Atmel debuts mXT106xT2 touchscreen controller lineup

Atmel has expanded its popular maXTouch T lineup of touchscreen controllers with the mXT106xT2 family of devices. The new series incorporates a wide range of features for 7 – 8.9″ mid-sized tablet displays including hover, stylus and optimized noise immunity.

As Atmel exec Patrick Hanley points out, the maXTouch is the only product currently available that enables finger hovering up to 20mm on devices larger than a smartphone. This capability allows users to interact with their devices – without physically making contact with the screen.

Indeed, the T Series incorporates Atmel’s Adaptive Sensing technology to facilitate dynamic touch classification, which automatically switches between self- and mutual-capacitance sensing – providing a seamless transition between finger touch, hover, passive or active stylus, as well as glove touch. Additionally, Adaptive Sensing dramatically reduces power consumption, facilitating longer battery life for mobile devices.

“The mXT106xT2 offers features required in today’s tablet devices, including 0.4mm thin cover lenses and multifinger glove support for users in cold weather climates,” said Hanley. “For [those] who seek the extensive benefits in going paperless, the mXT106xT2 also [includes] stylus capabilities in either active stylus through Atmel’s maXStylus, or passive stylus with a 1mm tip to facilitate more precise selection.”

Essentially, the 106xT2 offers the same performance features as Atmel’s T Series maXTouch controllers, while enabling capacitive button, slider and wheel control via an embedded hardware module known as the Peripheral Touch Controller (PTC). This feature allows systems to integrate capacitive buttons without tying up nodes from the touch controller, while performing with improved noise immunity and lower power than when implemented via firmware.

The new devices in the maXTouch T Series are currently in production, with the 8.3” screen size evaluation kit slated to ship in May.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s popular maXTouch T lineup of touchscreen controllers? You can check out the product’s official page here.

Report: Wearables to drive significant battery revenue

Analysts at IHS say the global market for batteries used in wearable electronics will increase more than tenfold in just four short years, propelled by new devices suitable for active sports and fitness lifestyles. 

Indeed, worldwide revenue for wearable electronics batteries is projected to reach $77 million by 2018, up considerably from a mere $6 million by year-end in 2014.

In addition, industry revenue will have grown nearly 120 percent from 2014 levels.

“Wearable electronics will be the key to sustaining the current very-high-growth levels of battery revenue in consumer electronics,” explained Thomas McAlpine, power supply and storage component analyst for IHS.

“The tremendous expansion in store will come thanks to an increase in the shipments of smartwatch products, wearable health monitoring devices and smart glasses—products geared toward an active lifestyle combining advanced technological trends in miniature computing with newly smart consumer imperatives in fitness and fashion.”

In addition, annual shipments for wearable electronic devices will reach an estimated 56 million units by 2018, fueling continued demand for the batteries that power these products.

“Of the total number of batteries expected to be installed in wearable electronics by 2018, lithium polymer batteries will take the predominant share, accounting for 73 percent of total wearable electronics battery revenue,” said McAlpine. 

”Lithium polymer batteries are typically the preferred choice as they are lighter in weight and can be manufactured into a wider range of shapes and sizes, compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries.”

Image Credit: Vega Edge

Smartphone and tablet PC demand will continue to drive the majority of revenue growth in the lithium battery market for portable electronics over the next couple of years, with the combined shipments of these devices projected to grow 46 percent from 2013 to 2015. 

However, shipments will decrease from 2015 onward, and coupled with projected erosion in the average selling prices of lithium battery cells, growth will decelerate for the overall lithium battery market for portable consumer electronics.

“This means the emergence of new applications in the market is critical. Lithium batteries will remain an integral component for innovation in consumer electronics,” McAlpine added. “To achieve sustained market growth, new wearable electronics and other devices need to be introduced and adopted by the mass market, similar to what is occurring now in recently emerging product categories.”

Adafruit’s Becky Stern

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel is right in the middle of the wearable tech revolution, with the the soft electronics DIY Maker community adapting various Atmel-powered platforms specifically for wearables, including the Arduino Lilypad (ATmega328V) (developed by MIT Media Lab professor Leah Buechley), along with Adafruit’s very own Gemma (Atmel ATtiny85) and Flora (ATmega32u4), the latter of which can be easily daisy chained with various sensors for GPS, motion and light.

In addition, Atmel’s microcotrollers are found in a number of smartwatches and wearable medical devices.

Interested in learning more about wearables? You can check out our extensive article archive on the subject here.

Video: Atmel’s AvantCar demo

Earlier this month, Atmel debuted its AvantCar concept at CES 2014 in Las Vegas. The fully functional console features two large curved touchscreen displays – without mechanical buttons. 

Instead, the touchscreens integrate capacitive touch buttons and sliders, allowing users to navigate general applications typically found within an automotive center console.

This includes global navigation system (GPS), car thermostat, audio controls for a radio or media player, seat controls and more. AvantCar also allows drivers to personalize their in-vehicle environment using advanced touch capabilities and LIN connectivity system to control ambient lighting.

According to Atmel Marketing Director Stephan Thaler, AvantCar successfully demonstrates the future of human machine interface (HMI) in upcoming vehicles. Indeed, next-generation automotive designs will be influenced by a wide range of trends in the consumer market such as slick and curved centerstack designs, as well as customization by appearance, color, navigation and interaction with a smartphone or tablet.

Atmel offers a number of comprehensive platforms and solutions to address the current and future requirements of a modern in-vehicle human-machine interface (HMI). However, the AvantCar Centerstack demo is the company’s first fully functional concept showcasing groundbreaking solutions within the automobile.

 To be sure, AvantCar is powered entirely by Atmel technology, including maXTouch (two touchscreens), XSense (curved panel design), QTouch (touch buttons and sliders), dedicated algorithms running on Atmel touch chips and microcontrollers (proximity detection), as well as LIN-based ambient lighting control.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s AvantCar demo? You can check out our in-depth article on the subject here.

Atmel’s maXTouch T hits next-gen smartphone and phablet markets

Atmel has expanded its popular maXTouch T lineup of touchscreen controllers with the mXT640T, mXT336T and mXT224T. The new devices offer a comprehensive set of features, supporting next-gen mobile devices such as smartphones, phablets and mid-size tablets with touchscreens ranging from 3.2”-8.3.”

Key touch features include 1mm passive stylus and maXStylus (active stylus), hover capability, moisture immunity and multi-finger glove support.

“Essentially, these devices build on Atmel’s success of its single-chip maXTouch T series products for large-screen applications – mXT2952T and mXT1664T – which were launched in the second quarter,” an Atmel engineering rep explained.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the T series deftly incorporates Atmel’s Adaptive Sensing technology to enable dynamic touch classification – automatically and intelligently switching between self- and mutual-capacitance sensing. This provides users with a seamless transition between a finger touch, hover, passive/active stylus or glove touch. Meaning, users no longer have to manually enable “glove mode” in the operating system to differentiate between hover and glove.

Adaptive Sensing also helps significantly reduces the power consumption of a device, thereby extending battery life. Meanwhile, the analog front-end is equipped with advanced and flexible settings to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) prior to digital processing – eliminating signal distortions induced by water and noisy chargers.

“The new T Series enables superior touch performance with single-layer sensors as compared to the most recently announced solutions. Simply put, the latest devices will enable Atmel to extend its industry leadership in the large-screen market to the smartphone and phablet spaces,” said the engineering rep. “In fact, we are already working with a range of ITO and LCD manufacturers to support various stack-ups such as OGS, G1, GF and On-Cell which are targeted for production early next year. Plus, Atmel has begun sampling the new T Series devices with a number of OEMs who have provided positive feedback about the new touch products and their performance.”

Are Microcontrollers Powering What’s On Your Black Friday Wish List?

Do you plan to brave the crowds and shop for deals on Black Friday (or online, on Cyber Monday?). If electronics are on your shopping list, there’s a good chance that microcontrollers or touchscreen controllers are inside. These versatile, high-performance, low-power devices are workhorses that handle a variety of functions in a variety of products.

The folks at iFixit have taken a close look at a couple of new products featuring Atmel touchscreen controllers. Microsoft’s new Surface tablet contains three mXT154E devices and a mXT1386 device. And Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD has an Atmel maXTouch mXT768E inside.

What kinds of microcontroller-powered electronic products are you eyeing this holiday season?

Inside Microsoft Surface Tablet

The folks at iFixit have taken a good look inside Microsoft’s new Windows RT-based Surface tablet. Of course, we’re happy that the tablet contains four of our maXTouch touchscreen controllers inside, three mXT154E devices and a mXT1386 device. It’ll be interesting to see how widely adopted the Surface might be in the workplace. We played with one recently, and found it very easy to type on the keyboard that’s integrated into the tablet cover. And, of course, there’s access to a version of Microsoft Office and other productivity apps.

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Teardown/11275/1