Atmel Ships Second Generation maXStylus Active Pen Delivering Superior 'Pen-to-Paper' Writing Experience

Low-power maXStylus Delivers Cutting-Edge Active Pen Performance for maXTouch Touchscreens with No Additional Sensor Layer, Reducing Overall System Cost for Tablets, Notebooks,Ultrabooks and Smartphones

SAN JOSE, CA, January 7, 2014 - Atmel® Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML), a global leader in microcontroller and touch technology solutions, today announced the company is shipping in volume quantities its second generation Windows 8.1-certified maXStylus. The new capacitive active stylus controller delivers a near-perfect 'pen-to-paper' writing experience on a touchscreen with superior responsiveness.

Touchscreens ranging from 6" to 15.6" using Atmel's industry-leading maXTouch controllers can seamlessly support maXStylus without additional hardware components or design changes. These solutions include our recently launched maXTouch T Series devices ranging from the mXT640T to the mXT2952T single-chip solutions. This integrated solution eliminates the need for an additional sensor layer, lowering overall system costs for the OEM without compromising performance. The complete maXTouch and maXStylus solution has achieved Microsoft's Windows 8.1 certification and can be seamlessly integrated into Windows 8.1 or Android operating systems.

"Stylus is the next generation of interaction with smart devices as consumers are seeking a more intuitive experience on their smartphones, tablets, notebooks and Ultrabooks. These smart devices also require richer feature sets to differentiate their products," said Shar Narasimhan, Sr. Product Marketing Manager of Touchscreen and Stylus Products, Atmel Corporation. "As a leader in the touch market, we are excited to deliver the closest pen-to-paper experience available today for users writing with a capacitive active stylus on a touchscreen. Atmel's next-generation maXStylus pen is currently in mass production with tier 1 OEMs and will be available on store shelves in early Q1."

Today, competing active stylus solutions compromise the noise immunity and power levels of a system as the touchscreen struggles to distinguish between the pen and the user's fingers. This degrades the overall system power consumption, signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio and pressure sensitivity resulting in missing strokes, dropped touches, poor linearity and an overall inferior user experience. With Atmel's integrated solution, the maXStylus mXTS200 uses intelligent scanning and synchronization with the touch controller to deliver a higher SNR ratio. This results in the best capacitive stylus writing experience available on the market today without comprising the touch controller's noise immunity and power consumption of the overall system.

For a seamless user experience, the maXStylus mXTS200 features intelligent palm rejection and the capability to switch from writing with a stylus to using both large and small fingers, with no degradation to the touch performance of the capacitive touchscreen.

Availability

The mXTS200 maXStylus family is available through Atmel's contract manufacturers today including Solid Year and Primax. Contact your local sales representative for more details.

More Information

Atmel maXStylus : http://www.atmel.com/products/touchsolutions/touchscreens/active_stylus.aspx
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About Atmel

Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, capacitive touch solutions, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions focused on industrial, consumer, communications, computing and automotive markets.

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Atmel Press Contact:

Agnes Toan, PR Manager
Phone: (+1) 408-487-2963, Email: agnes.toan@atmel.com

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