Microchip 16-bit eXtreme low-power PIC MCUs

The low pin-count 16-bit eXtreme low-power PIC MCUs have had an on-chip 12-bit ADC and EEPROM added to them and intelligent mTouch capacitive sensing, along with the capability to run from a 5 V supply.

Featuring low sleep currents down to 20 nA, the PIC24F32KA304 MCUs provide designers with a versatile low-power product for motor vehicles, medical, utility metering, whitegoods and other applications.

The family expands on the PIC24F16KA family by adding twice as much flash program memory and 30% more RAM. Additionally, the numbers of timers and pulse-width modulators have been tripled; the numbers of UART, I²C and SPI channels doubled; the analog-to-digital converter resolution quadrupled to 12 bits; and the pin count increased to 44, over the earlier family.

The intelligent mTouch sensing module includes a charge time measurement unit that performs automated scan in sleep mode, enabling very low-power capacitive sensing.

As many touch-sensing applications are battery powered, this reduces current and conserves battery power. As many motor vehicle and whitegoods applications require operation up to 5 V, these MCUs simplify power-supply design by eliminating the need for discrete voltage regulators and provide full analog performance up to 5 V.