
5.5 Electrodes placement
The following are recommendations for placing the touch sensing electrodes on a PCB or FlexPCB.
• All touch electrodes must be placed as close to the MCU as possible. As the long trace loops in layout cause extra
intrinsic capacitance and easily coupled noise, placing touch electrodes closer to the chip is always better.
• Components underneath electrodes — It is not recommended to place any component underneath the area of touch
sensing electrode, especially in two-layer boards.
• Keep electrodes far away power module, RF antenna, and so on.
5.6 Hardware checklist
The following is a checklist based on the recommendations in this application note. Before having a board, film, ITO, and the touch
sensing board made, make sure that the design follows all or most of these rules:
• GND return path is provided per specifications (GND hatch below or at least around the electrode keypad).
• No pull-ups present in TSI-enabled (touch sensing input module) pins.
• Series resistors in cases where series current protection is desired must lower than 100 Ω.
• Make sure that no signals are not touch sensing run parallel to the touch sensing signals. If signals must go through the
touch sensing traces, let them go in a different layer and perpendicular.
• Make sure to fill in ground between groups of traces (analog, digital, and touch). If possible, fill in ground between touch
sensing traces.
• Traces as thin as the PCB or film technology allows.
• Short traces (< 300 mm. from electrode to MCU, ideally < 50 mm.)
• Electrode shape corners as rounded as the layout allows.
5.7 X-KE17Z-TSI-EVB touch electrode patterns design
The X-KE17Z-TSI-EVB is a two-layer reference board that enables dual TSI evaluation. It offers comprehensive touch patterns,
including mutual-cap touchpads, self-cap touchpads, self-cap spring touch keys, shield electrode, touch slide, two-dimensional
(2D) touchpad, and proximity loop (outside 2D touchpad and 3 × 5 self-cap touchpad). The following is the introduction of several
electrode patterns.
5.7.1 2D touchpad
2D touchpad input interface that must be able to detect touch and release conditions and vertical and horizontal sliding in a specific
area. As shown in
, 2D touchpad is implemented in an X–Y or row–column fashion. To accomplish the interleaving of
the rows and the columns for a fingertip, two layers of conductive materials are needed.
NXP Semiconductors
Hardware design guide
KE17Z Dual TSI User Guide, Rev. 0, 05 May 2022
User Guide
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