Microchip unveils industry’s first ion and photo smoke-detector ICs with alarm memory

CHANDLER, USA: Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller, analog, and Flash-IP solutions, has announced the industry’s first Ion and photo smoke-detector ICs to offer alarm memory.

The low-power RE46C162/3 Ion and RE46C165/6/7/8 (RE46C16X) photo smoke-detector ICs make it easy to quickly determine which detector in an interconnected loop triggered an alarm. The ICs’ low energy use enables smoke detectors with a battery life of 10 years, and an interconnect filter enables a connection to other devices, such as CO detectors.

Homes often have interconnected smoke detectors, to remotely alert the resident about remote smoke events. When an alarm is falsely triggered, also known as “nuisance tripping,” it is difficult to determine which smoke detector set off the alarm.

The alarm-memory feature available on the RE46C16X ICs enables the detector that caused the fault to be easily identified, which greatly reduces costs associated with installing and troubleshooting these types of smoke-detector systems. A charge-dump feature allows the alarm on all interconnected devices to stop sooner.

“The addition of an alarm-memory product further illustrates Microchip’s commitment to the smoke-detector market,” said Bryan J. Liddiard, vice president of marketing with Microchip’s Analog and Interface Products Division.

Art Eck, senior product marketing manager with Microchip’s Analog and Interface Products Division, continued, “Microchip already offers a broad line of PIC MCUs, horn drivers, other smoke-detector ICs, signal-chain and power-management products, providing complete smoke-detector solutions for residential devices to programmable commercial devices.”