own solution using a reference design jointly developed with BNL Bearings — offering the option to fully customize the design for specific applications. 

The additional MK variant supports the Magic Knob developed by Panasonic. While keeping the flexibility to be mounted on standard touch sensor patterns, the Microchip Panasonic Magic Knob (MPMK) solution provides a high level of customization for rotation and push haptic feedback, as well as for the top cover material selection.  The newly developed MPMK is a capacitive rotary encoder containing mechanical rotation and push functionality that can be placed everywhere on the touchscreen area. The previous Panasonic "Magic Knob" required a dedicated unique pattern on the touch sensor. This new iteration developed in cooperation with Microchip is ready to be driven with standard touch sensors by using Microchip’s exclusive MK variant of the maXTouch touchscreen controllers. In addition to the rotating operation, it also comes with a vertical ring push function. Both functions can be customized for offering an ideal click feeling sensation. This haptic fine-tuning can be successfully engineered due to a profound mechanical design know-how, based on the long-term development of mechanical encoders. And, under special circumstances the unit can even be reliably operated with gloves.

The maXTouch Knob on Display (KoD) controller is currently available and Microchip provides a comprehensive suite of both hardware and software development tools to shorten the development cycle with a capacitive rotary knob. Developers can use the 13.3" OGS touch panel kit including development board with USB bridge, plus the capacitive rotary encoder knob reference design with 30 detents and push functionality. The maXTouch Studio development software includes dedicated KoD family plug-ins for knob design and parameter settings.
www.microchip.com