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Microchip Technology’s latest family of 8-bit flash PIC microcontrollers (MCUs) will operate down to 1.8V.

The aim seems to be to add more functionality to what is essentially a very low cost general purpose MCU. Prices start at $1.34 (70p) each in 10,000 unit quantities.

One interesting feature is the addition of a touch sensing peripheral, which can be used to add proximity sensing or capacitive touch-sensing user interfaces in place of mechanical buttons or switches.

For the strictly power-conscious, the peripheral can operate while the device is in “sleep mode”.

There is also a 16MHz internal oscillator, up to 14 analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) channels, SPI, I2C, AUSART comms interfaces and two Capture, Compare and PWM (CCP) modules.

Designated the PIC16F72X, the MCUs have an operating voltage range of 1.8 – 5.5V, with the low-power PIC16LF72X devices offering lower standby and other power-consumption specifications from 1.8 – 3.6V.

Both variations feature a Timer1 Gate that runs from the internal 16MHz oscillator. The ADC channels can be used to interface with external devices such as environmental sensors, as well as provide additional system control and monitoring.

The MCUs have integrated in-circuit debug and are supported by the MPLAB IDE Integrated Development Environment, available as a free download from Microchip’s website.

In another announcement, Microchip has confirmed that it has selected full speed USB 2.0 IP cores from the Chipidea business unit of MIPS Technologies for use with its MIPS-based 32-bit PIC32 microcontrollers.  Chipidea was acquired by MIPS Technologies in August 2007.