NUREMBERG, GERMANY, & AUSTIN, USA: Silicon Laboratories Inc., a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, recently announced the industry's first microcontrollers (MCUs) capable of operating down to 0.9V, enabling portable devices to derive power from a single-cell battery for the first time at the Embedded World tradeshow in Nuremberg, Germany.

The C8051F9xx family's novel 8-bit architecture with an integrated high-efficiency DC-DC boost converter, which can supply up to 65mW of power for both internal MCU use and to drive other components, creates a true single-cell battery system solution. For products powered by user-replaceable batteries such as wireless sensor networks, smoke alarms, portable medical devices, remote controls, computer peripherals and portable audio devices, the C8051F9xx family enables smaller form factor products, longer battery life and lower overall system cost in both single- and dual-cell modes.

In many low-power applications, operating from 0.9V up to 3.6V, the MCU is in sleep mode for the majority of the time, waking up periodically to capture data. The C8051F9xx utilizes innovative design techniques to deliver a typical sleep-mode current of less than 50 nA. The MCU can wake-up from its low power sleep mode with the CPU operating at 25 MIPS and ready to make an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) measurement within just two microseconds. This allows the MCU to spend a minimum amount of time performing measurements and algorithms. To save battery life in active mode, the C8051F9xx's power-efficient architecture yields an active-mode current as low as 170 µA/MHz.

The C8051F9xx family provides high performance while saving power and an unprecedented functional density in a small footprint. The C8051F9xx family is the first MCU to integrate 64kB of Flash and 4kB of RAM into a 4-x 4-mm package, providing customers with increased memory for typical applications such as data logging.

The new low-voltage, low-power MCU family also integrates a 10-bit, 300-ksps analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with an internal fast wake-up voltage reference, a SmaRTClock timing module and multiple internal oscillator options to provide a true system-on-chip solution. This unprecedented integration is enabled by innovative design techniques manufactured in a standard low-power CMOS technology, resulting in fewer external components and reduced bill-of-materials cost for the customer.