SNOA951 June   2016 LDC1312 , LDC1312-Q1 , LDC1314 , LDC1314-Q1 , LDC1612 , LDC1612-Q1 , LDC1614 , LDC1614-Q1

 

  1.   Inductive Sensing Touch-On-Metal Buttons Design Guide
    1.     Trademarks
    2. 1 ToM Basics
    3. 2 How Are Inductive Touch-On-Metal Buttons Implemented?
    4. 3 System Design Procedure
      1. 3.1 Mechanical System Design
        1. 3.1.1 Designing for Natural Button Force
          1. 3.1.1.1 Metal Composition
          2. 3.1.1.2 Metal Thickness
          3. 3.1.1.3 Mechanical Structure of the Button
        2. 3.1.2 Target Distance
        3. 3.1.3 Mechanical Isolation
        4. 3.1.4 Mounting Techniques
      2. 3.2 Sensor Design
        1. 3.2.1 PCB Design
        2. 3.2.2 Sensor Frequency Selection
        3. 3.2.3 Sensor Amplitude Selection
      3. 3.3 Other Considerations
        1. 3.3.1 Button Quantity and Multiplexing
        2. 3.3.2 Power Consumption
        3. 3.3.3 Software Algorithm
        4. 3.3.4 EMI Emissions Testing
      4. 3.4 Design Implementation
    5. 4 Results
    6. 5 Summary
    7. 6 Additional resources

Inductive Sensing Touch-On-Metal Buttons Design Guide

This application note covers the fundamentals of Touch-on-Metal (ToM) technology using an LDC1612 Inductance-to-Digital Converter (LDC) and provides guidance for constructing ToM buttons. Simple on and off buttons can be easily implemented using inductive sensing. Additionally, by using a high resolution LDC, microscopic movements in a flat metal button can be sensed and processed to determine how hard a given button was pressed. This approach allows reuse of existing metal surfaces commonly found in many applications such as consumer electronics and appliances. This report contains a design example for a multi-button brushed aluminum panel and provides guidance on the mechanical system and sensor design, as well as measured performance results of the complete system.