Microchip Introduces World's First Family of Capacitive Touchscreen Controllers Certified for Safety in the Appliance Market

     To reduce the risk of fires in the kitchen and flooding in the laundry room, the European IEC 60730 and US UL 60730 Class B specifications require safety devices to be installed on household appliances such as ovens, stoves, washers and dryers. Microchip Technology Inc. announced the release of the MaxTouch MXT336UD-MAUHA1 family of capacitive touchscreen controllers, helping designers meet functional safety requirements for touchscreen devices. This new line of products is the only touchscreen controller on the market to offer pre-certified Type B firmware and includes three controllers, the MXT112UD-MAUHA1, MXT228UD-MAUHA1 and MXT336UD-MAUHA1, each capable of meeting requirements from a 2-inch Different screen size requirements up to 8 inches.

     Class B certified touch controllers offer unique safety-related features that shut down the system via intuitive soft buttons on the touchscreen without the need for an external safety-certified stop or cancel button and associated microcontroller (MCU). This controller also allows the device to detect touchscreen or device failures and automatically shut down the device through various self-test functions. For example, if the glass on the stove is broken, the touchscreen will dim and turn off the appliance to prevent accidental damage in the home. As the number of touch-enabled home appliances continues to grow, the MXT336UD-MAUHA1 family helps OEMs reduce cost and time to market by moving required security functions to a simplified single-touch screen interface.

     Fanie Duvenhage, vice president of Microchip's Human Interface Business Unit, said: "Because household appliances can cause house fires, appliance manufacturers must add safety features to the machines they produce. Microchip's MXT336UD-MAUHA1 touchscreen controller family has achieved the required safety. Standard certification. Integrating Class B certification into our touch controllers simplifies the design and certification process for touch devices, ultimately making safety a priority while reducing costs and enabling modern user interface solutions.”

     In addition, the new series adopts a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) design and a self-developed differential mutual acquisition scheme, which enables the machine to reliably detect and track multiple fingers with slippery, wet or oily surfaces, even if the user wears Wearing gloves is not affected.