Texas Devices says it has shrunk the scale of the smallest microcontroller unit in its business with a brand new MCU the size of a black pepper flake.
The MCU packaging is just one.38 sq. millimeters in measurement and is a part of the corporate’s Arm Cortex line of embedded designs. TI says the product is aimed toward small merchandise together with medical wearables, earbuds, stylus pens and electrical toothbrushes. The product features a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter and has 16KB of flash reminiscence and 1KB of SRAM and runs at 24MHz.
The diminutive machine is called the MSPM0C1104. Alas, that is as catchy because it will get (no PepperPower for this piece of tech).
TI says the microcontroller prices 20 cents per unit in portions of 1,000, which implies an organization might get a military of robotic spiders venture began for as little as $200. TI is displaying off this and different MCUs (not Marvel-related) at Embedded World 2025 in Nuremberg, Germany.
Opens up alternatives
William Luk, a advisor and know-how knowledgeable at Quandary Peak Analysis, mentioned the MCU shrinkage opens up alternatives in areas the place miniature units weren’t beforehand doable.
“One of many essential verticals for micro-devices is in healthcare and surgical: good capsules, embedded sensors, and even surgical units that may attain locations like by no means earlier than,” Luk mentioned.
Luk additionally mentioned the innovation could also be sufficient to maneuver Texas Devices up the chain of MCU builders at the moment dominated by STMicroelectronics, Infineon, NXP, Microchip and Renesas Electronics.
“With the brand new TI MCU, we might see a brand new class of tremendous micro-devices not simply concentrating on shoppers however business makes use of (comparable to healthcare). However there are additionally challenges comparable to authorities approval (for medical units). Manufacturing of those new micro units may be difficult,” Luk mentioned.
Correction: An earlier model of this story erroneously acknowledged that the microcontroller prices 16 cents per unit.
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