New Universal PSoC® CapSense™ Controller Development Kit Delivers Easy Prototyping And Debugging For Designers Of Any System

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY) today introduced the Universal PSoC® CapSense™ Controller Kit, a new kit designed for easy development and debugging of any CapSense design. It includes pre-defined control circuitry and plug-in hardware, along with controller boards for both the CY8C20x34 and CY8C21x34 PSoC devices. It also offers a breadboard module and a module for implementing up to five buttons and a slider with sample overlays to encompass a wide variety of designs.

The kit works with both PSoC Designer™ and PSoC Express™, and allows for monitoring and tuning of CapSense designs via an I2C-to-USB bridge that is included in the kit. Cypress is unique in offering real-time monitoring and tuning, which can significantly reduce development cycles. The kit supports both the CapSense Successive Approximation (CSA) and Sigma-Delta (CSD) capacitive sensing methods. CSA offers outstanding interference immunity and low power consumption, making it ideal for portable consumer applications. CSD delivers flawless operation in wet conditions, and offers superb temperature response, ideal for white goods and other moisture-sensitive systems.

“The modular approach of the Universal CapSense Controller Kit provides embedded designers with a tool for testing various industrial design concepts with Cypress CapSense products,” said Steve Gerber, business unit director for Cypress’s CapSense products.

CY3280-BK1 Kit Contents:
• CY3280-20x34 and CY3280-21x34 Universal CapSense Controller Boards
• CY3280-SLM Universal CapSense Linear Slider Module
• CY3280-BBM Universal CapSense Prototyping Module
• CY3240-I2USB Board
• CY3210 MiniProg1 Programmer
• PSoC Express Installation CD
• PSoC Designer and PSoC Programmer Installation CD
• CY3280-BK1 Universal CapSense Controller Kit CD
• 1.5 mm and 3 mm Polycarbonate Overlays

Price and Availability
The kit is available today from Cypress’s On-Line store and through authorized distributors. It costs US$158. A high-resolution photo is available at www.cypress.com/go/32.

About CapSense
A single CapSense device can replace dozens of mechanical switches and controls with an elegant touch-sensitive interface, and the solution supports touch screens and proximity sensing for superior product differentiation.“ CapSense-based ”button“ and ”slider" controls are more reliable than their mechanical counterparts because they are resistant to environmental wear-and-tear from temperature change and moisture. Cypress has garnered well over 100 CapSense design wins worldwide in applications that include mobile handsets, portable media players, white goods, computers, printers and automotive, among others.

Cypress’s CapSense solution offers system designers numerous advantages over capacitive sensing products built around modules and sub-assemblies, including increased flexibility, reduced board space and lower cost. Because of the unique PSoC architecture, designers can easily integrate multiple functions (e.g., LED drivers and LCD displays), in addition to capacitive sensing. The PSoC CapSense solution also delivers benefits such as easy communications using either I2C, SPI or USB interfaces, the ability to implement both touchpad (x-y matrix) and linear slider applications with the same device, and the ability to make quick design changes using the flash-based PSoC architecture. In addition, users can complete CapSense designs quickly and easily using pre-configured and verified “user modules” within Cypress’s PSoC Designer™ 4.4 Integrated Design Environment (IDE), and experience real-time sensor tuning and monitoring with PSoC Express™ visual embedded system design tool. Learn more about CapSense online at www.cypress.com/capsense.

PSoC -- Because Change Happens
PSoC devices employ a highly configurable system-on-chip architecture for embedded control design, offering a flash-based equivalent of a field-programmable ASIC without lead-time or NRE penalties" PSoC devices integrate configurable analog and digital circuits, controlled by an on-chip microcontroller, providing both enhanced design revision capability and component count savings. They include up to 32 Kbytes of Flash memory, 2 Kbytes of SRAM, an 8x8 multiplier with 32-bit accumulator, power and sleep monitoring circuits, and hardware I2C communications.

The flexible PSoC resources allow designers to future-proof their products by enabling firmware-based changes during design, validation, production, and in the field. The unique PSoC flexibility shortens design cycle time and allows for late-breaking feature enhancements. All PSoC devices are also dynamically reconfigurable, enabling designers to morph internal resources on-the-fly, utilizing fewer components to perform a given task.

Easy to use development tools enable designers to select configurable library elements for analog functions such as amplifiers, ADCs, DACs, filters and comparators and digital functions such as timers, counters, PWMs, SPI and UARTs. The PSoC family’s analog features include rail-to-rail inputs, programmable gain amplifiers and up to 14-bit ADCs with exceptionally low noise, input leakage and voltage offset.

A single PSoC device can integrate as many as 100 peripheral functions saving customers design time, board space and power consumption while improving system quality. Customers can save as much as $10 in system costs. Learn more about PSoC products at www.cypress.com/psoc and receive free online training at www.cypress.com/psoctraining."

About Cypress
Cypress delivers high-performance, mixed-signal, programmable solutions that provide customers with rapid time-to-market and exceptional system value. Cypress offerings include the PSoC® mixed-signal array, USB controllers, general-purpose programmable clocks and memories. Cypress also offers wired and wireless connectivity solutions ranging from its WirelessUSB™ radio system-on-chip, to West Bridge™ and EZ-USB® FX2LP controllers that enhance connectivity and performance in multimedia handsets. Cypress serves numerous markets including consumer, computation, data communications, automotive, industrial, and solar power. Cypress trades on the NYSE under the ticker symbol CY. Visit Cypress online at www.cypress.com.


Cypress, the Cypress logo and PSoC are registered trademarks and CapSense and PSoC Designer are trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. All other trademarks are property of their owners.