标签: cypress

I just received an email from a reader, Betajet, posing an interesting problem:   Hey Max, if a major semiconductor company offered a 32-bit development board for $4.00, you'd think that was pretty big news, right? Well, by happenstance, two days ago I discovered these CY8CKIT-049 4xxx Prototyping Kits for the PSoC 4 from Cypress Semiconductor. The PSoC 4 is a nice little chip, and previously the cheapest development board was the $25 PSoC 4 Pioneer Kit. Take a look at these $4 boards: they have a break-away USB serial interface for programming and DIP I/O holes for use in a breadboard. These have got to cost a lot more than $4.00 to make and distribute, so clearly Cypress is losing money on the board to try to get more people to check out the PSoC 4. So here's my question: why is such an obviously nifty board getting virtually no publicity? The Cypress documentation has been around since at least February and it's well stocked at Mouser and Digi-Key. A puzzle. Seems like a nice little board. Thought you'd be interested.   Well, I must admit to being intrigued. Betajet poses an interesting question. Why is an obviously nifty board getting virtually no publicity? Maybe it's a conspiracy. Hang on. Since I haven't reported about this before, maybe I am part of that conspiracy.   Of course, there is a simpler explanation, which is the fact that no one told me about such a board. As Betajet says, he ran across this board by accident, and he's very knowledgeable about... well, just about everything, now that I think about it.   The PSoC 4 is a very clever little device that boasts a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0 processor core running at up to 48 MHz, up to 32 kB of flash and 4 kB of SRAM, programmable analog and programmable digital fabric, and CapSense Touch Sensing technology.   Off the top of my head, I don't recall seeing anything like this snap-off USB connector. My understanding is that you can program and reprogram the device using your PC; then, when you are ready to rock and roll, you can snap off the programming end and embed the business end of the stick in your product.   At only $4, these are an incredible bargain, and we all need to snap some of these up while the snapping is good.

In a recent product introduction , Cypress Semiconductor mentions a new approach to mobile touch sensor technology, called metal mesh. It said the company is partnering with FujiFilms to bring this technology to a wider range of smartphones as an alternative to traditional indium tin oxide (ITO) and aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO) displays. I have been keeping an eye on the display market and I noticed recently a couple of trends recently that seem to me required something other that AZO and ITO based designs. One is the trend towards larger displays in traditional mobiles and tablets and the other was a shift to "up close and personal" wearable electronics. Both will need more flexible display substrates that are less prone to cracking in the case of large screen mobiles and are more flexible and bendable for wearable devices. Talking to Vikas Dhurka, product marketing director for TrueTouch touchscreen solutions at Cypress, I found out that they had spotted the same trends and think that FujiFilm's metal mesh technology is a very promising way to address both issues in a potentially very large market. According to Jennifer Colegrove, Ph.D., president of Touch Display Research Inc., the potential market for flexible and curved displays in which metal mesh would play is estimated to grow from less than 1% market share this year to $27 Billion and 16% market share of global display revenue by 2023 ( figure ).   Figure. Market for up close and personal flexible and curved displays. (Source: Touch Display Research, Flexible and Curved Display Technologies and Market Forecast Report, September 2013) Durkas said metal mesh displays are built using thousands of copper wires, each smaller in diameter than a strand of human hair and offer greater flexibility. In traditional consumer electronics devices, he said, shifting from the traditional indium tin oxide (ITO) based screens to ones based on metal meshes made of copper would not only make them cheaper to produce but make them more noise immune and easier to manufacture. "ITO is an etching process that is expensive, while metal meshes are laid down in a process similar to that of a semiconductor device in a layered fashion," said Dhurka. Based on its assessment of the technology, Cypress Semiconductor has expanded its TrueTouch capacitive touchscreen controller family to include support for metal mesh sensors technology from Fujifilm as an alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO) and aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO). Among the reasons for the shift, he said, is that because the metal mesh sensors are copper based they face less resistance in sending signals out to the electronics than existing multi-element based compound materials, making possible brighter and more easily readable displays. But what made Cypress sit up and take notice is that unlike ITO or AZO, metal mesh sensors are bendable, which will be a requirement for many of the personal wearable electronic things that are considering for the next generation of consumer electronics. "ITO is prone to cracking as standard smartphone and tablet screens get larger," said Dhurka, "and in the more curved flexible screen wearable designs that are being considered it is not a viable alternative." But beyond the bendable features, an advantage of metal mesh is that it will allow mobile makers to build lower cost phones with capacitive touch technology. The technology also improves touchscreen sensitivity and delivers robust noise immunity. Because the mesh consists of almost invisible copper wiring with the diameter of a hair, a display built using it is much more transparent than one built with ITO. Unlike ITO, a display fabricated with hair-thin ( 4 micron diameter ) copper wiring can be very dense before transparency is affected, allowing the incorporation of additional electrical redundancy which improves yields and lowers cost. According to Dr. Colegrove, metal mesh-based touch displays will make possible the creation of next generation of aesthetically pleasing wearable devices and things that because they are bendable can be contoured to the curves of human body. "Flexible and curved displays are more ergonomic for the wrist," she said, "and larger-sized flexible displays could fit better and show more information." Cypress is offering the CY3290-TMA500 and CYTK58 TrueTouch Evaluation Kits for developers who want to design their next UI-based products with Fujifilm metal mesh sensors. But Cypress and FujiFilm are not alone in going after this new consumer and mobile display technology. Metal mesh has started shipping in a couple of nextgen touchscreen-based smart phones. And competitors to FujiFilm such as MNTech in Korea and Unipexel are shipping metal mesh to their customers. Also, Atmel has partnered with CIT in the United Kingdom and as of late last year shipped its metal-mesh based XSense line of flexible touch sensors for use in a smartphone and a seven inch display Tablet. Several companies in China are also shipping.  

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is ubiquitous. What if you were given an option to just carry a USB cable, as against a bunch of power adapters to charge your tablet, ultrabook and smartphone? Sounds too good to be true, right?   In August 2012 USB Implementers Forum (the governing body for USB Standard) released a specification—USB Power Delivery (USB PD) that will allow up to 100W of power to be delivered over USB’s power pin!   The new standard (USB PD) allows interconnected devices to negotiate power requirements, and allows devices with abundant power to share it with other devices in the network. Devices like monitors, docking stations, printers and PD-enabled power adapters will source power through their USB ports. Gone will be the days when your power adapter had a custom barrel plug for a dedicated notebook! The power adapters of the future will sport USB ports to charge your devices, including notebooks.   Industry leaders have started working on these lines and come 2014 will see your device’s USB ports supplying higher levels of power. The new standard will co-exist with existing USB eco-system and work equally well with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0.    - Subramanyam Sankaran, Director, USB 2.0 Business Unit, Data Communication Division, Cypress Semiconductor   Subramanyam SankaranIn his current role, Subramanyam Sankaran manages USB 2.0 business for the worldwide market. Subramanyam has been associated with the semiconductor industry for 17 years and has been involved with USB for 14.   Subramanyam has previously worked with Philips/NXP Semiconductors, ST-Ericssion and Maxim in various marketing and engineering management roles.   Subramanyam received his management degree from University of Phoenix and his undergraduate degree in electronics and communication engineering from Bangalore University.

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is ubiquitous. What if you were given an option to just carry a USB cable, as against a bunch of power adapters to charge your tablet, ultrabook and smartphone? Sounds too good to be true, right?   In August 2012 USB Implementers Forum (the governing body for USB Standard) released a specification—USB Power Delivery (USB PD) that will allow up to 100W of power to be delivered over USB’s power pin!   The new standard (USB PD) allows interconnected devices to negotiate power requirements, and allows devices with abundant power to share it with other devices in the network. Devices like monitors, docking stations, printers and PD-enabled power adapters will source power through their USB ports. Gone will be the days when your power adapter had a custom barrel plug for a dedicated notebook! The power adapters of the future will sport USB ports to charge your devices, including notebooks.   Industry leaders have started working on these lines and come 2014 will see your device’s USB ports supplying higher levels of power. The new standard will co-exist with existing USB eco-system and work equally well with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0.   - Subramanyam Sankaran, Director, USB 2.0 Business Unit, Data Communication Division, Cypress Semiconductor In his current role, Subramanyam Sankaran manages USB 2.0 business for the worldwide market. Subramanyam has been associated with the semiconductor industry for 17 years and has been involved with USB for 14.   Subramanyam has previously worked with Philips/NXP Semiconductors, ST-Ericssion and Maxim in various marketing and engineering management roles.   Subramanyam received his management degree from University of Phoenix and his undergraduate degree in electronics and communication engineering from Bangalore University.

  产品描述 l 支持2.8" - 12.1"的触控面板 l 真实多点触控，多达10点 l 采用跳频技术，超强抗RF干扰能力 l 优异防水、防静电特性 l 高信噪比：≥ 150 l 高线性度：≤ ±1mm l 高解析度：≥ 100 DPI l 低功耗 l 适用于多种类型（如Glass、Film等）的触摸屏 l 环境自适应校正 l 内置MCU，Flash l 支持I2C，SPI接口 l 通道 28Tx/ 16Rx     INTRODUCTION  The FT5x06 Series ICs are single-chip capacitive touch panel controller ICs with a built-in 8 bit Micro-controller unit (MCU).They  adopt the mutual capacitance approach, which supports true multi-touch capability. In conjunction with a mutual capacitive touch  panel, the FT5x06 have user-friendly input functions, which can be applied on many portable devices, such as cellular phones, MIDs,  netbook and notebook personal computers.  The FT5x06 series ICs include FT5206/FT5306/FT5406, the difference of their specifications will be listed individually in this  datasheet. FEATURES   Mutual Capacitive Sensing Techniques   True Multi-touch with up to 10 Points of Absolution X and  Y Coordinates   Immune to RF Interferences   Auto-calibration: Insensitive to Capacitance and Environ- mental Variations   Supports up to 28 Transmit Lines and 16 Receive Lines   Supports up to 12.1” Touch Screen    Full Programmable Scan Sequences with Individual Ad- justable Receive Lines and Transmit Lines to Support  Various Applications   High Report Rate: More than 100Hz   Touch Resolution of 100 Dots per Inch (dpi) or above --  depending on the Panel Size   Optional Interfaces :I2C/SPI   2.7V to 3.6V Operating Voltage   Supports 1.8V/AVDD IOVCC       Capable of Driving Single Channel (transmit/receive) Re- sistance: Up to15K    Capable of Supporting Single Channel (transmit/receive)  Capacitance: 60 pF   Optimal Sensing Mutual Capacitor: 1pF~4pF   12-Bit ADC Accuracy   Built-in MCU with 28KB Program Memory, 6KB Data  Memory and 256B Internal Data Space   11 Internal Interrupt Sources and 2 External Interrupt  Sources   3 Operating Modes   Active   Monitor   Hibernate   Operating Temperature Range: -20°C to +85°C