Cypress TrueTouch touchscreen solution selected for two new SoftBank mobile phones

BANGALORE, INDIA: Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: CY) today announced that the TrueTouch touchscreen solution from Cypress has been selected to implement the touchscreen for two new SoftBank Mobile Corp. phones manufactured by Sharp Communication Systems Group.

The new SoftBank 941SH model and the SoftBank 940SH phone join the previous generation SoftBank 931SH model as SoftBank phones with TrueTouch touchscreens. The phones utilize the TrueTouch solution to deliver intuitive multi-touch capability, allowing gestures such as tap, double-tap, pan, pinch, scroll, rotate and others.

The SoftBank 941SH phone offers the world’s first 4-inch touchscreen that delivers “half-XGA” (1024 x 480) resolution, offering a brilliant, easy-to-navigate display. The phone features up to 54 Mbps high-speed communication for PC-like connectivity, and includes an 8-megapixel camera.

The SoftBank 940SH phone offers a 3.4-inch full wide VGA liquid crystal display, and includes a high-performance 12.1-megapixel camera. Both phones offer one-segment digital TV and GPS, and also integrate Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

“The dazzling display of the SoftBank 941SH is an excellent showcase for the sophisticated, user-friendly multi-touch gestures of our TrueTouch touchscreen solution,” said Norm Taffe, executive vice president of Cypress’s Consumer and Computation Division.

“We look for continued success in the next-generation phones of our customers leveraging our established multi-touch all-point technology, and will continue to develop innovative features to help them enrich the end-user’s experience.”

Cypress’s TrueTouch family, based on the PSoC architecture, includes single-touch, multi-touch and “multi-touch all-point” offerings. Cypress was the first company to introduce multi-touch all-point functionality, which can track up to 10 simultaneous touches. This capability enables designers to create new usage models for products such as mobile handsets, portable media players (PMPs), GPS systems and other products, and has been in mass production since 2008.

TrueTouch is the industry’s most flexible touchscreen solution, as the unique PSoC architecture allows designers to implement differentiated features and make last-minute design iterations without board changes.

Cypress recently announced its next-generation high performance TMA300 multi-touch all-point family. This controller provides best-in-class scan times for true multi-finger touch and superior signal-to-noise ratio for the most demanding touchscreen applications.

“The brilliant display and touchscreen combination of the SoftBank 941SH phone is due in part to Cypress allowing customers to select sensors and LCDs from their vendors of choice,” said Hitoshi Yoshizawa, Japan country manager for Cypress. “This flexible business model, along with excellent local support, is helping to establish the TrueTouch solution as the top choice for touchscreen phones in Japan.”

The flexibility of the TrueTouch solution allows customers to rapidly develop leading-edge solutions without having to buy turnkey modules. They have a choice of using touch sensors (glass or film) and LCDs from preferred partners, and can develop innovative mechanical designs ranging from flat to curved surfaces of varying thickness.

In addition, TrueTouch devices offer Cypress’s legendary noise immunity with patented capacitive sensing technology that enables flawless operation in noisy RF and LCD environments.