Low power microcontroller duo extends battery-powered sensors and wearables
Two microcontrollers from Maxim Integrated, the MAX32660 and MAX32652 are based on the low-power Arm Cortex-M4F. They are suitable for wearable sensors and battery-powered applications such as IoT sensors, environmental sensors, smartwatches, medical/preventive health wearables, and other size-constrained devices.
The MAX32660 and MAX32652 microcontrollers provide designers with the means to develop advanced applications under restrictive power constraints, says the company. Maxim’s family of Darwin microcontrollers combine its wearable-grade power technology with the biggest embedded memories in their class and what the company claims is some of the most advanced embedded security in the world.
The MAX32660 is characterised by powerful processing in a tiny form factor. Memory, size, power consumption, and processing power are critical features for engineers designing complex algorithms for smarter IoT applications. Existing solutions either have sufficient power consumption but limited processing and memory capabilities, or if they have higher power consumption there are more powerful processors and more memory. The MAX32660 offers designers access to enough memory to run some advanced algorithms and manage sensors (256kbyte flash and 96kbyte SRAM). They also offer power performance down to 50-microW/MHz), and a small form factor of 1.6 x 1.6mm in a WLP. They are also available at a cost-effective price point, adds Maxim, enabling engineers to build more intelligent sensors and systems that are smaller and lower in cost, while also providing a longer battery life.
The MAX32652 is a low power microcontroller with scalable memory. As IoT devices become more intelligent, they require more memory and additional embedded processors which can each be expensive and power-hungry, explains Maxim. The MAX32652 offers an alternative for designers with the low power consumption of an embedded microcontroller with the capabilities of a higher powered applications processor. With 3Mbyte flash and 1Mbyte SRAM integrated on-chip and running up to 120MHz, the MAX32652 can be used in IoT devices that strive to do more processing and provide more intelligence. Integrated high-speed peripherals such as high-speed USB 2.0, secure digital (SD) card controller, a thin-film transistor (TFT) display controller, and a security engine position are integrated. With the added capability to run from external memories over HyperBus or XcellaBus, the MAX32652 can be designed to do even more tomorrow, providing designers a future-proof memory architecture and anticipating the increasing demands of smart devices, Maxim believes.
MAX32660EVKIT# and MAX32652EVKIT# evaluation kits are also both available via Maxim’s website.
