New-Tech Europe Magazine | April 2019

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Renesas Electronics Launches Touch- Free UI Solutions with Capacitive Touch-Key Microcontrollers For 2D/3D Gesture Control Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, introduced two touch-free user interface (UI) solutions to simplify the design of 2D and 3D control-based applications. Based on Renesas’ capacitive sensor microcontrollers (MCUs), the new solutions support the development of UI that allows users to operate home appliances, as well as industrial and OA equipment without touching the devices. The UI solutions make it possible for appliance and equipment manufacturers to quickly develop touch-free interfaces that increase the added-value of their products in terms of both equipment convenience and design. There are a variety of situations where touch-free operation is advantageous, such as when the users’ hands are wet, when the controls are out of reach, or when it is not safe for the user to touch the controls. Renesas new touch-free UI, for example in the kitchen, users could adjust water temperature and flow rate through hand gestures near the faucets or adjust stove fan operation by holding a hand over the hood. The touch-free UI solutions allow customers to easily implement these interfaces in their embedded equipment. The reference designs are available for downloaded effective immediately. “We are pleased with the strong response to our MCU- based touch-key solutions, which are currently deployed by more than 200 Renesas customers, and we are excited to continue enabling customers with solutions that bring new capabilities and experiences to the market,” said Toru Moriya, Vice President, Home Business Division, Renesas Electronics Corporation. “The new touch-free solutions represent another step in the evolution of capacitive touch sensor systems with high sensitivity and excellent resistance to noise for operation in multiple conditions and will lead to new UIs that are more user-friendly and convenient to use both in the home and in the workplace.”

Displays for low-power devices The display specialist ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY has launched a multi-faceted EA DOG product family especially designed for low-power handheld applications. They are all operated at 3.3 V as a standard and require hardly more than 150 ~ 350 µA. The optional LED illumination is also designed for 3.3 V. The brightest white LED starts at 3 mA. The panels, which are only 2 mm thick, are currently available as text and graphic displays in 10 different sizes and five different display technologies: as transmissive, reflective or blue STN as well as positive or negative FSTN. All technologies are standard and available starting from 1 unit. The displays can be combined with six separate backlights in white, amber, blue, red, yellow/green and full colour by simply plugging them together. Owing to the compact design, an extremely flat display module with a maximum height of 5.8 mm is obtained when combined with lighting. Without any additional mounting effort, it can be soldered directly onto the circuit board with a 2.54 mm grid. The text displays are supplied with 1*8, 2*16, 4*10 (switchable to double font height 2*10) as well as 4*16 and 4*20 characters. The graphic variants are available in the resolutions 122*32, 102*64, 160*104, 240*64 and 240*128 pixels. The outer dimensions vary between 39 x 41 and 94 x 67 mm. All displays are equipped with a SPI interface, the text displays additionally have a 4-/8-bit interface and some displays can also be addressed via I²C. Thanks to integrated temperature compensation, the thermal application range of the displays covers temperatures from -20 to 70 °C. As a further special feature, individual EA DOGs support English, European and Cyrillic character sets in a single display. The displays are available in large quantities as well as small quantities at short notice. ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY guarantees a long-term availability of up to 10 years. Developers have access to an USB test board with PC

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