MCU offers low power solution with 128kbytes of flash for metering and many other applications

The device offers 128kbytes of on-chip single supply flash memory, capable of operating from 1.8 - 3.6v, allowing easy reprogramming of the memory without any additional, special circuitry. This allows easy end of line programming, reducing customer inventory, and software updates or bug fixes in the field.
The H8/38099F offers fast oscillator start up, where the main oscillator can typically start up in around 20us using an external resonator, making it ideal for applications whose power cycle demands that they spend the majority of time asleep in the lowest power modes.

The device’s on-chip real time clock provides an ideal solution for many time keeping applications, and the on-chip high-resolution 10-bit A/D converter with its wide sampling range makes the 38099F ideal for a variety of metering applications.

The on-chip watchdog timer with built in oscillator along with power on reset and the on-chip oscillator makes the H/38099F easy to design into systems where reliability is an issue.

The special design of USART with built in IrDA interface is designed to operate in a variety of low power modes, and can be driven at up to 1200 baud from the 32kHz oscillator.

The device’s powerful 16-bit timer module can be used for a variety of purposes, including driving a variety of motors, and is capable of generating up to four channels of PWM output.

The H8/38099F has a power on chip LCD display controller with its own voltage booster and constant voltage generator. This can be programmed by the user to generate a constant voltage for the LCD display no matter what the input voltage to the micro-controller. The device also supports digital contrast control.

The H8/38099F supports low power operation as follows, 1.1mA at 2MHz in active mode, 9A in sub active mode, 0.5A in watch mode with RTC operating, and 0.1A in standby mode.

The H8/38099RF has 128 Kbytes of on-chip flash and 4 Kbytes of SRAM, and there are also 128 and 96 byte mask ROM versions for cost sensitive applications.

The H8/38099RF features a 10 MHz H8/300H CPU core, interfaces for SCI (3), clock sync and I2C, a 16-bit timer, TPU (2 x 16-bit), two 8-bit timers, an asynchronous timer, watchdog timer with on-chip RC, four 14-bit PWM, and an 8 ch/10-bit A/D converter.

Other features include a 40 x 4 LCD controller/driver, tuneable booster for LCD, 83 I/O pins, On-Chip POR and an On-chip debug interface.
Applications for the H8/38099F are many and varied. The device provides an ideal solution for metering applications, such as water and gas meters, as well as heat meters and heat allocators as a result of the combination of very low cost and low power consumption along with the advanced feature set. The low cost of the H8/38099F also makes it ideal for many types of electricity meter.

The fast oscillator start up feature of the H8/38099F makes it ideal for applications that spends most of their time dormant in an extremely low power state, and then waken to take readings or to communicate. Applications such as water meters, and gas meters are prime examples, along with many automated meter reading solutions (AMR) using low power RF or powerline.

The asynchronous timer on the H8/38099RF also makes the device ideal for battery powered applications that count pulses, as it is able to count external pulses and keep a real time clock function with an average power consumption of around 0.5uA.

Apart from metering, any other application where the system is required to be battery powered, take some reading or measurement and communicate, and normally with a user interface, are ideal applications for the 38099F. Such applications include flow meters, security sensors, access control panels, various types of user interface, data loggers etc.

Development tools available for the device are the E8a Emulator and the RSK38099 starter kit.