The current market trend is to offer consumer products with more features than previous models, but smaller in size and lower in cost. This can be accomplished with higher levels of integration, the selection of smaller components with fewer pins or the utilisation of smaller packages. Since the UNI/O devices only need a single I/O port to communicate with the microcontroller (MCU), selecting components in a Chip-Scale package is the next step to take in further reducing the overall product size. Even though small size is a factor in any design, the lower overall manufacturing costs from a hand-assembly process can also drive package selection. This is where the through-hole TO-92 package can be utilised.
All Microchip memory devices are supported by the MPLAB Starter Kit for Serial Memory Products (Part number DV243003, cost $100). The kit is available today, at microchipDIRECT (http://www.microchip.com/get/9KE2).
The 11AA160 (16 Kbit) and 11AA020 (2 Kbit) EEPROMs are available in the WLCSP. The 11AA160
(16 Kbit), 11AA020 (2 Kbit) and 11AA010 (1Kbit) EEPROMs are available in the 3-pin TO-92 package,