TI intros industry’s most highly integrated piezo haptic driver

BANGALORE, INDIA: Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has introduced the most highly integrated piezo haptic driver for mobile consumer and industrial designs. The DRV8662 features an integrated 105-V boost converter, power diode, and 50-V to 200-V peak-to-peak (Vpp) fully-differential amplifier, resulting in a solution size that is 50 percent smaller than leading competitors.

The DRV8662 also lowers total solution cost by 40 percent compared to competing solutions, thanks to an efficient, transformer-less design. With the capability to drive a wide range of piezo actuator voltages and fast start-up time, the DRV8662 benefits designers creating fast, high-definition haptic designs.

“Realistic tactile feedback effects considerably enhance the overall user experience of touch-enabled consumer electronics devices,” said Steve Anderson, senior vice president of TI’s High Performance Analog business. “The integration of the DRV8662 haptics driver makes it easy to include effects like localized vibrations and frequency variations in both touch screen-input devices and those without a touch screen, from mobile phones and tablets to computer accessories, home appliances, and industrial automation consoles.”

Key features and benefits
• Piezo modules enable fast start-up time (1.5 milliseconds), thin form-factor and high bandwidth, resulting in the production of haptic effects not possible with intertial-based actuators.
• Drives piezo actuator capacitances from 50 to 680 nanofarad (nF) at 300 Hz, enabling a variety of high-resolution haptic effects, including feedback localized to specific areas of the device, as well as vibrations and pulses that change in frequency based on how the user is interacting with the device.
• Transformer-less design and wide supply range of 3.0 to 5.5-V with direct battery connection reduces solution size and cost.
• Thermal overload protection prevents damage when the device is overdriven.