Chinese mixed-signal SoC supplier TinyChip has launched the TCAE15 series of automotive-grade touch-sensing controllers, a single-chip solution that integrates capacitive touch detection, an on-chip LIN transceiver, a high-voltage programmable LDO, a high-performance ADC, a programmable gain amplifier, multiple PWM channels, a programmable current source and rich peripheral interfaces. The chip targets smart-surface applications such as cockpit touch panels, touch switches, seat pressure detection, electric anti-pinch systems and roof-top controllers, according to Chinese outlet D1EV.
Why the chip matters
As vehicle intelligence pushes cockpits toward integrated smart surfaces, remote nodes such as touch panels, touch switches and roof controllers demand more from multi-channel touch acquisition, sensor driving, secure firmware updates, LIN communication and low sleep power. Traditional discrete designs combine a touch MCU with an external LIN transceiver and LDO, which suffers from large PCB area, many BOM components and difficult EMC and waterproofing debugging. The TCAE15 builds on TinyChip's mature automotive mixed-signal platform to integrate power, touch, communication, signal acquisition, sensor driving and hardware waterproofing modules into one chip, improving capacitive touch performance while reducing peripheral components and development difficulty.
Key specifications include an ARM Cortex-M0 core running at 48MHz, 64KB or 128KB of ECC-protected Flash, 16KB of ECC SRAM, a 5.5V to 18V operating range with 40V load-dump protection, a 50mA adjustable 3.3V/5V LDO, a LIN transceiver and data-link layer compliant with ISO17987 and J2602, and support for LIN automatic addressing and master-slave LIN bridging. The chip supports up to 24 capacitive touch channels, a built-in current source adjustable from 0.5uA to 125uA for resistance and PN-junction temperature sensing, an integrated PGA with 8x (1x to 16x) adjustable gain, one general-purpose timer with PWM/compare/capture, and SPI, I2C and UART interfaces. It meets ISO7637 and ISO16750 electrical test standards and comes in QFN32, QFN48 and QFN20 packages.
Design advantages
TinyChip highlights five advantages. First, the chip offers generous storage with ECC-checked Flash and 16KB of ECC SRAM across the lineup, and the 128KB version uses two independent Flash units to support AB-backup OTA upgrades, protecting firmware updates from failure. Second, the touch-channel count varies by package: QFN48 supports up to 24 channels, QFN32 up to 17, and QFN20 up to 8, adapting to multi-button, slider, touch-switch and roof-controller scenarios. Third, the programmable current source combined with the PGA enables high-precision, wide-dynamic-range resistance measurement and dual-mode detection with capacitive sensing, improving reliability and anti-interference; it can also replace thermistors for low-cost temperature sensing.
Fourth, the chip uses a charge-balance capacitive detection architecture to optimize EMC performance, and a built-in hardware analog shielding unit reduces false triggers in rain or condensation. Fifth, it supports dual software and hardware sampling triggers with TinyChip's patented Tinywork hardware event linkage mechanism, allowing the hardware to perform touch detection independently in low-power mode without CPU involvement, preserving response speed while cutting sleep power.
A single TCAE15 chip can handle touch detection, LIN communication and power management without auxiliary chips, lowering BOM cost, simplifying hardware design, reducing debugging effort and shortening development cycles. The chip mainly targets cockpit touch panels, touch switches and roof-top controllers, and also suits other LIN remote smart nodes. TinyChip provides a complete EVK evaluation board, SDK, touch-tuning PC software and reference schematics to help customers evaluate and deploy the solution quickly.
