News and New Products

FROM EDN EUROPE: AVR µC hits nA current levels

By Graham Prophet, Editor -- EDN Europe, 5/11/2006

Four 8-bit AVR-architecture microcontrollers, collectively positioned under the "picoPower" label, have current demands measured in nA in power-down mode. The current levels quoted are 300 µA when active, 150 µA in idle mode with a 1-MHz clock, 650 nA in power-save mode—which keeps a 32-kHz clock running, together with a brown-out watchdog circuit—and 100 nA in full power-down mode.

Atmel has designed this variant of the AVR family for use in battery-powered applications where the processor will have a very low duty cycle, spending most of its time in a "sleep" condition. Examples include lighting control, security, keyless entry and wireless protocols such as Zigbee and other low-data-rate applications. Atmel says the power savings have come from concentrating design effort on reducing crystal-oscillator power consumption, brown-out detectors (a requirement to identify a failing battery in a long-life application) and I/O pin leakage. The parts will be pin-compatible with existing AVR-architecture devices.