09 September 2008

Atmel Rolls Out 4-Channel Power Management Unit

Atmel Corporation, a member of the ARM Connected Community, has unveiled AT73C224 Analog Companion, Power Management Unit designed for a wide range of applications based on 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs), including Atmel ARM based applications.

The AT73C224 supplies the required voltages and currents to the main sections of generic 32-bit MCU-based applications including MCU core, memory, I/O, USB host and interfaces.

"The AT73C224 is an excellent example of an Analog Companion for any 32-bit MCU application, especially Atmel ARM, AVR or CAP based applications," explained Michele Casetta, Marketing Manager for Atmel's Power Management And Analog Companions (PMAAC) Product Line.

"The key point of the AT73C224 is its flexibility: it is able to accept any type of power input from 3V to 5V, it is able to generate power supplies from 0.9V up to 5.2V and even higher. Finally it can manage the RTC mode of the system thanks to its own 1uA crystal oscillator and RTC macro, allowing the MCU to be switched off, cutting leakage current and increasing battery operating time. Confirming Atmel's leadership in the MCU market, the AT73C224 supports the company in offering a system solution,” added Casetta.

The AT73C224 outputs four power supply channels. For the MCU core and new-generation low-voltage memories, one Step Down DC to DC converter supplies a 0.9V to 3.4V programmable output voltage and a 500 mA output current. Completing the coverage of output voltage, one Step Up DC to DC converter supplying 5.2V or higher output voltage is integrated, with output current set by an external FET up to 1A. This can be used to supply a USB host, display modules or HDD devices.

The AT73C224 integrates several state machines that can be selected during factory test, to significantly reduce stabilized output delivery
time during the start up sequence or default voltage configuration. All the programmable features in the AT73C224 can be controlled by the MCU using TWI, SPI or GPIO mode, Atmel said.