Microchip's new SPI RTCC series in 10-pin package

1st August 2012

Nat Bowers

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Datasheet

Microchip has today revealed that it is expanding its stand-alone Real-Time Clock/Calendar portfolio with the new 10-pin, SPI MCP795XX family. These new devices offer many of the same features as the larger 14-pin MCP795WXX family, including superior timekeeping performance. Reducing overall component count in the system and eliminating the user programming costs for a serial ID make the MCP795XX RTCC family an ideal choice for the handheld, wireless and consumer markets. By including 64 bytes of SRAM, 2 Kbits of EEPROM and a 128-bit Unique ID, which can be ordered blank or preprogrammed with a MAC address, extra memory devices may not be needed.

Utility power meters, manufacturing equipment, radios, GPS and hospital instrumentation applications that need accurate time over a broad temperature range will also benefit from the very wide digital trimming range, which can compensate up to 22 seconds per day for crystal frequency drift.

Digital trimming improves the timekeeping accuracy of RTCCs, and a wide digital trimming range provides customers with high accuracy over a large temperature range. Accurate timekeeping is also supported at a decreased power-consumption level, because digital trimming is maintained when the MCP795XX is operating from backup power on the VBAT input. Additionally, these devices join the industry’s only portfolio to distinctively offer a battery-backed RTCC with both power-fail and power-restore timestamps plus three types of non-volatile memory: EEPROM, SRAM and a Unique ID.

When the time and duration of power failures need to be logged, the MCP795XX family can accomplish this without adding any circuitry by using the on-chip power-fail timestamp feature, which is not offered by any other SPI RTCC on the market. With long battery life at a premium, applications such as wireless, portable communications, security and automotive can benefit from the 5 MHz SPI bus and millisecond alarm. This high-resolution alarm output provides a greater degree of control over the duty cycle needed to support longer MCU sleep and power-down modes.

“With the introduction of Microchip’s new lower pin count SPI real-time clocks, we are continuing to offer our customers highly accurate timekeeping solutions with onboard memory and a MAC Address for their networked applications,” said Randy Drwinga, vice president of Microchip’s Memory Products Division. “The enhanced features in this mid-range family of devices provide our customers with even more ways to lower their system costs by reducing component count and user programming costs.”

The MCP795XX SPI RTCC PICtail Plus Daughter Board (part # AC164147, $45) is expected to be available in August. This board works with Microchip’s Explorer 16 Development Board (part # DM240001, $129.99) and PIC18 Explorer Board (part # DM183032, $99.99) to enable designers to demonstrate the MCP795XX and WXX RTCC devices in their applications.

All six members of the MCP795XX family are available in 10-pin MSOP and TDFN packages, and all six are available today for sampling. Specifically, the six members of this RTCC family are the MCP79510, MCP79511, MCP79512, MCP79520, MCP79521 and MCP79522. Pricing starts at $0.78 each in 10,000-unit quantities, and volume-production is expected to be available on October 1.