16bit MCUs integrate USB, touch sensing

Microchip Technology Inc. rolls two new families of 16bit PIC24F microcontrollers, one with USB functionality and one for general-purpose applications. Both families feature the company's nanoWatt XLP extreme low power technology, small packages and mTouch capacitive touch sensing. The USB family provides for peripheral, embedded host and on-the-go (OTG) implementations.

Microchip's nanoWatt XLP technology provides the lowest sleep currents, with current consumption down to 20nA in Deep Sleep mode, resulting in the lowest power consumption of any MCU with USB OTG—10x lower than USB MCUs from other ultralow-power manufacturers.

"Microchip's latest USB PIC MCUs enable the smallest footprint and lowest power consumption for applications such as thumb-drive interfaces, capacitive touch panels and many battery-powered applications," said Mitch Obolsky, VP of Microchip's advanced MCU architecture division. "Microchip provides industry-leading USB software support, configuration tools, customer training and USB development boards to help designers get to market quickly."

The PIC24FJ64GA104 general-purpose family features nanoWatt XLP technology, 16 MIPS performance, 32- or 64Kbytes of f\Flash, 8Kbytes of RAM, a capacitive touch sensing peripheral, Real Time Clock and Calendar (RTCC), a 10bit ADC, and the ability to reconfigure digital I/O pins via Peripheral Pin Select. The PIC24FJ64GB004 family builds on these features with easy-to-use and complete Full-Speed USB 2.0 Peripheral, Embedded Host and OTG solution. Both families are available in 28-pin QFN, SOIC and PDIP packages, and 44-pin QFN and TQFP packages.

Example applications for the new PIC24FJ64GA104 and PIC24FJ64GB004 MCUs include: battery-powered (remote controls, security systems, portable meters, irrigation timers), consumer (thermostats, smoke detectors, business card scanners/printers), industrial (utility metering, electronic locks, POS terminals), automotive (remote keyless entry, audio and infotainment), and medical (glucometers, blood pressure monitors, fitness monitors).

Designers can purchase $25 plug-in modules for use with the Explorer 16 Development Board, for each of the new MCU families: PIC24FJ64GA104 PIM and PIC24FJ64GB004 PIM. Additionally, the $60 USB PICtail Plus Daughter Board is available to enable USB development with the PIC24FJ64GB004 family, using the Explorer 16. All PIC24F MCUs are supported by Microchip's world-class development tools, including the free MPLAB IDE, the MPLAB REAL ICE emulation system, the MPLAB ICD 3 in-circuit debugger, the PICkit 3 low-cost debugger/programmer and Microchip's free C compilers.

Microchip also provides extensive USB training courses, and complete software support with free USB class drivers and USB applications support. Developers can decrease the time to market for their USB designs by using the free USB software framework and application notes.

All family members are available now for sampling and volume production. Prices start at $2.12 each in 10,000-unit quantities for the PIC24FJ64GA104 general-purpose family members, and $2.32 each in 10,000-unit quantities for the PIC24FJ64GB004 USB family members.

For application notes on microcontrollers click here.

Keywords: microcontroller   16bit MCU   USB   touch sensing