Microchip’s New 8-bit PIC Microcontrollers Combine High Integration, Low Power and a Highly Efficient Method to Implement Touch Sensing

These new 28-pin MCUs offer a combination of advanced digital and analog peripherals, along with XLP for the extended battery life that many applications require. These features make the general-purpose PIC16F1512/13 MCUs ideal for a broad range of applications in the appliance, medical, consumer and automotive markets, among many others. Along with industry-leading active current down to 30 µA/MHz and sleep current down to 20 nA, these MCUs integrate a 17x10-bit ADC, EUSART, I2C/SPI, 2x Capture Compare PWMs, 7 KB Flash and 256B RAM.

Compared to other members of the PIC16F151X family, these two new devices deliver increased analog capability, including a 10-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter with hardware Capacitive Voltage Divider support for mTouch capacitive touch sensing implementation. The additional control logic enables automated touch sampling, which reduces software size and lowers CPU usage. It also provides an automatic control of guard-ring drive and a programmable sample-and-hold capacitance
to better match larger touch or proximity sensors.

“The new PIC16F1512/13 devices support a wide range of applications that require best-in-industry low-power modes, with the added ability to reduce software overhead and improve performance when touch sensing is required,” said Steve Drehobl, vice president of Microchip’s MCU8 Division.”