Atmel Optimizes QTouch Architecture for Touch Application-Specific Devices / New architecture enables ready-to-use controllers for touch Button, Slider, Wheel implementation; Offers reduced BOM cost, lower-power consumption, industry-best proximity range

SHENZHEN, China, Feb. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- IIC Shenzhen 2011 -- Atmel® Corporation , a leader in microcontroller and touch solutions, today announced a new family of QTouch® capacitive touch controllers for implementing button, slider and wheel (BSW) functionality on application-specific devices. The new Atmel AT42QT1070 and AT42QT2120 devices offer designers an easy-to-use solution with no firmware development, reduced bill of materials and lower power consumption. In addition, the AT42QT2120 device offers the industry's greatest proximity range of up to 8 inches to enable unique new capabilities including 3-D gestures.

This family of touch controllers includes a unique touch sensing architecture that eliminates the need for any external components and uses only one I/O pin for each sensing channel. This architecture also supports a new capacitive sensing method with a faster scan time, lower current consumption and less sensitivity to power supply fluctuations than previous generation devices. Adding greater value and differentiation for customers' end products, these features provide a lower barrier of entry for integrating touch user interfaces into a variety of applications including home appliances, automotive control panels, TVs, remote controls, set-top boxes, LCD monitors and many others.

"Atmel's new family of touch controllers allows easier implementation of touch button, slider and wheel interfaces. This family is the industry's first to allow designers the ability to design capacitive interfaces without the need for external components," said Steve Berry, director of marketing, Atmel Corporation. "Compatible with the Atmel QTouch Library, we are excited to offer this new family of BSW capacitive touch controllers with the simplicity and ease-of-use that designers want to reliably and robustly support a broad array of applications."

This new family of optimized touch architecture devices is a new class of ready-to-use touch sensing controllers, supporting up to 12 sensor channels, 1.8V-5.5V operating voltage range and an I2C-compatible communications interface. In addition, this family includes Adjacent Key Suppression (AKS) support, self-calibration, auto-drift compensation, noise filtering, and a selectable sleep interval. The first device of this family is the AT42QT1070 which supports 7 channels and is in full production now. The second device in the family will be the AT42QT2120 with 12 channels and includes support for a slider or wheel interface. The AT42QT2120 will be in production Q2 2011. Both devices may be configured for stand-alone mode or communications mode.

About Atmel QTouch

QTouch detects touches by utilizing Atmel's proprietary Charge Transfer technology. The QTouch method is robust and reliable, making it easy to replace mechanical buttons. This technology is ideal for user interface applications requiring a small or large number of buttons, sliders, knobs, dials, etc.

For more information on the new Atmel QTouch family, please visit http://www.atmel.com/products/bsw

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About Atmel

Atmel Corporation is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, capacitive touch solutions, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions focused on industrial, consumer, communications, computing and automotive markets.

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Atmel Corporation

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