25 Jan 11

A new SCR made by STMicroelectronics, the TN1205H, can reduce heat sink costs and footprint layout on a PCB with its high junction temperature rating of 150 C and high turn-off capabilities. The higher junction temperature rating is achieved with a higher current density and circuit design can be optimized with a choice of many current ratings. The device comes standard with a 12A RMS on-state current rating (8A average) and a 600V off-state voltage rating. The sensitive gate trigger current is as low as 5mA with maximum trigger voltage of 1.3V.

These devices would be a perfect fit for many applications that need over-voltage crowbar protection as they would easily be able to handle large voltage and/or current surges without any concern about overheating. These devices can also provide protection from inrush currents when a device is turned on.

Of course, the TN1205H can be used in general purpose AC line load switching applications, motor control circuits, small home appliances, and lighting systems. Because of the higher temperature rating, the devices could be used in many applications with insufficient ventilation or high ambient temperature in the surroundings. Some examples here would be capacitive discharge ignition circuits, ATV or motorbike voltage regulators, and power tools.

The through-hole or surface-mount package styles bring high performance into applications where space is very limited.

STMicroelectronics has introduced a high speed voltage comparator which it claims has the industry's best ratio of current consumption to response time. ST’s TS3011 single comparator achieves a propagation delay of 8ns while consuming only 470 µA of supply current at 5V. According to ST, this is 50% lower than other solutions in the market.

ST’s new high-speed voltage comparator has been designed to address applications where fast response time is critical, such as data communications equipment and other signal-conditioning applications in the telecom and industrial fields. In many data processing applications with a noisy signal, the minimized delay helps ensure instant data recovery and maintain error-free communication traffic flow.

Fast-response comparators can also find use in pulse-width modulation for audio amplifiers or as output buffers in oscilloscopes and analog-to-digital converters. The TS3011 includes push-pull outputs, removing the need for a pull up resistor, and rail to rail inputs.

Specified for a supply voltage of 2.2 to 5 V, this comparator can provide a stable response time over a wide temperature range of -40°C to +125°C. It has enhanced ESD capabilities and a latch-up immunity of 200mA. The device comes in space-saving SMD packages (SOT23-5 and SC70-5).

19 Jan 2012

As the USB serial interface protocol has become more and more standardized for serialcommunication between electronic devices, it would be helpful to find a solution that wouldintegrate USB on circuits that only use the SPI protocol. Microchip has just announced a new plug-and-play solution, which is the new HID-class MCP2210 USB to SPI protocol converter. This device makes it fast and simple to add USB to SPI-based designs for serial data transfer and analysis, and many other USB functions.

The MCP2210 USB to SPI protocol converter utilizes the USB HID class, which is supported bythe Windows XP, Vista, 7, Linux and Mac OS operating systems. Designs can be further simplifiedby nine flexible, general-purpose I/O pins that can be configured with a PC as standard digital I/O pins or alternate configurations. This adds enough flexibility to support a wide range ofapplications.

Designers without expertise in USB can use Microchip's MCP2210 Evaluation Kit (part #ADM00421) which makes it quick and easy to add USB connectivity into their projects. Free downloads are provided for software drivers, DLLs and a PC configuration tool. There is also a utility for MCP2210 power-up configuration.

The MCP2210 supports all four SPI modes (0, 1, 2, and 3) with bit rates from 1500 bps upto 12 Mbps. The device can operate from 3.3V to 5.5V at a temperature range of -40C to +85C. This chip is probably the most cost-effective and smallest footprint option for adding USB connectivity to SPI-based systems. The Microchip MCP2210 is available in a 20-pin SSOPpackage and a 20-pin 5×5 mm QFN package.

Microchip has recently expanded the PIC10F, PIC12F and PIC16F families by introducing several new 8-bit PIC microcontrollers featuring configurable logic and a high level of peripheral integration in 6- to 20-pin packages. The PIC10F(LF)32X and PIC1XF(LF)150X MCUs integrate new peripherals, including configurable logic cells (CLCs), complementary waveform generators (CWGs) and numerically controlled oscillators (NCOs). With the enhanced functionality and such a low pin count, embedded designers and engineers can greatly simplify their designs with a much lower part count, size, cost, and power consumption.

Engineers would be able to create many new applications and provide enhancement to many applications that already exist in the automotive, consumer, appliance, and industrial markets, among others. Software code can be used to control the combinational and sequential logic on the CLCs for on-chip interconnection of peripherals and I/Os. This adds improved functionality while reducing external component count and code space needed for the new functions. The CWG works with peripherals to generate complementary waveforms with dead-band control and auto shutdown for improved switching efficiencies. The NCO peripheral features linear frequency control with high resolution for applications such as lighting ballast, tone generation, and other resonant control circuits.

The PIC10F(LF)32X and PIC1XF(LF)150X MCUs operate at less than 30 μA/MHz in active mode and less than 20 nA in the sleep mode, and feature an analog to digital converter, up to 4 10-bit Pulse Width Modulation peripherals, and an integrated temperature-indicator module which enables low-cost temperature measurements. For programming, these MCUs have 35 instructions, 8 Stack Levels, 1.75K to 14K of Flash memory, and 64 to 512 bytes of RAM.

These MCUs are supported by Microchip's standard development tools, including the PICkit™ 3 Debugger/Programmer, as well as the MPLAB® IDE, MPLAB REAL ICE™ In-Circuit Emulator and MPLAB ICD3 In-Circuit Debugger, and the Microchip and HI-TECH C compilers. The PICDEM Lab Development Kit and the F1 Evaluation Platform has also been introduced for developing this series of 8-bit PIC MCUs. Programming the configurable logic cells (CLCs) has also been greatly simplified with a free CLC Configuration Tool, which can simulate the functionality of the registers and combinational logic with a graphical user interface.

10 Jan 2012

Microchip has just announced the latest addition to its eXtreme Low Power (XLP) microcontroller family with the PIC24F "GA3" series. The new PIC24FJ128GA310 family has the lowest active current available for 16-bit Flash MCUs and offers several flexible new low-power sleep modes. The active current is rated at 150 microamperes/MHz, and the current for a new low-power sleep mode with RAM retention is 330 nA. With the new idle and sleep modes, clock speeds can be reduced on the fly and peripherals can be selectively shut down for significant power reduction.

These devices are the first PIC MCUs with battery backup of the On-Chip Real-Time Clock Calendar, which allows an application's Real-Time Clock to continue running when primary power is removed. A VBAT pin is used to supply power for this and draws only 400 nA. They are also the first MCUs that are able to directly drive LCDs  in low power sleep mode (up to 480 LCD Segments or 60 segments by 8 common lines) which can work with more informative and flexible displays that include descriptive icons and scrolling. A six-channel DMA supports all types of peripheral modules.

Along with several enhanced peripheral features, the device includes many useful analog features such as  a 10/12-Bit, 24-Channel Analog-to-Digital (A/D) Converter where conversion can be done in idle mode, an on-chip programmable voltage reference, a Charge Time Measurement Unit (CTMU) which is used for capacitive touch sensing for up to 24 channels, and CTMU temperature sensing.  12-bit ADC features works in conjunction with the CTMU to further reduce power consumption by performing proximity sensing while in sleep mode.

The PIC24F GA3 devices have the potential to provide more efficient, less expensive designs for consumer, industrial, medical, metering, and other types of applications. Microchip also offers the PIC24FJ128GA310 Plug-In Module for use with the Explorer 16 Development Board with a built-in 480-segment LCD display for customers who would like to evaluate or develop designs for customized applications.