Why Buy Four Chips if You Only Need One?

Azoteq recently expanded its offering to the TWS market with the release of the IQS323. The IQS323 offers capacitive and inductive sensing as user interface and in-ear-detection, whilst the IQS7222A IC is a multifunctional capacitive, inductive, and Hall-effect sensor with additional temperature sensing for reference tracking. The IQS7222A is offered in a 1.62 x 1.62mm WLCSP and allows you to add a touch-and-swipe interface, wear detection, docking detection and your choice of an inductive waterproof button or the inductive force-sensing features.

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.

Azoteq recently released its second-generation four-in-one chip for earbuds. The IQS7222A IC is a multifunctional capacitive, inductive, and Hall-effect sensor with additional temperature sensing for reference tracking. The 1.62 x 1.62 mm chip allows you to add a touch-and-swipe interface, wear detection, docking detection and your choice of an inductive waterproof button or the inductive force-sensing features.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) delivers greater connectivity for industrial and home applications and as connected vehicles enhance cabin and operational features, higher-performance microcontrollers are required for better real-time control as well as to enable enhanced human machine interface applications. Microchip Technology announced its next generation AVR DA family of microcontrollers (MCUs) – its first Functional Safety Ready AVR MCU family with Peripheral Touch Controller (PTC).

Microchip announced the 32-bit SAM L10/L11 MCU families for low power and high security, based on the Arm Cortex-M23 core, with the SAM L11 featuring Arm TrustZone for Armv8-M, a programmable environment that provides hardware isolation between certified libraries, IP and application code. The SAM L11 features robust security with chip-level tamper resistance, secure boot and secure key storage. When combined with TrustZone technology, this is designed to protect applications from both remote and physical attacks.

Microchip Technology announced a new 2D Touch Surface library that enables designers to easily implement touch pads using the company’s 8-bit PIC and AVR microcontrollers (MCUs) and 32-bit SAM MCUs. Available free of charge with the purchase of any compatible MCU, the library provides a simplified, low-cost solution for embedded applications, making possible to add taps, swipes, pinch and zoom to headphones and other consumer electronics devices at no additional cost.