Ultra-Low Power MCU Uses Ferroelectric Memory

A new ultra-low power microcontroller (MCU) with on-boardferroelectric memory could give a big boost to remote monitoring systems.

The newmicrocontroller, introduced at the Embedded Systems Conferencehere, could be especially important for monitoring of bridges, buildings andother remote structures. It also could make it easier for manufacturers totracks products, such as pharmaceuticals, as they get shipped around the world.

"It's goingto allow you to put more sensors in more places and monitor more things," notesMiller Adair, MSP430 product marketing manager for TexasInstruments, maker of the new microcontroller. "The key is the fact thatFRAM writes 100 times faster than Flash (memory) and gives you a 250-timespower savings. So you can do significantly more things with the same batterythan you could with a Flash controller."

Known as the MSP430FR57xx, the new microcontrolleris said to be the industry's first ultra-low power ferroelectric random accessmemory (FRAM) 16-bit microcontroller. Texas Instruments has been working onFRAM technology for about a decade, but this is the first time that the memoryhas been integrated into a microcontroller. The new MCU is said to reduce theindustry's best active power by up to 50 percent when executing code from FRAM,operating at 100 muA/MHz in active mode and 3 muA in real-time clock mode. Italso offers virtually limitless write endurance at 100 trillion cycles.

For product designers, the newtechnology provides the ability to deploy and monitor sensors for years at atime. TI engineers foresee it being used on many of the country's 600,000bridges, or on other types of remote structures where safety and security iscritical.

"Imagine employing underwaterseismic sensors for years at a time, so we can identify seismic threats and getnotifications out faster," Adair says. "You could also use it for assettracking, or you could monitor pharmaceuticals from the day they leave thefactory until the day they hit your medicine cabinet."