Texas Instruments claims it has actually diminished the dimension of the tiniest microcontroller device in its sector with a brand-newMCU the size of a black pepper flake
The MCU product packaging is just 1.38 square millimeters in dimension and belongs to the firm’s Arm Cortex line of ingrained layouts. TI claims the item is focused on little items consisting of clinical wearables, earbuds, stylus pen pens and electrical tooth brushes. The item consists of a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter and has 16KB of flash memory and 1KB of SRAM and goes for 24MHz.
The petite tool is referred to as the MSPM0C1104. Alas, that’s as catchy as it obtains (no Pepper Power for this item of technology).
TI claims the microcontroller sets you back 20 cents each in amounts of 1,000, which implies a firm can obtain a military of robotic crawlers job began for as low as $200. TI is displaying this and various other MCUs (not Marvel- relevant) at Embedded World 2025 in Nuremberg,Germany
Opens up chances
William Luk, a specialist and innovation professional at Quandary Peak Research, stated the MCU contraction opens chances in locations where mini gadgets weren’t formerly feasible.
“One of the important verticals for micro-devices is in healthcare and surgical: smart pills, embedded sensors, or even surgical devices that can reach places like never before,” Luk stated.
Luk likewise stated the technology might suffice to relocate Texas Instruments up the chain of MCU programmers presently controlled by STMicroelectronics, Infineon, NXP, Microchip and Renesas Electronics.
“With the new TI MCU, we could see a new class of super micro-devices not just targeting consumers but commercial uses (such as healthcare). But there are also challenges such as government approval (for medical devices). Manufacturing of these new micro devices could also be challenging,” Luk stated.
Correction, March 14: An earlier variation of this tale improperly detailed the price of the microcontroller. It prices 20 cents each.