New Cypress CapSense Express™ Touch Sensing Solution Enables Industry’s Easiest And Fastest Button And Slider Replacement In Any System

New PSoC®-Based Solution Adds to Industry’s Broadest Offering from Touch Sensing Leader

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 2008 - Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY) today introduced the CapSense Express™ capacitive touch sensing solution for button and slider replacement. The CapSense Express solution enables designers to implement up to 10 buttons and/or sliders in as little as five minutes - with no coding. The PSoC Express™ visual embedded system design tool and CapSense Express configuration tool allow designers to monitor and tune the performance of the buttons and sliders in real time using a graphical user interface. Competing solutions require designers to program and test each adjustment, adding design time and cost.

Cypress is the worldwide leader in capacitive sensing with the industry’s broadest portfolio. Its PSoC®-based CapSense devices have implemented over 2.5 billion buttons, sliders and other touch sensing interfaces in systems worldwide. The CapSense portfolio offers unmatched flexibility and integration, addressing a broad range of designs from complex, feature-rich applications to simple button replacement. More information about the new solution is available at www.cypress.com/capsense.

“Mechanical buttons and sliders are prone to wear and tear from prolonged usage and exposure to heat, moisture and other elements.” In addition, they do not provide the clean, elegant styling preferred by today’s consumer,“ said Robert Dunnigan, vice president of Cypress’s Non-Volatile and Mixed-Signal Business Unit. ”The CapSense Express solution offers our customers an easy to use, cost-competitive solution to button replacement that enables innovative new products with the fast time-to-market needed to beat the competition"

CapSense Express Features
The CY8C201X0 and CY8C201X2 CapSense Express devices offers up to ten capacitive and/or general purpose I/Os (GPIOs), allowing design flexibility to implement combinations of buttons, sliders, and general purpose functions like LED control and interrupt outputs. For battery-powered applications, the devices offer low power consumption of just 1 mA active current and 2.6 µA in sleep mode. The new devices offer a wide operating voltage of 2.4V to 5.25V and an industrial temperature range of -40º C to +85º C. In addition, 2 Kb of Flash memory and an I2C communication interface are provided so designers can choose whether to store tuning values in Flash or load them over I2C at power-up.

Availability
The new CY8C201X0 and CY8C201X2 CapSense Express devices are available today. They are packaged in 8- and 16-pin SOIC and 16-pin QFN packages. Cypress is offering three evaluation kits for designers using the CapSense Express solution. The CY3218-CAPEXP1 kit features three CapSense buttons, three backlighting LEDs, three LEDs for status and 1 mechanical button. The CY3218-CAPEXP2 kit offers a 5-segment slider with four status LEDs and 1 Mechanical button. The CY3218-CAPEXP3 features two CapSense buttons with two status LEDs using the smallest package, the 8-pin SOIC. The kits are available from the OnLine Store at www.cypress.com and from authorized distribution partners.“ The three kits are priced at USD $44.99 each. More information is available at www.cypress.com/capsense.” Download a high-resolution image of the CapSense Express solution at www.cypress.com/go/41."
Cypress, the Cypress logo and PSoC are registered trademarks and CapSense, CapSense Express, PSoC Express and PSoC Designer are trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. All other trademarks are property of their owners.