Microchip Technology Inc. has announced its microcontroller familyAVR® DA, its first family of functionally safe AVR microcontrollers incorporating a PTC (Peripheral Touch Controller).
“With this family of AVR DA microcontrollers, Microchip leverages our expertise in high-performance devices with high code efficiency and now meets the demand from various industries with advanced analog electronics, core-independent peripherals, and more capacitive touch channels than existing devices,” said Greg Robinson, associate vice president of marketing for the 8-bit Microcontroller Business Unit. “The technology covers applications such as connected home security, building automation and sensor systems, automotive, and industrial automation, enabling the design of more robust, precise, and responsive applications.”.
Microchip's Functional Safety Ready designation applies to devices that incorporate the latest safety features and are supported by safety manuals, Failure Mode, Effects, and Analysis (FMEDA) diagnostic reports, and, in some cases, diagnostic software to reduce the time and cost of safety end-user application certification. The AVR DA microcontroller family integrates several safety features to ensure robust operation. Features that ensure sufficient supply voltage include power-on reset, inadequate voltage detection, and voltage level monitoring. Cyclic redundancy check (CRC) ensures that the application code in flash memory is valid. By ensuring code integrity, unexpected and potentially unsafe application responses can be prevented.
Microchip's new AVR DA family of microcontrollers achieves a CPU speed of 24 MHz across the entire supply voltage range, up to 128 KB of flash memory, 16 KB of SRAM, and 512 bytes of EEPROM, a 12-bit differential A/D converter, a 10-bit D/A converter, analog comparators, and zero-crossing detectors. The PTC enables the design of capacitive touch interfaces with buttons, controls, dials, touchpads, and smaller touchscreens, as well as the gesture controls used in a wide variety of industrial and consumer products and vehicles. The AVR DA family features up to 46 self-capacitance touch channels and 529 mutual-capacitance touch channels and incorporates next-generation PTC with Driven Shield+ and advanced technologies that improve noise immunity, water resistance, touch sensitivity, and response time.
Furthermore, the AVR DA family of microcontrollers enhances the value of real-time embedded control systems. The integrated event system enables communication between peripherals without CPU involvement. Events are latency-free and never lost, thus providing improved real-time performance and predictability for reliable and safe designs. Reduced CPU overhead also lowers overall application power consumption.
The configurable logic peripheral allows for internal adjustment of logic functions, eliminating the need for external components, reducing board footprint, and lowering bill of materials costs. Thanks to new advanced analog features, such as the 12-bit differential A/D converter, the AVR DA microcontroller family can measure small-amplitude signals in noisy environments, making it suitable for sensor node applications in harsh environments.
The high memory capacity of the AVR DA microcontroller family, along with its SRAM-to-flash ratio, makes it attractive for connected sensor nodes, both wireless and wired, as well as other battery-intensive applications.
Development tools
family of microcontrollers offers several software and hardware support options. Software support includes Microchip's MPLAB®X , MPLAB Xpress, and Atmel Studio; code configuration tools such as MCC and START; and compilers such as GCC, XC8, and IAR Embedded Workbench. A functionally safe version of the XC8 compiler through Microchip's Functional Safety Ready program. Hardware support consists of debuggers/programmers such as MPLAB PICkit™ 4, MPLAB SNAP, Atmel ICE, and the AVR128DA48 Curiosity Nano evaluation kit.
Prices and availability
The AVR DA microcontroller family is now available for volume production with orders of 10,000 units at an initial price of $0.87.
For more information, contact a Microchip representative, an authorized distributor, or visit the Microchip website. To purchase the products mentioned, visit our shopping portal or contact an authorized Microchip distributor.
