NEC's latest 16-bit flash microcontrollers come with integrated LCD drivers and are designed for use in battery-operated handheld medical diagnostic instruments, building utility meters for gas, water and electricity as well as applications in factory automation.
The microcontroller series, which is available from distributor Gleichmann Sunrise, includes 80-pin 78K0R/LF3, 100-pin 78K0R/LG3 and 128-pin 78K0R/LH3 and features an extremely low standby current consumption of just 1.2µA when the LCD function is activated and the CPU is stopped.
This represents a 90% reduction of current consumption compared to previous products. It is achieved through the use of an adjustable internal LCD reference voltage and a capacitive voltage splitting that - unlike conventional systems with LCD resistive network - does not produce any unnecessary cross current.
Also from NEC will be the 8-bit all flash microcontrollers of the 78K0/lx2-family which are designed specifically for fluorescent and LED lighting applications.
These MCUs are equipped with up to two 16-bit PWM timers, which enable a precise PWM control in 65536 steps. The on-chip oscillator allows control of the two integrated timers with a maximum of 40MHz, providing a fine-grained inverter control.
Both of the integrated timers are each capable of generating two non-overlapping outputs so that also four-channel LEDs with precise dimming and colour control can be driven by a single MCU.
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