ICs & Semiconductors

Renesas Electronics Europe is making available a full reference platform for the RX21A Group of 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) for smart electricity meters with advanced functionality. The RX21A meter reference platform comprises a full development support environment including middleware for power measurement and calibration tools, enabling developers to easily design ultra-compact smart electricity meters allowing short time-to-market.

Silicon Labs has expanded its PCI Express (PCIe) timing solution portfolio with new one- and two-output PCIe clock generators that are able to offer the smallest footprint and lowest power currently in the market. Designed to meet the stringent specifications of the PCIe Generation 1/2/3 standards, the Si52111 and Si52112 clock generator ICs target high-volume consumer, embedded, communications and enterprise applications where board space, power consumption and system cost are critical concerns.

In a move intended to help developers jumpstart their product designs, Texas Instruments (TI) has introduced the OMAP5432 processor-based evaluation module (EVM) for high-performance industrial applications. The EVM enables quick, easy evaluation and benchmarking for applications demanding high-performance processing and graphics at low power, including human machine interface (HMI), portable data terminals (PDT), digital signage and medical monitoring end equipment.

Atmel Corporation has announced that Secret Labs’ recently launched ‘AGENT’ smart watch is powered by Atmel’s SAM4S and tinyAVR microcontrollers. The watch combines SAM4S and tinyAVR MCUs to deliver extended battery life for the user, consuming less than half the power of competing solutions.

CISSOID, a specialist in high-temperature semiconductor solutions, has introduced OPAL, a high precision operational amplifier that is guaranteed for operation from -55°C up to +225°C. OPAL is a dual Op Amp specifically designed to meet very tough environmental constraints on sensors used in automotive, industrial and general High Reliability applications such as aeronautics, military and down-hole tools (Oil & Gas) electronics.

NXP Semiconductors has introduced the MFA100 digital audio streaming device – the first application-specific standard product (ASSP) for MFi accessories (Made for iPod, iPhone and iPad) using Lightning connectors. A development kit featuring the MFA100 – an IC designed specifically for digital auto streaming applications – is now available via the Avnet MFi Procurement website.

Energy Micro has been working closely with TSMC to verify the benefits of using the TSMC eLL (Extreme Low Leakage) process to fabricate its next generation of energy efficient Cortex-M microcontrollers. By aligning closely with TSMC, Energy Micro has benefitted from early access to the process technology to further enhance its MCU portfolio.

Samsung Electronics has announced the industry"s first 45 nanometer (nm) embedded flash ("eFlash") logic process development. The company said that it had successfully implemented the new process into a smart card test chip, which means that this process technology fulfills the stringent quality requirements of the security solution market and can now be deployed on a commercial scale.

At a time when the local interconnect network (LIN) bus is seeing continued widespread adoption in the automotive world Melexis has unveiled the MLX80031 and MLX80051 enabling the development of LIN slaves in a simple and highly efficient manner. These ICs combine a physical layer LIN transceiver (according to LIN 2.x and SAEJ2602) with a voltage regulator (3.3V/70mA for the MLX80031 and 5V/70mA for the MLX80051).

Maxim Integrated Products has started shipping the MAX11156, a device that it claims is the industry’s smallest 12-pin, 18-bit successive approximation register (SAR) analogue-to-digital converter (ADC). Available in a 3mm x 3mm TDFN package, the device integrates an internal reference and reference buffer, saving cost and at least 70% board space over competing solutions.