26 March 2012
Ambiq announces world’s lowest power RTC chips
Ambiq Micro has launched a range of real time clock (RTC) chips, which it claims are the lowest power devices in the world.
According to the timing and power management ic specialist, the AM08XX and AM18XX series' provide typical active currents from 15 to 55nA, making them suitable for applications requiring maximum possible battery life using the smallest, least expensive power source.
The RTC families are designed to provide on chip oscillators to enable minimum power consumption, full RTC functionality including battery backup, programmable counters and programmable alarms for timer and watchdog functions. The full feature set of the series makes them adaptable for applications such as real time backup, wireless sensors and tags, smart cards and security tokens. The devices are available in packages that are footprint compatible with popular RTCs currently on the market.
The AM18XX couples ultra low power RTC functions with advanced power management capabilities. An on chip power switch and system sleep manager are designed to enable the range to be used as a supervisory element in a host microcontroller based system, minimising the overall power used by other system components.
"Ambiq Micro's AM08XX and AM18XX families provide a wide range of functionality well beyond any RTC on the market today and provide those features at an unprecedented low power consumption level," said Scott Hanson, CEO of Ambiq Micro. "Customers have been extremely enthusiastic about the advanced features of the AM18XX, which allows their designers to take advantage, not only of the ultra low power RTC, but to also dramatically increase overall system energy efficiency."
An evaluation kit is also available that connects to a pc via USB. All RTC functions can be initiated over the USB interface including setting time, reading time, setting alarms and timers, and clearing alarms and timers.
Author
Chris Shaw
Supporting Information
Websites
http://www.ambiqmicro.com/products/product-overview
Companies
Findlay Media Ltd
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