2013 Microchip Technology Inc.
DS41685A-page 11
MGC3130 – SABREWING
SINGLE-ZONE EVALUATION
KIT USER’S GUIDE
Chapter 1. Overview
1.1
INTRODUCTION
1.1.1
MGC3130 System Overview
The MGC3130 is the first product based on Microchip’s GestIC
®
technology. It is
developed as a mixed signal controller. The MGC3130 has one transmit and five very
sensitive receive channels that are capable to detect distortions of a transmitted electrical
field (E-field) corresponding to capacitive changes in the femtofarad (1fF = 10
-15F
) range.
In order to transmit and receive an electrical field, electrodes have to be connected to the
transmitting and receiving channels of the MGC3130 controller. The spatial arrangement
of the electrodes allow the chip to determine the center of gravity of the electric field
distortion, and thus position tracking of a user’s hand in the detection space.
The entire system solution is composed by three main building blocks (see Figure 1-1):
• MGC3130 Controller Chip
• Embedded GestIC Library
• External Electrodes
FIGURE 1-1:
MGC3130 CONTROLLER SYSTEM
1.1.2
MGC3130 Controller
The MGC3130 features the following main building blocks:
• Low-noise Analog Front End (AFE)
• Digital Signal Processing Unit (SPU)
• Flexible Communication Interfaces
The MGC3130 controller provides a transmit signal to generate the E-field, conditions
the analog signals from the receiving electrodes and processes this data digitally on
the SPU. Data exchange between the MGC3130 and the host is conducted via the
communication interfaces.
MGC3130
Controller
Analog Front End
Communications
Interfaces
GestIC
®
Library
External
Electrodes
Tx
Rx
5
Signal Processing
Unit
To application
host
