SENSOR SOLUTIONS

Touch Sensors Enable New Generation of Human-Machine Interfaces

Capacitive touch sensing is growing in popularity as an easily implemented, flexible and reliable control interface for a wide range of applications including consumer brown and white goods and industrial control equipment. The latest offering in this field from Omron Electronic Components Business, the B6TS touch sensor IC family, is 'application ready' for any situation.

The B6TS family presents the key to designing flexible, responsive and reliable capacitive touch controls in the new generation of refrigerators, freezers and washing machines, televisions, video recorders and audio-visual equipment, as well as vending machines, lift controls and security access.



Designed to integrate easily and quickly with any capacitive touch interface, the device is highly tolerant of its working environment, with features such as self-teaching, auto threshold and intelligent filtering to simplify system design and improve performance. The B6TS compensates continuously for long term drift, to help ensure a long service life, and is designed to be tolerant of EMC interference.

In consumer electrical goods, the controls are normally designed to match the cosmetic appearance of the unit, and the B6TS offers customers a great deal of freedom to build their own circuits around the sensor chip using their own defined electrode configuration. Omron offers an Evaluation Kit called the T-SIS (Touch sensor Smart Installation System) or 'B6TWorkbench', allowing designers to experiment with user-definable settings to achieve desired sensing performance and accommodate anticipated environmental changes in the application-specific touch panel or HMI.

To minimise the cost of the finished system, cost-effective commercial single-sided PCB materials such as FR-2 or CEM-1 can be used. B6TS is suitable for use with almost all non-conducting materials such as plastic, rubber, glass, marble and wood. It can also be used with ITO (Indium-Tin-Oxide) and other clear materials to create backlight touch keys for graphics and special lighting effects.

Omron will be introducing new additions to its sensor product range in the near future.

Features

• Capacitive touch sensor
• Four- Eight- and 16-channel versions
• Application-ready sensing chip
• Integrates easily with any capacitive touch interface
• Compensates continually for long term drift - ensuring long service life
• Can be used with most non-conducting materials such as plastic, rubber, marble and wood

Applications

• Refrigerators
• Freezers
• Washing machines
• Televisions
• Video recorders
• Audio-visual equipment
• Vending machines
• Lift controls
• Security access

For further information, including the new B6TS Brochure, please click here.