New Cypress PSoC devices enhance design flexibility

SAN JOSE, USA: Cypress Semiconductor Corp. today introduced two new PSoCs with enhanced analog and digital performance.

The CY8C21x45 and CY8C22xxx PSoC devices give engineers more design flexibility through greater configurability and better performance of digital resources for implementing PWMs, timers, communication interfaces such as I2C and SPI, and more.

Leveraging a dedicated dual-channel CapSense capacitive touch-sensing interface, a capability called CapSense Plus allows a single new PSoC device to implement multiple buttons and slider interfaces while managing functions such as motor control, intelligent sensing, LED control and more. The new chips target a broad range of applications across white goods, communications, industrial, automotive, consumer electronics and other markets.

The PSoC architecture integrates programmable analog and digital blocks with a microcontroller, a unique combination that offers designers unmatched integration and flexibility. The enhanced digital resources on the CY8C21x45 and CY8C22xxx devices offer a hardware real-time clock and PWM deadband and single/multi shot support, saving CPU horsepower and engineering development time.

The new devices include a faster, dedicated Successive-Approximation Register (SAR) Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) with sample and hold capability delivering sampling rates up to 150 ksps. These new devices also allow every I/O to be analog or digital with easy accessibility, enabling customers to integrate system peripherals.

The integration offered by the CapSense Plus capability is ideal for white goods and other applications.

“The improved analog and digital performance in these new devices further extends PSoC’s unmatched integration and flexibility,” said Matt Branda, marketing director for Cypress’s PSoC products. “With the tremendous growth experienced by PSoC, Cypress is moving quickly to extend the performance of the architecture to address a much wider array of markets and applications.”

Additional features
* Two-channel dedicated peripherals to implement up to 37 CapSense touch-sensing buttons with support for additional functions.
* Shift function register support.
* Variable length Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) from 8-bit to approximately 16-bit.
* I2C hardware address matching.
* Hardware Real-Time Clock.
* Dual analog bus for SAR ADC.

Cypress offers multiple kits to streamline design with the new PSoC devices. The CY3280-22x45 Universal CapSense Controller Kit offers a development board with ports for CapSense expansion modules, including the CY3280-CPM1 CapSense Plus Module.

The CPM1 board has a potentiometer, LED display and other I/Os for interaction with the core processor on the CY3280 kits—showcasing the additional functions that can be integrated with CapSense Plus. The CY3250-22x45 Pod kit allows a designer to use pods and feet to place the new PSoC devices onto development boards and perform in-development-system debugging.

The CY8C21x45 and CY8C22xxx PSoC devices are now in production. They are available in multiple configurations, and come in 44-pin TQFP and 28-pin SOIC packages. The CY3280-22x45 Universal CapSense Controller Kit is priced at US$199, the CY3280-CPM1 CapSense Plus Module is US$99, and the CY3250-22x45 Pod kit is available for US$299. The kits are all currently available from the Cypress eShop.