Source: Silicon Micro Author: Silicon Micro
Market background
    As an important part of automotive intelligence, intelligent keys and intelligent surfaces are currently in a rapid development stage. Capacitive touch keys are more and more widely used in automotive interior surfaces by virtue of their convenience of operation and small size. For the intelligent surface of multi-channel switches such as air conditioning control panel, gear controller, seat armrest, door trim panel, roof controller, etc., more MCU pins and on-chip resources are needed, and TCAE12 series chips can well meet the needs of such applications.

    In addition, there is another category of applications such as reading lights, window control buttons, door handles, kicks, etc., need to use a small number of keys, but in terms of volume and cost requirements are higher, the market needs more optimized solutions to meet the requirements of cost and volume.

    TCAE10x series (hereinafter referred to as TCAE10) is a highly integrated, low-cost, small-size self-contained mixed-signal touch chip developed for higher cost and space requirements. In addition to adhering to the functional integration and superior performance of the TCAE12 series touch chip, the TCAE10 also further integrates the LIN transceiver and high-voltage power supply, and integrates the hardware waterproof analog module, which greatly improves the waterproof effect, reduces the overall power consumption, and further improves the signal-to-noise ratio and stability of the touch.

    TCAE10 is the only single chip solution in the world that can simultaneously achieve ultra-high integration and ultra-high touch performance. TCAE10 has achieved a comprehensive surpassing of foreign chips and declared the absolute leadership of Taisil Micro in the field of global automotive touch control chips!

Product features

    Operating voltage 5.5V~18V, support 40V throwing load voltage;
    Low power consumption deep sleep power consumption 50uA, support LIN wake up;
    Integrated high voltage LDO;
    ARM Cortex M0 core, 48MHz high frequency clock, 64 KB with ECC Flash and 4 KB SRAM;
    Integrated self-capacitance detection of 5 channels, capacitor charge and discharge frequency can be adjusted and support frequency modulation mode;
    Support analog mode shield electrode function;
    9 GPIOs, 5 of which support ADC input, including a pair of differential input channels;
    14-bit SAR ADC, 500K SPS for fast capacitance sampling;
    Support offset voltage compensation PGA, 1x-16x adjustable gain;
    Support SPI and UART serial port;
    4-channel 16-bit PWM;
    Integrated LIN transceiver physical layer;
    The data link layer conforms to LIN2.x and J2602 standards.
    LIN interface supports 115Kbps high-speed mode and 20Kbps regular mode switching;

Chip internal block diagram

Figure 1 System frame diagram

Product advantage

    Minimal peripherals save overall BOM costs
    EMC requirements are fully considered in the product design stage, and few peripheral devices are needed to meet the EMC requirements of automobiles.

Domestic industry chain single chip design to improve cost performance and reliability

    TCAE10 adopts the leading domestic industry chain mixed-signal single-wafer process to integrate high-voltage analog, embedded storage and other analog and digital peripherals into a single chip, while optimizing the chip function and performance to achieve a better balance in terms of cost and performance.

High performance self-contained capacitance detection

    The application block diagram of TCAE10 is shown in Figure 2. The simulated shielding electrode function provides good waterproof; Performance: When the Shield channel works, the waveform following the detection channel is shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4;
    Capacitor detection method based on charge balance principle provides high SNR and anti-interference performance. SNR waveform is shown in Figure 5.
    Adjustable capacitor detects charge and discharge time and frequency;
    Custom charge and discharge times and frequencies balance performance and power consumption;
    Frequency modulation mode improves external radiation;
    Analog switching mode charge and discharge reduces voltage rise and fall edge during charge and discharge, and reduces external radiation;
    Mature baseline tracking algorithm can cope with complex external environment changes;

Figure 2 Typical application of TCAE10

Figure 3. 1 detection cycle (CH1-yellow shield electrode waveform, CH2-green touch electrode waveform)

Figure 4 Shield waveform of 1 charge and discharge (CH1- yellow touch electrode waveform, CH2- green shield electrode waveform)

Figure 5 SNR high SNR

Low power consumption

    Thanks to the single-chip design of the TCAE10, the power modes between internal units can be flexibly configured to meet the power mode requirements of various application scenarios.

    In the typical application scenario, the standby power consumption of the chip can be less than 50uA in LIN wake mode, which can easily meet the requirements of almost all automakers for the power consumption of parts, and leave enough power margin for the peripheral auxiliary circuit.

High production efficiency

    Independent SWD debugging and burning interface, to meet the production line fast program burning and debugging needs.

Good LIN compatibility
    The TCAE10 LIN transceiver and data link layer is based on Tesil's proven LIN transceiver IP design, which can well meet the latest LIN compatibility requirements such as LIN2.X and SAEJ2602:2021.
Excellent EMC characteristics
    TCAE10 focuses on EMC from the chip design stage, adding necessary protection measures in power management, LDO and other circuit design, improving PSRR performance. The TCAE10 solution can easily pass the test of ISO7637, ISO16750, ISO11452, CISPR25, SAEJ2962-1 and other relevant EMC standards.
High operating ambient temperature
    The TCAE10 supports a maximum operating temperature of 150 ° C, which effectively meets the requirements of high temperature applications such as small volume and high brightness reading lamps.

Typical application scenario

Figure 6 1 or 2 reading lights

Ecology, tools and technical support
    In order to facilitate users to quickly evaluate the solution and help the project land quickly, TCAE10 EVK development board is provided for users to use, and a complete SDK development kit is provided. For details, please refer to sales@tinychip.com.cn.

【 About TSI Micro 】

    Founded in 2019 in Zhangjiang, Shanghai, Taisil Microelectronics Co., Ltd. is a leading supplier of high-performance dedicated MCU chips in China. The company focuses on the research and development of various high-performance analog-digital hybrid chips, and its products cover many fields such as automotive, medical, industrial and consumer, and have won the recognition and product introduction of many leading customers in related application fields. At present, the company has obtained the high-tech enterprise certification and the title of specialized and special new small and medium-sized enterprises.   

     Taisil Micro has carried out in-depth layout in the aspect of vehicle gauge chips, and has successfully passed the ISO26262 ASIL-D system certification and ISO9001 quality system certification of vehicle gauge functional safety, a number of products have obtained AEC-Q100 vehicle gauge chip certification, and accumulated dozens of invention patents. At present, it has formed six product series, including signal chain, battery management, power management, vehicle gauge touch control, vehicle lighting system and motor drive control, forming a matrix product lineup.

    Taishan Micro always insists on making innovative and market demand products, creating good products, simple and easy to use ecology, stable and mature vertical solutions, and strives to become the mainstay of semiconductor development in China and the backbone of entering the international semiconductor market.