LDC3114 offers two main modes of operations: raw data access mode and button algorithm mode which is controlled by the BTN_ALG_EN field in Register INTPOL Address 0x11. Figure 7-2 shows conceptually how these two modes are implemented.

Raw data access mode allows an external MCU to extract data from the signal after the inductance-to-digital converter from registers through I²C (see Section 7.3.3). There is no further processing on this raw data such as baseline tracking, integrated button algorithms and button thresholding. This mode gives MCU full control over the measured raw data to implement algorithms for linear position sensing, rotational encoder applications, metal presence/deflection applications, smart button algorithms and for multimodal sensor fusion applications.

The second mode is button algorithm mode. Here further processing with parameters defined by the user (see Section 7.3.6 and Section 7.3.7) is done on the data and a button thresholding as defined by the user is applied. The processed data are available in separate registers to be read by I²C and any button press detection is indicated on the OUTx pins (see Section 7.3.4) This mode is used to implement button press functionality and can also be used to implement the measurement of force applied for button press along with detection to implement multilevel button press.

For register settings that are applicable to button mode versus raw access data mode are clearly identified in the descriptions of the registers (see Section 7.5).

Figure 7-2 Multimode Operation in LDC3114