Top Stories Atmel Releases New tinyAVR Microcontroller's Ideal for battery chargers, sensors and miniature motor control Atmel has just released three new members of the tinyAVR® Flash Microcontroller family, targeting battery chargers, sensor end-points and low-end motor control applications. The devices offer three different Flash, EEPROM and SRAM combinations. The ATtiny25 has 2 KB of Self- Programmable Flash memory, whereas ATtiny45 and ATtiny85 have 4 KB and 8 KB, respectively. The ATtiny25/45/85 includes a temperature sensor allowing temperature calibration of system parameters. Being truly pin and functionally compatible, it is possible to migrate both up and down in memory footprint with minimum effort. All new devices are capable of 20 MIPS throughput when running at 20 MHz. "The on-chip temperature sensor available in these parts eliminates the external circuitry required for any control application where system temperature is being monitored," said Jukka Eskelinen, Marketing Director for tinyAVR products. Cooling or heating fans and blowers can be made smarter. In embedded systems ATtiny25/45/85 can monitor and control temperature, power supply voltages and currents, and communicate to the system host through its Universal Serial Interface (USI) communication module. Internal temperature sensing is also valuable in portable electronic equipment which are exposed to temperature extremes. As a part of Atmel's strategy to help design engineers drastically reduce development costs, design time and ultimately production cost, all advanced microcontroller features that are typically found only in high-end microcontrollers are now available in these small eight-pin microcontrollers. Functions like internal EEPROM, Differential ADC channels, and integrated 16 MHz high precision internal RC Oscillator enables advanced equipment to be manufactured in minimum area and cost. The on-chip, low power PLL is used to control two Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) outputs capable of generating a 250 kHz PWM output at 8-bit resolution. Paired with the user adjustable dead-time generators which are used to avoid pulse overlapping for the driver stage, this allows for reduced size and cost for external filter components when using the PWM to control power to a battery. Together with the four 10-bit A/D converter channels, and a fast analog comparator, this provides all the means for current and voltage control and safety when controlling power. ATtiny25/45/85 also excels in battery-powered equipment due to their inherent low power consumption, and three individually selectable low power sleep modes. In addition, the application software can control the system clock frequency in real time. Maximum frequency, and top performance are available during active periods, whereas power consumption is reduced to a minimum at all other times. Additional power saving is achieved by using the Power Stop System allowing the user to turn off timers, USI, and/or ADC when not in use. The ATtiny25/45/85 consumes less than 100 nA in Power Down mode. The company's Web site address is http://www.atmel.com/. [Reprinted with kind permission from Atmel Corporation]

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