company blog about Supply Silicon Labs Interface Development Board:Capacitive Touch Controller,Ethernet Controller,LCD Controller

Supply Silicon Labs Interface Development Board:Capacitive Touch Controller,Ethernet Controller,LCD Controller

Shenzhen Mingjiada Electronics Co., Ltd. is a leading authorised independent distributor of electronic components, specialising in providing comprehensive electronic component solutions ranging from high-end chips to basic components for various industries.

Main products: Integrated circuits (ICs), 5G chips, new energy ICs, IoT chips, Bluetooth chips, automotive chips, AI ICs, Ethernet ICs, memory chips, sensors, IGBT modules, etc.

Supply Advantages and Service Guarantees

Genuine Product Guarantee: All products are procured through official channels, ensuring 100% genuine products that meet design specifications for performance and reliability.

Global Inventory Network: The company maintains over 2 million inventory SKUs, with warehousing centres in Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and other locations, enabling rapid shipment within 48 hours to meet urgent customer needs.

Price Competitiveness: Through large-scale procurement and supply chain optimisation, we offer prices below market rates. Strategic partners can also enjoy quarterly/annual price lock-in services.

Flexible Procurement Models: We support various procurement needs, from small-batch sample purchases to large-volume orders, making us particularly suitable for project validation during the R&D phase and stable supply during mass production.

I. Capacitive Touch Controllers: Enabling Intuitive, Reliable Touch Interaction

Capacitive touch technology has become the mainstream solution for replacing mechanical buttons due to its aesthetic appeal, durability, and flexibility. Silicon Labs' solutions primarily fall into two categories: highly integrated dedicated touch controllers and microcontrollers (MCUs) with powerful built-in touch sensing capabilities.

1. Dedicated Touch Controllers (TouchXpress Series): Rapid Integration, No Programming Required

The TouchXpress series is ideal for designs requiring swift touch functionality without deep embedded firmware development. Represented by the CPT112S and CPT007B, these controllers offer highly optimised, ready-to-use solutions.

Core Features: This series supports up to seven capacitive sensor inputs, integrating a post-sampling touch determination engine, capacitive proximity sensing, and touch timeout timers—all within an extremely compact 3x3 mm QFN package.

Development Advantages: Its standout feature is the complete absence of firmware programming. Developers configure touch-sensing parameters via a simple graphical user interface (GUI) configuration tool, storing settings in the controller's non-volatile memory. This represents the swiftest approach for adding touch buttons or sliders to existing designs.

2. Touch-Sensitive MCUs: Balancing High Integration with Flexibility

For more complex applications requiring deep integration of touch sensing with other control logic, Silicon Labs offers MCUs incorporating built-in capacitive-to-digital converters (CDC).

Technical Principle: These MCUs (such as the earlier C8051F7xx/F8xx series and the modern EFM8 Sleepy Bee series) feature dedicated internal CDC modules. It charges the sensor capacitance via a controlled current source, compares it against an internal reference capacitance, and utilises a high-precision SAR-ADC (12-16 bit resolution) to convert minute capacitance changes into digital values, thereby achieving high signal-to-noise ratio and rapid touch detection.

Representative model: The EFM8SB10F8G is a typical example. As an 8-bit MCU, it integrates up to 14 capacitive touch channels alongside rich peripherals including a 12-bit ADC, UART, and I2C. It maintains touch scanning even in ultra-low power modes, making it highly suitable for battery-powered portable devices.

II. Ethernet Controllers (CP220x): Infusing Network Vitality into Embedded Devices

In the era of ubiquitous connectivity, adding Ethernet connectivity to embedded devices is pivotal for enabling remote management and data exchange. Silicon Labs' CP220x series represents a classic standalone monolithic Ethernet controller solution.

Core Product Advantages

The CP220x controllers fully integrate an IEEE 802.3-compliant 10Base-T Ethernet Media Access Controller (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) within a compact 5x5 mm package, embodying a true ‘network-on-a-chip’ solution.

High Integration: The chip incorporates 8kB of flash memory, usable for storing web server content, user constants, or as general-purpose non-volatile storage, reducing the need for external components.

High-Performance Interface: Provides a high-speed parallel external memory interface operating at up to 30 Mbps, significantly reducing communication time and enhancing system responsiveness.

Industrial-Grade Reliability: Supports operation within the industrial temperature range of -40°C to +85°C, with excellent power consumption control at just 70 mA operating current. Features auto-negotiation functionality to ensure stable network connectivity.

III. LCD Controller (CP240x): An Ultra-Low-Power Solution for Display Driving

Many embedded devices require liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for information output, yet driving segmented LCDs directly from the main MCU often consumes high power and occupies numerous I/O ports. Silicon Labs' CP240x series LCD controllers are specifically designed to address this challenge.

Key Features and Benefits

As dedicated display driver coprocessors, CP240x controllers substantially reduce the load on the main MCU while optimising system power consumption.

Robust Drive Capability: Supports control of LCD displays with up to 128 segments (48-pin package) or 64 segments (32-pin package), while freeing up to 36 general-purpose GPIO pins for other system functions.

Ultra-Low Power Consumption: The design's core lies in its ultra-low power mode. In this state, the controller maintains LCD display content while typically consuming less than 1.7 µA of operating current. This is crucial for battery-powered products requiring long-term operation, such as water meters, gas meters, thermostats, and medical devices.

Flexible interfaces and memory: Communication with the host is facilitated via either a 4-wire high-speed SPI interface (up to 2.5 Mbps) or a 2-wire I²C interface (up to 400 kHz). The controller incorporates a universal RAM extension accessible to the host controller, significantly enhancing system design flexibility.