New Cypress kits showcase simplicity of LCD segment drive design with flexible new PSoC 3 architecture

SAN JOSE, USA: Cypress Semiconductor Corp. has introduced two evaluation kits showing the ease-of-use, fast development time and flexibility of its new PSoC 3 architecture for LCD segment drive applications.

The new CY8CKIT-006 PSoC 3 LCD Segment Drive Evaluation Kit and the CY8CKIT-029 PSoC LCD Segment Drive Expansion Board Kit demonstrate how a single PSoC 3 device can drive up to 736 LCD segments, more than any microcontroller-based solution.

With the kits, designers can leverage the drag-and-drop LCD Drive component in the PSoC Creator Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to quickly and easily design products with an LCD screen for the consumer electronics, handheld, medical, industrial, white goods, automotive and other markets.

Currently, design of LCD segments requires hundreds of lines of complex code to define a screen’s segment intersections. The set-up wizard in the PSoC Creator IDE now enables designers to visually map these intersections in an intuitive drag-and-drop style. The tool then provides the power to manually configure LCD pin locations or automatically routes all on-chip signals and can even direct I/O to the optimum pins if desired.

The PSoC Creator IDE also provides all of the APIs required to write to the LCD screen instead of requiring designers to create them. The complete PSoC 3 platform significantly cuts development time for LCD applications.

The new PSoC 3 architecture delivers unparalleled flexibility for LCD Drive applications with up to 16 common pins, versus only four or eight for MCU-based solutions. This reduces the number of I/Os required for an LCD screen, freeing up pins for more peripheral integration and providing the option for smaller packages.

The architecture allows any GPIO to be set as an LCD pin for simplified routing, requiring fewer PCB layers. PSoC 3 devices offer software contrast control, eliminating the need for an external potentiometer.

The devices integrate internal voltage generation requiring no external resistors or capacitors, and can drive an LCD screen with a battery voltage as low as 0.5V, enabling operation from a single solar cell.

“The combination of our revolutionary new PSoC 3 architecture and PSoC Creator software offers the easiest-to-use and most flexible LCD drive system on the market,” said Matt Branda, director of marketing for PSoC products at Cypress. “The new development kits show designers how to easily implement LCD segment displays, with no external components needed, enabling fast time to market via the PSoC Creator software set-up wizard.”

PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 devices extend the world’s only programmable analog and digital embedded design platform, delivering unmatched time-to-market, integration, and flexibility across 8-, 16-, and 32-bit applications.

The platform is powered by the revolutionary PSoC Creator IDE, which introduces a unique schematic-based design methodology along with fully tested, pre-packaged analog and digital peripherals easily customizable through user-intuitive wizards and APIs to meet specific design requirements.

The PSoC 3 LCD Segment Drive Evaluation Kit contains:
* PSoC 3 LCD Segment Drive Evaluation Board
* 9V Battery
* 12V Wall Power Supply
* MiniProg3 Programmer/Debugger
* USB Cable (to connect MiniProg3 to the PC)
* Kit Stand
* Quick Start Guide
* Kit CD, which includes: PSoC Creator, PSoC Programmer, Projects and Documentation.

The PSoC LCD Segment Drive Expansion Board Kit includes an expansion board with an LCD screen that plugs into the development board of the PSoC Development Kit (CY8CKIT-001) for simplified testing of LCD design functionality. The kit features battery meter and stopwatch example projects on a 7- and 14-segment multi-function display.

The CY8CKIT-006 PSoC 3 LCD Segment Drive Evaluation Kit is priced at $149 and the CY8CKIT-029 PSoC LCD Segment Drive Expansion Board Kit is $59.