01 February 2010

Analog Devices Precision Analog MCUs With ARM7

Analog Devices, a member of the ARM Connected Community, has introduced two highly integrated precision analog microcontrollers, designed to provide a high level of programmability in a small package size.

The ADuC7023 and ADuC7122 precision analog microcontrollers use an ARM7 processor with up to 126 KB of flash memory to ensure the accurate control of optical drivers and diagnostics.

The microcontrollers feature on-chip 12-bit  ADCs (analog-to-digital converters) and DACs (digital-to-analog converters), which reduce the size of the overall solution by up to 75 percent compared to competing discrete solutions, according to the company. The devices support interrupt nesting and up to 16 levels of interrupt priority, and retain DAC and GPIO outputs during a software or watchdog reset, which are of particular benefit to optical module designers.

The ADuC7122 includes a 32-bit ARM7TDMI processor core operating at 41.78 MHz with 8 KB (kilobytes) of on-chip SRAM and 128 KB of on-chip EEPROM memory with software-triggered in-circuit re-programmability. While competing devices use PWMs (pulse-width modulators) and lower performance ADCs to perform monitoring and control functions, the ADuC7122 microcontroller features a 14-channel, 12-bit, 1-MSPS SAR (successive-approximation register) ADC, 12 buffered 12-bit DACs, a programmable gain amplifier and an on-chip temperature sensor. All of this functionality is provided in a tiny 7 mm × 7 mm 108-ball BGA (ball grid array) package.

For fixed frequency optical transceivers in SFP, SFP+, XFP and GPON, the ADuC7023 offers 8 KB of SRAM, 62 KB of flash/EEPROM memory, 19 general-purpose I/O (input/output) pins, three general-purpose timers and 16 programmable-logic elements. Analog peripherals include a 12-channel, 12-bit, 1-MSPS ADC, a 16-bit, 6-channel PWM and four buffered 12-bit DACs. All of this functionality is provided in a tiny 5 mm × 5 mm 32-lead LFCSP (lead frame chip scale package).