Create 2D Touchpads and Touchscreens with a Microcontroller
It’s Easy and Very Economical
Many of our microcontrollers (MCUs) feature on-chip capacitive touch engines. With these MCUs, you can control a touchpad or touchscreen without any additional cost. Our free 2D Touch Surface Library with built-in gesture recognition brings 2D surfaces to life to enhance the user experience for your products.The library runs in the background and interfaces easily with your applications or communications code for a true one-chip 2D touch platform.
We also offer easy-to-use hardware tools and code configurators to accelerate your development and speed up your time to market with your new touch-enabled products. Our global team of applications engineers will also support you when you come across any challenges or have any questions.
Target Applications
- Headphone listening controls
- Remote control trackpads
- Smart speaker control surfaces
- Virtual/augmented reality hand controllers
- Game console controllers
- Smart light switches
- Thermostats
- Automotive interior controls
- Steering wheel touchpads
- Wearable devices
- Industrial control panels
Find everything you need to add 2D touch capabilities to your design here:
Touch Features
- Single-finger tracking
- Single- and dual-finger gesture recognition
- Taps
- Swipes
- Swipe and hold
- Rotations
- Pinch and zoom
- Water tolerance
- Noise robustness
- Ultra-low power consumption
Key Benefits
- Touch sensing, gesture recognition and application/communications code in the same microcontroller
- Graphical project designer creates code automatically
- Supported by MCUs with a wide range of Flash memory, pin count and size options
- Automotive-certified devices
- Easy-to-use, comprehensive development ecosystem minimizes your time to market
- Unified touch tuning ecosystem allows you to swap MCUs without losing momentum
How Does 2D Capacitive Touch Technology Work?
- Projected capacitive touch sensors operate by measuring the tiny change in capacitance on an electrode when a human finger or other object comes in contact with a sensor grid underneath the touch surface
- An on-chip touch peripheral is used to take separate measurements of the capacitance on all electrodes to determine the position of the finger
- Additional on-chip processing functions are used to detect surface gestures like swipes and report them to the application software
Do You Need High-Performance Multi-Touch or Large Touchscreens?
maXTouch touch controllers support multi-finger, gloved-finger and wet operation for screens up to 24” in diagonal size that are used in a variety of automotive, home appliance, medical and industrial applications. Regardless of the conditions, maXTouch® touchscreen controllers are designed for robust and reliable operation in challenging environments. Host serial I2C, SPI and USB communication interfaces are available across the product portfolio.
Learn more about Microchip's Touchscreen Design Partners.