SEOUL, KOREA - A global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, has announced a new range of 32-bit general-purpose microcontrollers that will significantly extend battery life in a wide range of consumer, medical, and healthcare applications.
The new STM32L0 series features an ultra-low-power 32MHz ARM® Cortex™ M0+ processor core, a 12-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) that sets a new standard for low power consumption and a USB FS 2.0 crystal-less solution.
With the ADC consuming just 40 µA at a conversion speed of 100 ksps, rising to just 200 µA at 1.14 Msps, in combination with the outstanding power efficiency of both the processor core and the ultra-low-power peripherals, applications such as fitness trackers and domestic smoke detectors powered by non-rechargeable batteries will require less frequent replacements, saving both end-user costs and the environmental burden of spent batteries. For example, an STM32L0-based fitness tracker powered by a non-rechargeable coin-cell battery could operate for up to two years before needing a new battery.
A second major benefit is that manufacturers will often be able to design equipment that uses smaller batteries, reducing the size and cost of products such as glucose meters and the rapidly growing range of portable health and fitness products.
In addition, the new devices are fabricated in ST’s proprietary CMOS technology that offers both the industry’s smallest variation in power consumption over the 25°C - 125°C temperature range as well as embedded EEPROM, making the STM32L0 microcontrollers particularly suitable for industrial sensor applications.
“The STM32L0 series is the latest fruit of ST’s constant quest to minimize power consumption in all electronic applications,” said Michel Buffa, General Manager, Microcontroller Division, STMicroelectronics. “This new standard-bearer enables customers to design more competitive products that will bring not only immediate cost and convenience benefits to end-users but also help reduce worldwide consumption of disposable batteries.”
The STM32L0 series is offered in three lines: Access line, USB line, and USB/LCD line. Common features of all of the new devices include outstanding power consumption in several modes including 168 µA/MHz @ 32MHz full-speed full-performance, 87 µA/MHz using an internal MSI clock, and 400 nA in Stop mode with full RAM retention and a 3.5 µs wake-up time. The series also features up to 64KB of Flash memory, up to 8KB of SRAM, and 2KB of embedded true EEPROM. A built-in hardware oversampling capability also enables 16-bit ADC resolution. For the STM32L0 USB and USB/LCD lines with integral USB FS 2.0, crystal-less operation is enabled via a built-in 48MHz oscillator and battery-charging detection. All the lines offers build-in AES 128-bit hardware encryption.
As part of ST’s extensive STM32 family, the world’s most popular range of ARM-based microcontrollers, the STM32L0 devices benefit from the comprehensive STM32 development ecosystem. Moreover, the new devices are pin-to-pin compatible with STM32L1 or any other STM32 devices, enabling customers to rapidly upgrade designs to take advantage of the new power-saving opportunities.
Offered in UQFN32 (5x5mm), LQFP32 (7x7mm), LQFP48 (7x7mm), LQFP64 (10x10mm), and BGA64 (5x5mm) packages, the new devices are now available for sampling from US$0.85 (1,000 unit quantities), with volume production in Q2 2014.
