Embedded Lab

Tact switches are widely used as digital input devices. Normally one tact switch requires one digital I/P pin of a microcontroller but if you want to interface a matrix of such switches (say a 16 digit keypad), assigning a digital I/O pin for each key won’t be a good idea. You need to think about the way to minimize the required number of digital I/O pins of microcontroller. A very popular method is a keypad matrix where the keys are arranged into rows and columns so that a 4×4 (16) tact switches can be interfaced to a microcontroller using only 4+4 = 8 I/O pins.

This tutorial from PCBHeaven describes the theory behind the operation of a matrix keypad.