Microchip's 8-bit MCUs for medical, metering apps

CHANDLER, USA: Microchip Technology Inc. announced a new four-member family of high-performance 8-bit PIC microcontrollers (MCUs) for medical and metering applications.

The PIC18F87J93 8-bit direct LCD-drive MCUs feature up to 16 channels of 12-bit Analog-to-Digital Conversion (ADC), the mTouch Charge Time Measurement Unit (CTMU) peripheral for capacitive touch sensing, and a hardware Real-Time Clock and Calendar (RTCC).

With this enhanced analog functionality and rich peripheral set, the PIC18F87J93 family enables the highly precise measurements and sensors, as well as the high levels of integration that medical and metering applications require.

The 64- and 80-pin PIC18F87J93 MCUs have memory options ranging from 64 to 128 KB Flash program memory and 4 KB RAM, and are pin-out compatible with Microchip’s entire LCD-drive MCU portfolio. The on-chip 12-bit ADC with up to 16 channels performs auto acquisition and works during sleep mode, enabling a low-power, reliable analog interface.

The on-chip hardware RTCC also works in sleep mode, to enable real-time clock and calendar functions with low power consumption. Additionally, the mTouch CTMU peripheral enables the addition of capacitive touch-sensing user interfaces or precise time measurements, and lowers system costs.

The LCD charge pump provides contrast control and maintains low-power ratings even with advanced feature sets.

“Microchip’s PIC18F87J93 family expands our portfolio of cost-effective LCD products. For metering and medical applications, their 12-bit ADC, mTouch peripheral and extended memory deliver a cost-effective feature set,” said Mitch Obolsky, vice president of Microchip’s Advanced Microcontroller Architecture Division. “The new devices offer a drop-in upgrade in features and memory to our popular and low-cost PIC18F85J90 LCD family.”

Example metering applications for the PIC18F87J93 MCUs include electricity, flow, gas and water meters. Example medical applications include blood-pressure meters, patient-monitoring systems, infusion pumps and CPAP devices.

The new devices are also are well suited for applications in the consumer (Internet-enabled appliances, white goods, game controllers and coffee machines); industrial (home-alarm/security-system keypads, thermostats, power meters, security panels, data logging and central AC communication controllers); and automotive markets (control panels and body electronics), among others. The MCUs complement Microchip’s 12-bit Quad MCP4728 Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC), also announced, today.

Development support
To get started with the PIC18F87J93 family, customers can use the PICDEM LCD 2 Demo Board (part # DM163030, $125) in combination with the PIC18F87J9X Plug-In Module (part # MA180025, $25), which includes capacitive-touch buttons. Both are available now.

Additionally, the PIC18F87J93 family is supported by Microchip’s standard development tool suite, including the free MPLAB IDE, the MPLAB C Compiler for PIC18 and the MPLAB ICD 3 In-Circuit Debugger (part # DV164035). The MPLAB IDE now comes with the free Segmented Display GUI, which makes it easy to generate the code needed to drive LCD displays.