Microchip expands low-power leadership with latest 16-bit eXtreme low power PIC MCUs

CHANDLER, USA: Microchip Technology Inc. announced that it has expanded its low pin-count 16-bit eXtreme Low Power PIC MCUs by adding an on-chip 12-bit ADC, EEPROM, intelligent mTouch capacitive sensing, and the capability to run from a 5V supply.

Featuring extremely low sleep currents down to 20 nA, for which all XLP PIC MCUs are known, the PIC24F32KA304 MCUs provide designers with the most versatile low-power products available today—giving them an edge in designing industrial, automotive, medical, utility metering, white goods and many other applications.

The PIC24F32KA304 family expands upon the popular PIC24F16KA family by adding twice as much Flash program memory and 30% more RAM, which provides even more support for wireless-communication protocol stacks.

Additionally, the numbers of timers and Pulse-Width Modulators were tripled; the numbers of UART, I2C and SPI channels doubled; the Analog-to-Digital Converter resolution quadrupled to 12-bits; and the pin count increased to 44-pins, over the PIC24F16KA family.

The new PIC24F32KA304 MCUs’ intelligent mTouch sensing module includes a Charge Time Measurement Unit (CTMU) that performs automated scan in sleep mode, enabling extremely low-power capacitive sensing. Further, as many touch-sensing applications are battery powered, this new CTMU dramatically reduces current, thereby conserving even more battery power. As many automotive and white-good applications require operation up to 5V, these MCUs simplify power-supply design by eliminating the need for discrete voltage regulators, and providing full analog performance up to 5V.

“Microchip’s award-winning XLP technology is giving low-power designers what they have asked for—the world’s lowest sleep and active currents, multiple wake-up sources, and more peripherals that operate in sleep without CPU intervention,” said Mitch Obolsky, vice president of Microchip’s Advanced Microcontroller Architecture Division.

“Joining more than 100 MCUs featuring XLP technology, the PIC24F32KA304 family’s smart and more numerous peripherals give designers the ability to add application features without the customary increase in power consumption.”