Microchip's USB MCUs feature eXtreme low power consumption in 28- and 44-pin packages

CHANDLER, USA: Microchip Technology Inc. has expanded its 8-bit and USB MCU lines with the PIC18F47J53.

Featuring XLP technology for eXtreme Low Power Consumption, the new MCU provides up to 128 KB Flash program memory and 4 KB RAM, offering plenty of code space for Microchip’s free USB stack, and for application code. The MCU features full-speed USB 2.0 capability, enabling applications that can perform remote field upgrades, download usage data and connect to diagnostic equipment, which results in lower costs and more flexibility for the end user.

The integrated mTouch sensing capability enables easy implementation of capacitive touch sensing user interfaces, while XLP technology drastically reduces the amount of power consumed, helping to extend battery life. By having USB integrated on this XLP family of MCUs, there is no need to sacrifice power consumption just to have USB.

Many portable applications, such as smart-card readers, need to occasionally connect to a PC or another portable device via USB. The full-speed USB 2.0 capability of the PIC18F47J53 MCU enables this, and Microchip offers a free smart card library, within its free USB stack.

An on-chip 12-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter delivers the accuracy required for many advanced sensor, instrumentation and measurement applications. With multiple PWMs, timers and SPI channels with DMA, the PIC18F47J53 MCU is well suited for portable consumer devices, medical devices, and other applications requiring low power consumption and USB connectivity.

“The PIC18F47J53 family broadens our portfolio of cost-effective XLP products with integrated USB, for portable applications that need to share data,” said Mitch Obolsky, vice president of Microchip’s Advanced Microcontroller Architecture Division.

Obolsky continued, “The MCU offers a fully compatible memory extension to our popular PIC18F46J50 USB family, serving a wide spectrum of applications, such as handheld medical devices and speaker accessories for iPod.”

Development tool support
Microchip also announced the PIC18F47J53 Full-Speed USB Demo Board (part # MA180029, $45), today. This board can be used stand-alone or as a plug-in to the PIC18 Explorer Board (part # DM183032, $99.99).

Additionally, designers can use Microchip’s complete suite of standard development tools with the new MCUs, including the user-friendly and free MPLAB IDE and corresponding suite of emulators, programmers and development boards, along with the MPLAB C or HI-TECH C compiler for PIC18 MCUs.

The PIC18F27J53 MCU is available in 28-pin QFN, SOIC, SPDIP, and SSOP packages. The PIC18F47J53 MCU is available in 44-pin QFN and TQFP packages. Pricing starts at $2.31 each, in 10,000-unit quantities. Samples can be ordered today.