Nuvoton Microcontroller Touch Key Platform

High Performance, Low Power Consumption: The Great Choice for Touch Key Solutions 

Hsinchu, Taiwan - 24 January 2025 - With the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart home applications, touch key technology has become crucial for human-machine interfaces. Nuvoton’s NuMicro® microcontroller series, equipped with capacitive touch key technology, provides a touch experience with waterproof, noise-resistant, and high-sensitivity features, bringing innovative solutions to various applications. This press release will cover more product series and technical details, comprehensively demonstrating the advantages of NuMicro® microcontrollers in touch applications. 

Advantages of Touch Key Technology

• Superior Waterproof and Noise Immunity: Ensures stable and reliable operation even in humid or electromagnetically noisy environments. For example, the capacitive touch keys of the M256 and M258 series can withstand a 2mm water droplet depth and pass the dynamic CS 10V test.
• High Sensitivity and Accuracy: Ensures users can efficiently operate various devices, providing a smooth user experience.
• Multi-channel Support: NuMicro® microcontrollers offer multi-channel touch key support. For instance, the M2L31 series supports 16 touch channels, the M258 series up to 24 touch channels, and the ML56 series supports up to 14 touch keys.
• Low Power Consumption Design: Supports touch wake-up function, which can wake up the MCU through touch keys, effectively reducing system power consumption and extending battery life.
• Wide Range of Applications: Touch key technology is not only suitable for home appliance products such as smart thermostats, washing machines, and microwave ovens, but also for industrial control, medical equipment, battery management systems, PC accessories, and smart toys. 

Features of NuMicro® Microcontroller Touch Keys

• M2L31 Series:
  • Supports up to 16 touch keys with programmable sensitivity levels.
  • Features ReRAM non-volatile memory and low power consumption of 66 μA/MHz in run mode.
  • Equipped with CAN FD and Type-C PD functions.
• M254/M256/M258 Series:
  • Integrated 8 COM x 44 SEG (352) LCD driver and up to 24 capacitive touch keys with waterproof and noise-resistant capabilities.
  • The M258 series includes a crystal-less USB FS device that supports BC 1.2 for convenient fast charging.
  • The M258 series has a normal mode power consumption of less than 110 μA/MHz and a deep power-down mode consumption of less than 1.6 μA.
• ML56 Series:
  • Features an 8 COM x 28 SEG LCD driver and up to 14 capacitive touch keys, passing the CS 10V dynamic test.
  • Includes 12-bit ADC and PWM functions, suitable for various applications.
  • The touch keys in this series can serve as a wake-up source to interrupt the MCU.

• Touch Wake-up Function: Some NuMicro® microcontrollers support touch wake-up, allowing the MCU to be awakened by touch keys, effectively reducing power consumption.
• LCD Charge Pump: The LCD drivers in NuMicro® microcontrollers support a charge pump mode, maintaining the clarity of the LCD display even when the battery level drops. This patented technology ensures that the LCD display remains clear even when battery power is insufficient. 

Complete Development Tools and Support

Nuvoton provides complete development tools and resources to assist engineers in quickly developing touch key applications.

• NuSenadj GUI Tool: Used for the development and calibration of touch key systems, allowing adjustment of touch system parameters, calibration of touch systems, and confirmation of touch key performance.
• TouchView Development Tool: Provides functions for adjusting touch key parameters, calibration, performance confirmation, and parameter export.
• LCDView Development Tool: Used for the development of LCD displays.
• Touch Key Sample Code and Libraries: Provides application programming interfaces (APIs) to generate touch key calibration data and check touch key status, reducing application complexity.
• Development Platforms: Includes NuEclipse IDE, Keil MDK, and IAR EWARM.
• Online Resources: Provides documents, datasheets, sample code, and development videos.
• Development Boards and Debugging Tools: Offers a variety of evaluation boards, debuggers, and programmers for convenient development.
• Code Generator Tool Kit: Helps to generate code quickly. 

Application Examples

NuMicro® microcontrollers with touch key features are widely used in various products.

• Smart Home Appliances: Such as smart thermostats, washing machines, microwave ovens, refrigerators, smart toilets, and others that provide convenient human-machine interfaces.
• Industrial Control: Used in industrial instruments, human-machine interfaces (HMI), and other applications, ensuring operational accuracy.
• Handheld Devices: Touch keys can be used to control function menus and adjust parameters in handheld measuring instruments, electronic scales, GPS trackers, etc.
• Smart Home: Such as smart locks, smart lighting control, smart irrigation controllers, etc., provide convenient and quick operational experiences.
• Medical Equipment: Such as oximeters. 

Conclusion

Nuvoton’s NuMicro® microcontroller series, equipped with touch key functionality, creates more possibilities for smart applications through its complete development tools and broad application support. Whether for consumer electronics or industrial control systems, NuMicro® microcontrollers can provide reliable, sensitive, and easy-to-use touch solutions. Nuvoton is committed to providing more innovative technologies to meet the ever-growing market demands. 

About Nuvoton Technology

Nuvoton Technology Corporation (Nuvoton) was founded to bring innovative semiconductor solutions to the market. Nuvoton was spun-off as a Winbond Electronics affiliate in July 2008 and went public in September 2010 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE). Nuvoton focuses on the developments of microcontroller/audio, cloud security, battery monitoring, component, visual sensing and IoT with security ICs and has strong market share in Industrial, Automotive, Communication, Consumer and Computer markets. Nuvoton owns 6-inch wafer fabs equipped with diversified processing technologies to provide professional wafer foundry services. Nuvoton provides products with a high performance/cost ratio for its customers by leveraging flexible technology, advanced design capability, and integration of digital and analog technologies. Nuvoton values long term relationships with its partners and customers and is dedicated to continuous innovation of its products, processes, and services. Nuvoton has established subsidiaries in the USA, China, Israel, India, Singapore, Korea, Japan and Germany to strengthen regional customer support and global management. For more information, please visit https://www.nuvoton.com

*Note: Nuvoton and NuMicro are registered trademarks of Nuvoton Technology Corporation. All other trademarks and copyrights mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Nuvoton Media Contact
Carol Chang
Microcontroller Digital Marketing Director
+886-3-5770066 ext. 23123
YHChang8@nuvoton.com