Mixed-signal microcontrollers feature touch technology

10th May 2016

Mick Elliott

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Datasheet

The MSP430FR263x/MSP430FR253x mixed-signal microcontrollers from Texas Instruments (TI) are now being shipped by Mouser Electronics. These ultra-low power Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) microcontrollers feature CapTIvate touch technology for buttons, sliders, wheels, and proximity applications. The microcontrollers also include a high-performance 10‑bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) as well as a 32-bit hardware multiplier for math-intensive operations.

The devices are ideal for low-power industrial and consumer products such as thermostats, lighting control, home appliances, personal electronics, and electronic door locks.

The 16‑bit RISC microcontrollers have 16-bit registers and constant generators that contribute to maximum code efficiency. With an active mode current of just 126µA/MHz and drawing less than 0.9µA in wake-on-touch mode (which allows electrode scanning while the CPU is asleep), the microcontrollers target ultra‑low power systems where battery life must be extended.

The on-chip 16-MHz digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) allows the microcontrollers to wake up from low-power modes to active mode typically in less than 10 µs.

The microcontrollers also have two Enhanced Universal Serial Communication Interfaces (eUSCI), each of which are capable of supporting UART, IrDA encoder/decoder, and SPI serial protocols, plus an additional eUSCI that supports SPI and I²C protocols.

The microcontrollers are supported by two development tools, also available from Mouser Electronics. Developers can plug the TI BOOST-IR BoosterPack Plug-in Module into a LaunchPad Development Kit to start developing remote control applications using the on-board keypad, infrared (IR) LED transmitter, and IR receiver and demodulator. The MSP-CAPT-FR2633 CapTIvate Development Kit is a comprehensive, easy-to-use platform to evaluate the MSP430FR2633 microcontroller.

The kit contains the MSP430FR2633-based processor board and a programmer/debugger board with EnergyTrace technology to measure energy consumption with the Code Composer Studio integrated development environment (IDE). The development kit also includes sensor boards for evaluating self-capacitance, mutual capacitance, gesture and proximity sensing.