Introduction of New Single-Chip 8-bit MCU featuring Embedded FRAM Memory by Fujitsu
Fujitsu Semiconductor has announced release of a new 8-bit MCU featuring embedded Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (FRAM) designed for variety of general purpose applications, such as consumer electronic products, healthcare as well as industrial systems. Incorporating the FRAM into the MCU will significantly reduces the footprint and cost through a simplified design eliminating chip-to-chip interconnects, resulting in improvement in transaction speed and internal bus interface between MCU and memory, out performing the FLASH or EEPROM. The embedded FRAM can be erased and rewritten 1015 times, with data retention of 10 years. The FRAM can be partitioned as either ROM or RAM. The new MCU MB95R203A operates with power supplies ranging from 1.8V to 3.6V, a power supplies that are typically used in home healthcare devices, such as blood pressure and glucose meters. The new chip incorporates timers and communication functions, as well as high-precision A/C converters, UART, I2C, and 16 I/O ports. Read more
Development of Close Proximity Wireless Communication Technology integrating Transmitter and Receiver Circuit Block in a Single Chip
Close proximity wireless communication technology is nothing new; it is currently being incorporated into contact less smartcards; however further adoption of this technology for small equipment has been a issue, due to requirement of a large antenna area of credit card size, in order to achieve a sufficiently small noise level as well as high tolerance for misalignment between the transmitter chip and receiver chip. In response to this technical challenge, Renesas Electronics has successfully, developed a close proximity wireless communication technology requiring an antenna of only 1mm in diameter, making it ideal for on-chip integration, where a short-range data transmission of within 1cm distance can be achieved. Read more
Development of World’s First Low-Resistance 300A single-Chip SiC Trench MOSFET by ROHM
The inherent deficiency of silicon semiconductor devices during power conversion has forced many designers to look for alternative semiconductor material. One such material is silicon carbide due to its superior material properties leading to increase in power conversion efficiency in these type of devices. Power conversion modules for such application as electric vehicles,power transmission and railroads require a minimum current capacity of approximately 600A which is currently possible through parallel connection of several large area Si chip capable of outputting 200A to 300A. In order to increase current is necessary to reduce ON resistance while at the same time increasing the surface area of the chip. Even though the SiC features an excellent ON resistance characteristics increasing the area results in a greater number of crystal defects which leads to device failure. Read more
