Cypress Launches Single-Chip TrueTouch® Controller Based on Gen4 Technology for Tablets, Ultrabooks and Laptops

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: CY) today introduced a new Gen4 TrueTouch^® controller targeted at the rapidly growing tablet and ultrabook market. The new CY8CTMA1036 device has 65 sense-I/Os, enabling it to deliver flawless touchscreen performance for screens up to 12 inches. Like the smaller-screen Gen4 devices, it offers industry-best performance in all categories, including the world’s best signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and unparalleled performance in the presence of all noise sources—the biggest challenge faced by touchscreen designs. Gen4 also has the lowest active power consumption, unparalleled tracking accuracy and the fastest refresh rates. It provides full support for major mobile operating systems including Win8 and Android.

The new CY8CTMA1036 uses a 32-bit ARM^® Cortex™ core, and offers 65 sensing I/O channels with support for up to 1036 nodes on the screen, 35 percent more than any other single-chip solution. Additional sensing channels are essential for greater accuracy, linearity, support for smaller sized fingers and the ability to resolve multiple fingers close together.

“We’re getting the same positive reaction from tablet manufacturers as we did from the handset sector,” said Dhwani Vyas, Vice President of Cypress’s User Interface Business Unit. “Customers are excited to apply the benefits of Gen4’s noise immunity, low power and superior performance in a single-chip package to their tablet designs. We’re sampling multiple customers now and expect to start production shipments by the end of this quarter.”

Breakthrough Noise Elimination

The Gen4 family was designed from the ground up to deliver the world’s highest SNR in real world applications. It is the first and only touchscreen IC that delivers built-in 10V Tx to drive the touch panel at 10V. Because SNR is directly proportional to the voltage at which the panel is driven, this feature allows Cypress to offer nearly four times the SNR of the next closest competitor.

The Gen4 family further raises the SNR bar as the first touchscreen device family to completely eliminate display noise in hardware. Gen4’s patent-pending Display Armor^™ offers unprecedented immunity to noise from every type of display, even noisy low-cost displays such as ACVCOM LCDs. This allows touchscreen designers to make their products thinner by removing the air gap between the display and the sensor, and also less expensive by removing the shield layer in the sensor. Display Armor allows Gen4 to operate seamlessly with direct lamination, on-cell and in-cell stackups, regardless of the display chemistry.

World’s Fastest and Lowest Power Touchscreen Controller

In addition to unmatched noise performance, the Gen4 platform offers the world’s lowest active power consumption of 2 mW, and a deep sleep mode that only draws 1.8 uW with wake-up via address match on the COM port. Shortened battery life is a common issue for smartphones and other portable touchscreen devices. Gen4 gives OEMs another tool to help solve this problem. The Gen4 product family also boasts the industry’s fastest refresh rate of 400Hz, and has the unique ability to scan a capacitive touch panel at 1,000 Hz – both industry-best metrics. This level of performance is enabled by the 32-bit ARM® Cortex™ core at the heart of the Gen4 products. The Gen4 family enables unlimited touch performance, while providing the industry’s best accuracy and linearity of 0.2 mm.

The Gen4 family also offers features that only TrueTouch can deliver, including waterproofing functionality that allows products to meet IP-67 standards; 1-mm stylus support for Asian character sets and accurate handwriting capture; and hover sensing to provide mouseover-like features and true fingernail or thick-glove support in mobile devices. Cypress’s unique, patent-pending ability to switch dynamically between self-capacitive and mutual-capacitive sensing methods in application enables these differentiating features. Cypress now has over 250 issued and pending patents pertaining to touchscreens. More information, including multiple videos, is available at touch.cypress.com.

Touchscreen Leadership

Cypress’s touch sensing portfolio is the industry’s broadest and most well adopted, encompassing both TrueTouch and CapSense® solutions. The Gen4 family is the latest in a string of touchscreen firsts from Cypress, the acknowledged industry leader in touch sensing. Examples include:

• Cypress was the first to deliver tracking of unlimited touches.
• Cypress was the first to deliver a true single-layer sensor solution for capacitive performance at resistive prices.
• The new Gen4 family, as well as prior generations, is offered in the world’s smallest CSP packages for important space savings in handsets.
• Cypress is still the only company to offer the patent-pending self and mutual capacitance sensing on the same chip, enabling the development of advanced features like waterproofing, support for 1mm stylus, and hover without increased material or spatial costs.
• TrueTouch is designed to work with major mobile platforms, including Android and Windows^® 8.

About TrueTouch

Cypress’s TrueTouch technology provides the industry’s best noise immunity, highest signal to noise ratio (SNR), fastest refresh rates, lowest power consumption, and world’s best accuracy and linearity. The flexible TrueTouch solution allows customers to rapidly develop leading-edge solutions without having to buy turnkey modules. They have a choice of using touch sensors (glass or film) and LCDs from preferred partners, and can develop innovative mechanical designs ranging from flat to curved surfaces of varying thickness. Additional TrueTouch information is available at touch.cypress.com.

About Cypress

Cypress delivers high-performance, mixed-signal, programmable solutions that provide customers with rapid time-to-market and exceptional system value. Cypress offerings include the flagship PSoC® programmable system-on-chip families and derivatives such as PowerPSoC® solutions for high-voltage and LED lighting applications, CapSense® touch sensing and TrueTouch solutions for touchscreens. Cypress is the world leader in USB controllers, including the high-performance West Bridge® solution that enhances connectivity and performance in multimedia handsets. Cypress is also a leader in high-performance memories and programmable timing devices. Cypress serves numerous markets including consumer, mobile handsets, computation, data communications, automotive, industrial and military. Cypress trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol CY. Visit Cypress online at www.cypress.com.

Cypress, the Cypress logo, PSoC, PowerPSoC, CapSense, TrueTouch, and West Bridge are registered trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. All other trademarks are property of their owners.