Renesas Electronics America announces capacitive touch evaluation kit compliant with IEC/EN 61000-4-6 standard

DESIGN West 2012, SANTA CLARA, USA: Renesas Electronics America, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced a new capacitive touch evaluation kit with the touch interface certified by TÜV Rheinland (a multi-national industry-renowned testing facility) to pass the IEC/EN 61000-4-6 standard, which defines compliance to RF-based conducted noise immunity.

The system has been designed to demonstrate the ability to pass up to 15V noise injection level over the full frequency range of 150 KHz to 230MHz for all keys. This performance surpasses the IEC/EN 61000-4-6 Level 3 specification, which goes beyond the requirements of typical consumer and industrial applications. The kit is based on Renesas’ R8C/3xT-A MCUs, the latest line-up of R8C family devices designed for capacitive touch key applications.

The R8C touch MCUs incorporate a specialized hardware block called Touch Sensor Control Unit (SCU), which handles touch scanning and processing functions completely independent from the CPU. With this solution, Renesas provides engineers with all of the demonstration, evaluation and development tools needed to get to market with robust touch key solutions for medical, home appliance, consumer and building/office automation systems requiring enhanced human-machine interfaces (HMI).

“As people desire to interact with their electronics more easily and intuitively, the use touch sensing technology in HMI is becoming prevalent in applications ranging from consumer electronics to medical devices to building automation,” said Ritesh Tyagi, senior director, MCU Products, Renesas Electronics America.

“The hardware-assisted touch capability in Renesas R8C MCUs enables efficient touch and system control in a single chip, reducing overall power consumption and system cost, and the latest noise immunity testing performed under supervision of TÜV Rheinland is a great testament to the capabilities of Renesas’ touch technology. The new kit clearly demonstrates how the SCU, optimized touch firmware and advanced tuning tool offer designers an easy-to-use solution to develop innovative and robust touch key interfaces”.