Microchip intros low-cost 8-bit PIC MCUs with eXtreme low power technology and integrated LCD control

CHANDLER, USA: Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller, analog and Flash-IP solutions, announced an expansion of its 8-bit segmented LCD microcontroller (MCU) family with five new devices—the PIC16LF1902/3/4/6/7 (PIC16LF190X) MCUs.

The PIC16LF190X family supports many general-purpose applications and enables the implementation of LCD into low-power and cost-sensitive designs, such as security tokens, smart cards, medical devices, home appliances, key fobs or any application involving a segmented LCD. Featuring eXtreme Low Power (XLP) technology for sleep currents down to 20 nA, and a typical active current of 35 microamperes per MHz, the MCUs extend battery life, while maintaining accurate timing with a RTC and driving a segmented LCD.

Utilizing Microchip’s Enhanced Mid-range architecture, the PIC16LF190X family provides fundamental features and performance without burdening customers with the cost of unused peripherals. These MCUs provide an optimized feature set, including up to 14 KB of Flash program memory, up to 512 bytes of RAM, up to 14 10-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) channels, serial communication, temperature indicator and the capability to drive up to 116 LCD segments.

With the addition of XLP technology for extended battery life, and capabilities such as utilizing the integrated temperature indicator to provide crystal-accuracy compensation, low-power RTC support and low voltage-detect support utilizing the internal ADC and voltage reference, the MCUs enable low-cost LCD solutions for a multitude of portable devices.

“With industry-leading low power and an optimized feature set, the PIC16LF190X family is designed for any low-power segmented LCD or general-purpose application,” said Steve Drehobl, vice president of Microchip’s Security, Microcontroller & Technology Development Division.

Development support
The PIC16LF190X MCUs are supported by the F1 Evaluation Kit (part # DM164132, $69.99) and Platform (part # DM164130-1, $39.99), as well as the PICkit 3 In-Circuit Debugger (part # PG164130, $44.95). Designers can also utilize the full suite of MPLAB development tools, including the MPLAB IDE, MPLAB ICD3, REAL ICE In-Circuit Emulator and HI-TECH C compiler for PIC10/12/16 MCUs.