Atmel Broadens AVR MCU Family with More Memory, Connectivity, Integration and Ultra-Low Power


March 12, 2012 -- Atmel Corp. today announced 14 new devices in its Atmel AVR microcontroller (MCU) family, providing more options to meet unique design requirements. Adding more memory, connectivity peripherals and system integration, the newest devices further extend the advantages of the AVR family, while supporting a broader array of application areas including consumer electronics, capacitive touch, utility metering, home automation and medical.

These AVR MCUs meet a common demand across multiple application areas — low power consumption. All devices in the portfolio are designed for the lowest possible power consumption using Atmel picoPower technology, operating down to 1.62V while maintaining all functionality and short wake-up times. The AVR MCU portfolio also includes devices that support Atmel QTouch Library for capacitive touch functions.

The new AVR devices

  • Atmel AVR XMEGA C MCUs - 8-/16-bit general-purpose MCUs with Full-Speed USB, AVR XMEGA C devices deliver the product line's highest Flash and SRAM memory densities as well as the largest 8-bit MCU on the market with up to 384kBytes of Flash and up to 32kBytes of SRAM. The eight new devices available are ideal for consumer, industrial and home-automation applications.
  • Atmel tinyAVR ATtiny1634 MCUs - Small-package, ultra-low power devices, the ATtiny 1634 MCUs feature multiple easy-to-use digital interfacing options including more communication interfaces than existing devices in the product line and up to 16kBytes of Flash memory. This new device is ideal for interfacing and control in industrial and consumer applications.
  • Atmel AVR UC3 L3 MCUs - The AVR UC3 L3 MCUs feature ultra-low power consumption and more Flash memory, integrated USB controller, I2S support, audio bit-stream digital-to-analog converter (ABDAC) and package options with more pins. With the three new devices available, designers can now implement more advanced algorithms requiring more memory in their low-power applications, such as consumer products.
  • Atmel AVR UC3 D4 MCUs - Low-power, feature-rich, entry-level 32-bit MCUs, the AVR UC3 D4 devices offer enhanced performance and rich features including a hardware-based QTouch capacitive touch interface and Full-Speed USB. The two new devices available are ideal for high-data-throughput applications in areas such as USB human interface, biometrics, bridging and industrial control.

More about AVR XMEGA C MCUs

As with other members of the Atmel AVR XMEGA family, AVR XMEGA C MCUs include functions for real-time control, sensor and control interfaces, mixed signal and USB communication. The devices deliver 384kBytes of Flash memory and 32kBytes of SRAM memory with only 700nA of current consumption in sleep mode with real-time clock (RTC) running, full SRAM and register retention and 5-µs wake-up time. The new devices offer a unique combination of large memory size combined with low sleep current and short wake-up time.

Design engineers can now create products offering long battery life while reducing their bill-of-materials (BoM) costs. AVR XMEGA C MCUs are ideal for products including thermostats; home and building control systems with RF and ZigBee connectivity and large software stacks; user interfaces for thermostats and home control systems with small, ultra-low power touch-based displays; and mobile phone SIM card expanders with applications for payments, access control and banking.

Other key device features include:
  • Full-Speed USB device without external components, resulting in higher data throughput and reduced BOM costs.
  • 12-bit, 300ksps analog-to-digital converter (ADC) delivering high analog precision while operating down to 1.6V. Its integrated gain stage eliminates external amplifiers, contributing to lower BOM costs.
  • Support for Atmel QTouch Library for easy implementation of capacitive buttons, sliders and wheels functionality.
  • The smallest (44-pin, 16KB device) and lowest cost AVR XMEGA device with USB in the product line.

More about tinyAVR ATtiny1634 MCUs

As the newest member of the tinyAVR MCU family, the ATtiny1634 device is designed for space- and power-constrained interfacing and control applications. The MCU features multiple digital interfacing options, including two full-duplex universal synchronous/ asynchronous receiver/ transmitters (USARTs), I2C slave interface, serial peripheral interface (SPI) port and a Universal Serial Interface (USI) that works as I2C or a three-wire interface. The device is well suited for advanced portable electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and handheld games, and related accessories. Household appliance control and man-machine interface (MMI) systems, as well as smart sensors and co-processors in industrial and communications applications, will also benefit from the ATtiny1634 MCU.

Other key device features include:
  • High-speed 8MHz internal oscillator for accurate (±2%) timing and reliable serial communication in varying environmental conditions
  • QTouch Library support
  • 32-kHz ultra-low power oscillator and sampled brown-out detector (BOD), which reduce power-down current consumption below 1µA with watchdog timer running and BOD active
  • A 4x4-mm 20-pad very thin quad flat non-leaded package (VQFN) and ultra-small wafer-level chip scale package (WLCSP)

More about AVR UC3L MCUs

Part of the industry's lowest-power 32-bit MCU family, the new AVR UC3 L3 devices set a new standard for low power. With picoPower technology, the devices deliver true 1.62-V to 3.6-V operation. The newest devices increase pin count by adding 64-pin options to the UC3L family for higher connectivity while SleepWalking peripherals reduce power consumption.

AVR UC3 L3 devices are ideal for sensors, capacitive-touch remote controls and game pads, portable and battery-operated equipment, human-interface devices, board controllers, industrial-control systems, communication protocol translators and backlight LED units.

Other key device features include:
  • Full-Speed USB device for increased connectivity and reduced BoM costs.
  • Integrated QTouch hardware peripheral supporting up to 25 touch channels.
  • FlashVault code protection.
  • Peripheral Event System, which eliminates interrupt processing.
  • Enhanced reliability and reduced cost via innovations including pulse width modulation (PWM) on all GPIO pins, high-precision clock system with digital frequency locked loop and crystal oscillator precision tuner and 9-channel 12-bit ADC.

More about AVR UC3D MCUs

The AVR UC3 D4 MCUs, the newest members of the entry-level AVR UC3 D 32-bit Series, are ideal for low-power capacitive-touch applications as well as industrial and consumer designs, such as board controllers, PC peripherals, audio systems and toys. Pin-compatible with the AVR UC3 B Series, the devices feature up to 128kBytes of Flash, up to 16kBytes of SRAM and several communication interfaces, including Full-Speed USB, four universal asynchronous receiver/ transmitters (UARTs), four SPI ports, two 2-wire interfaces (TWI) and I2S.

Other key device features include:
  • Integrated QTouch hardware peripheral supporting up to 17 touch channels.
  • Glue logic controller with programmable logic and lookup tables that can be connected to general-purpose I/O (GPIO) pins, which reduces the amount of external components.
  • Embedded SleepWalking technology, which allows a peripheral to wake the device from sleep mode.

Availability

In the AVR XMEGA line, the ATxmega384C3, ATxmega256C3, ATxmega192C3 and ATxmega384D3 are sampling now and other devices will begin sampling in Q2 and Q3 2012, with volume shipments to follow. All AVR UC3 L3 and AVR UC3 D4 devices are available for orders. All AVR ATtiny1634 devices are available now, with the exception of the ATTiny1634-UUR, which will be available in Q2 2012. The ATSTK600 kit and socket and routing cards are available at the Atmel online store and from local distributors.


Reprinted from SOCcentral.com, your first stop for ASIC, FPGA, EDA, and IP news and design information.
Copyright 2002 - 2011 Tech Pro Communications, 1209 Colts Circle, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648