C8051F97x MCU Family Enables Longest Battery Life and Highest
Performance in 8-bit Touch Control Market
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Silicon
Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB), a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive,
mixed-signal ICs, today introduced the industry's most energy-efficient
capacitive sensing microcontrollers (MCUs) for human-machine interfaces
(HMI). The new C8051F97x MCU family combines Silicon Labs' proven
ultra-low-power technology with the industry's fastest, most accurate
capacitive sensing to provide a best-in-class touch control solution for
the Internet
of Things, home/building automation, consumer and industrial
markets. The F97x MCUs target battery-powered and capacitive touch
sensing applications for handheld industrial devices, toys, gaming
machines and remote controls, as well as touch-panel switch replacements
for white goods such as washers, dryers, ovens and dishwashers.
Silicon Labs' F97x MCUs offer the industry's lowest energy consumption
in active, sleep and deep-sleep modes, enabling the longest battery life
of any 8-bit capacitive sensing MCUs. With 200 µA/MHz active current,
the F97x MCUs provide an ideal combination of low energy consumption and
excellent system performance. The MCUs' fast two-microsecond wake time
minimizes energy consumption while transitioning from sleep to active
mode. The F97x MCUs offer the lowest sleep mode energy consumption in
their class: 55 nA sleep current with brownout detector enabled and 280
nA sleep current with a 16.4 kHz internal oscillator.
The F97x MCU family offers industry-leading capacitive sensing
technology with sub-micro-amp ( < 1 µA) wake-on-touch average current,
16-bit resolution and unmatched 100:1 dynamic range to support buttons,
sliders, wheels, and capacitive proximity sensing with up to 43 channels
and multiple scanning modes. The F97x MCUs incorporate Silicon Labs' SAR
charge-timing capacitance-to-digital converter (CDC) technology. The
high-resolution CDC's 40-microsecond acquisition time enables the
industry's fastest capacitive touch-sense capability without sacrificing
sensitivity performance.
Silicon Labs' CDC technology offers superior noise immunity for reliable
performance in challenging conditions and configurations such as thick
laminate overlays, electrical noise or variances in printed circuit
board (PCB) manufacturing. This advanced CDC hardware implementation is
capable of measuring capacitance on a wide range of materials including
PCBs, flex circuits, and indium tin oxide (ITO) on glass and film.
The F97x MCU family expands the capabilities of Silicon Labs' popular C8051F99x
low-power capacitive sensing MCUs with up to 43 capacitive sensing
inputs, 32 kB flash memory, 8 kB RAM, seven DMA channels and a 16 x 16
multiply-accumulate (MAC) unit in QFN packages as small as 4 mm x 4 mm.
The F97x MCUs integrate a 25 MHz pipelined 8051-compatible core, a
precision oscillator, a 10-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a
temperature sensor, a voltage reference and four 16-bit general-purpose
timer/counters.
"The touch interfaces for our HVAC, lighting and security devices
require fast and accurate capacitive touch control and complex system
management, all within a very tight power budget, and Silicon Labs' F97x
MCUs provided the most energy-efficient solution without any performance
or functional trade-offs," said John Calagaz, chief technology officer
of CentraLite
Systems. "Silicon Labs' Simplicity Studio development platform also
helped us meet our time-to-market targets, providing everything we
needed to optimize our design for performance and energy efficiency."
The F97x MCU family is supported by the Simplicity
Studio development platform, which enables developers to quickly
demonstrate and develop capacitive touch interfaces. This complimentary
software platform includes a fully integrated Eclipse-based integrated
development environment (IDE), a Keil compiler (supporting unlimited
code size), demonstration tools, application examples, libraries and
documentation in a single, simple-to-use tool. The built-in Capacitive
Sense Profiler tool greatly simplifies the fine tuning of buttons,
sliders, wheels, touch pads and proximity sensors. A full-featured
capacitive sense firmware library makes development fast and efficient
and ensures robust, proven operation.
"Many of today's battery-powered connected devices for the IoT require
high-performance yet energy-friendly touchscreen user interfaces. We
understand the requirements of these applications and have delivered a
best-in-class capacitive touch sensing solution for the IoT market,"
said Daniel Cooley, vice president and general manager of Silicon Labs'
microcontroller and wireless products. "Combining industry-leading
energy efficiency with exceptional performance, the F97x family is the
most advanced capacitive sensing 8-bit MCU solution available, backed by
our industry-leading Simplicity Studio ecosystem."
Pricing and Availability
Samples and production quantities of the C8051F97x MCUs are available
now. Product pricing in 10,000-unit quantities begins at $1.18 (USD). To
help developers accelerate their human interface designs, Silicon Labs
offers the C8051F970-A-DK development kit priced at $99 (USD MSRP). For
additional F97x MCU product information and samples and to download the
Simplicity Studio development platform at no charge, please visit www.silabs.com/8bit-mcu.
Silicon Labs
Silicon Labs is an industry leader in the innovation of
high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs. Developed by a
world-class engineering team with unsurpassed expertise in mixed-signal
design, Silicon Labs' diverse portfolio of patented semiconductor
solutions offers customers significant advantages in performance, size
and power consumption. For more information about Silicon Labs, please
visit www.silabs.com.
Cautionary Language
This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on
Silicon Labs' current expectations. These forward-looking statements
involve risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could
cause actual results to differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements. For a discussion of factors that could
impact Silicon Labs' financial results and cause actual results to
differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, please
refer to Silicon Labs' filings with the SEC. Silicon Labs disclaims any
intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
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Silicon Labs
Dale Weisman, +1-512-532-5871
dale.weisman@silabs.com
or
Publitek
Technology PR
Oliver Davies, +44 1225 470 000
oliver.davies@publitek.com
Source: Silicon Laboratories Inc.
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