Atmel ramps maXTouch for large touchscreens

SAN JOSE, USA: Atmel Corp., a leader in MCU and touch solutions, is shipping production quantities of the Atmel maXTouch mXT1386 and mXT616 chipsets for large touchscreens up to 15 inches.

Atmel maXTouch technology has established a leading position in one of the fastest growing markets in the entire semiconductor industry. The new mXT1386/mXT616 chipsets are the newest members of the maXTouch family and will power a number of upcoming touch devices including tablet PCs, smartbooks, mobile Internet devices (MIDs), Netbooks, PC notebooks and a range of industrial applications.

Atmel mXT1386/mXT616 chipsets offer industry-best multi-touch with unlimited touch capability; lowest power consumption; fastest response time; and the highest signal-to-noise ratio to detect the most sensitive touches with a finger nail, stylus and a user with gloves on his hands.

These chipsets also reject unintended touches including grip and palm rejection to enable an easy-to-use, intuitive and seamless touch experience for the user. Atmel mXT1386/mXT616 chipsets enable enhanced gestures, faster response times and the highest touch performance for the best accuracy, linearity and repeatability.

"The tablet market represents one of the fastest growing opportunities for touch screen controllers in today's market," said Rhoda Alexander, director, Monitor Research, IHS iSuppli.

"The next generation of touch tablets will incorporate significantly faster response times, greater touch accuracy, and the ability to differentiate between intentional and unintentional touches. Users will be able to move beyond the current two-touch approach to applications incorporating ten touches and more, opening the door to a wealth of new application possibilities."

A complete solution is available for the Atmel mXT1386/mXT616 maXTouch chipsets based on a variety of ITO partners, LCD suppliers and touch module vendors. These partners offer an open eco-system for innovative product development and provide system designers more choices to develop touch functionality in their touchscreen devices.

Atmel maXTouch technologies also include software drivers with a number of operating systems including Android, Linux, Microsoft Windows and webOS. The Atmel mXT1386 has also received the "Compatible with Windows 7" logo for over 10 multi-touches on a 10.1 inch maXTouch technology touchscreen device.

"Atmel maXTouch is already powering the most advanced, intuitive smartphones in the market," said Binay Bajaj, senior product marketing manager, touch products, Atmel.

"Atmel maXTouch mXT1386 and mXT616 chipsets will power an avalanche of tablets—and other touch products—coming to the market in 2011 and beyond. We are excited to enable the general market to develop products with touchscreens up to 15 inches with production availability of our maXTouch products."