OREANDA-NEWS. June 19, 2012. Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited today announced the addition of new products with touch sensor and controller functionality to its "New 8FX" family of high-performance 8-bit microcontrollers. These new products include two products from the 48-pin MB95870 Series, one product from the 32-pin MB95860 Series, and two products from the 24-pin MB95850 Series. At the initial stage, Fujitsu will begin shipping sample quantities of products in the MB95870 Series starting today.

The MB95870 Series, MB95860 Series, and MB95850 Series are being offered as low-cost, low-power microcontroller options for controlling the touch keys and touch panels used in a wide range of equipment, such as worldwide home electronics, office automation equipment, and digital equipment.

Touch sensor technology has traditionally been used in such applications as bank ATMs, automated ticket machines in train stations and restaurants, and also in office automation equipment, such as copiers and printers. In recent years, however, touch sensor technology has experienced rapid growth accompanying the spread of touch key and touch panel applications in household electronics, such as air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines. When compared to mechanical switches or resistive film touch key technology, capacitive touch key technology not only achieves smoother operation, but is also more resistant to dust, moisture, and wear. This array of features has made the capacitive method the preferred choice in touch-key technology. As the marketplace for touch key and touch panel technology expands, the demand for touch sensors and controllers that govern their operations is also increasing. Furthermore, because of this widespread expansion, there is a strong demand for the microcontrollers for such systems to be equipped with touch sensor and controller functionality.

The MB95870 Series, MB95860 Series, and MB95850 Series meet these demands. These three series offer power-efficient microcontrollers with 36KB of built-in flash memory. In addition to highly sensitive and highly reliable capacitive touch sensor and controller functionality, these microcontrollers include various timers and communications functions that are useful for general-purpose applications, as well as peripheral circuits, such as A/D converters and analog comparators. New additions will include two products from the MB95870 Series, one product from the MB95860 Series, and two products from the MB95850 Series. Samples of new products from the MB95870 Series will begin shipping today.

At the same time, samples of 24 new products in the MB95650 Series will also begin shipping in phases starting today. With 1KB of flash memory capacity in a 24-pin package, these products are also equipped with peripheral circuits, such as 12-bit high-precision A/D converters, I2C-bus interfaces, and LIN-UART. The MB95650 Series can also handle a wide range of operating voltages, with the ability to function on power supply voltages ranging from 1.8V to 5.5V.

Product Overview
Highly sensitive and highly reliable touch technology (MB95870 Series, MB95860 Series, MB95850 Series)
These three series employ Adjacent Pattern Interference Suppression (APIS™) and Automatic Impedance Calibration (AIC™) features. By enabling precise settings to be implemented in the hardware, the burden on software is reduced while also enabling operation in a variety of different environments.
In each series, the number of channels for touch sensors with controllers ranges from 5 to 12, offering an abundance of options to meet a variety of operational methods.
Embedding external components reduces number of components
Because the internal CR oscillating circuit that runs the operating clock, the low-voltage detection circuit that detects a drop in voltage, and an analog comparator with reference voltage are built into the microcontrollers, the need for an external oscillator, reset IC, and operational amplifier is eliminated, thus contributing to a reduction in external components. The CR oscillator has a precision level of ±2%.
High-performance flash memory with industry-leading re-write/read ability
The microcontrollers are embedded with industry-leading high-performance flash memory that can be re-written/read 100,000 times. Furthermore, a flash security function protects the customer's software from unauthorized external program reading.