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December 11, 2013

Texas Instruments introduces the industry’s most flexible haptics and capacitive touch combo solution enabling “Haptics for Everyone”

DALLAS (Dec. 10, 2013) – Expanding its broad portfolio of capacitive touch solutions, Texas Instruments (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) today announced the industry’s most flexible haptics and capacitive touch combo solution on one chip. The new MSP430TCH5E haptics-enabled microcontrollers allow users to add vibrational feedback to all capacitive touch buttons, sliders and wheels on mobile computing and gaming devices, smart TV remotes, cameras, printers, industrial control panels, point-of-sale terminals and toys. Featuring a license for Immersion TouchSense® 2200 software, MSP430TCH5E MCUs allow developers to easily add and tune 122 different haptics effects, including effect chaining and audio-to-haptics functionalities. TI collaborated with Immersion to provide the industry’s leading haptic technology as an object code that can be integrated with other applications like capacitive touch.

The new MSP430TCH5E MCUs can be further configured with TI’s open source MSP430™ Capacitive Touch Software Library.Developers can also leverage the new PC-based MSP430 Capacitive Touch Pro graphical user interface (GUI) tool to evaluate, diagnose and tune capacitive touch button, slider and wheel designs in real time. It features user-configurable ranging, recording and printing options.

To help developers quickly add haptics to their designs, Element14 has created the HapTouch™ BoosterPack that combines MSP430TCH5E haptics MCUs and TI’s DRV2603 haptic driver into a familiar game controller form factor. The new BoosterPack can be plugged into TI’sMSP430 Value Line LaunchPad evaluation kit to demonstrate the ease of configuring capacitive touch buttons that provide audio-to-haptics feedback. The new BoosterPack is ideal for a wide range of professional engineering, hobbyist and university projects and is available immediately from Element14. A fully programmable software development kit (SDK) is also provided.

Features and benefits of TI’s new flexible haptics technology:

  • Includes a license to industry-leading Immersion TouchSense 2200 haptic software.
  • More than 120 different haptic effects for various button, alert and gesturing effects, including advanced features like audio-to-haptics and effect chaining.
  • Access to HAPTOUCH software development kit (SDK) for custom HMI development.
  • Supports both Linear Resonant Actuators (LRA) and Eccentric Rotating Machine (ERM) actuators for increased haptic design flexibility.
  • Easy-to implement reference design available with TI’s DRV2603 haptic driver for optimized actuator drive and MSP430TCH5E MCUs helps developers experiment and get products to market quickly. 

Pricing and availability:

The new MSP430TCH5E MCUs are available immediately for $1.25 USD in 1K units. The HapTouch BoosterPack is available exclusively from Element14 for $25.00 USD.

Find out more about TI’s capacitive touch and haptics solutions and support:

Innovation is at the core of TI MCUs

Beginning with the foundation of leading process technology and adding unique system architecture, intellectual property and real-world system expertise, TI continues its 20+ years of MCU innovation with ultra-low-power MSP MCUs, real-time control C2000™ MCUs, Tiva™ ARM® MCUs and Hercules™ safety MCUs.  Designers can accelerate time to market with TI’s ecosystem of tools, software, wireless connectivity solutions, extensive Design Network offerings and technical support.

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is a global semiconductor design and manufacturing company that develops analog ICs and embedded processors. By employing the world’s brightest minds, TI creates innovations that shape the future of technology. TI is helping more than 100,000 customers transform the future, today. Learn more at www.ti.com.

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