EMECH SOLUTIONS

Touch Controls Can Be Customised

Omron is offering its versatile touch-sensor technology in fully custom form, allowing the creation of rotary and linear slider controls as well as simple on-off switches. This capability further enhances the versatility of the company's already flexible touch-control technology that allows a non-conducting surface of any shape to be used as an electrical control.

Omron's B6TS capacitive touch-sensing IC has added a new dimension to the styling of upmarket home appliances and audio/video systems as well as vending machines, lift controls and security panels. The B6TS is offered in four-, eight- and 16-channel versions, with each channel being able to manage an independent control surface. Designers specifying custom designs can select different styles of control for each channel, allowing one chip to manage a combination of rotary, slider and on-off switches.

B6TS technology is easy to integrate and highly tolerant of its working environment. Features such as self-teaching, auto-threshold and intelligent filtering 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. 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 their desired sensing performance and accommodate anticipated environmental changes in the custom touch panel.

To minimise the cost of the finished system, cost-effective commercial single-sided PCB materials such as FR-2 or CEM-1 can be applied. The 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 transparent and conductive materials to create backlight touch keys for graphics and special lighting effects.

Features

• Customisable touch-sensor technology
• Capacitive technology
• Four-, eight- and 16-channel devices
• Self-teaching
• Auto-threshold
• Intelligent filtering
• Drift compensation
• EMC tolerant
• Evaluation kit

Applications

• Home appliances
• Audio/video systems
• Vending machines
• Lift controls
• Security panels

For further information, including a copy of the B6TS Family Datasheet, please click here