Silicon Labs recently introduced the C8051F91x/0x product family, designed to dramatically increase battery lifetime—the number one requirement for most battery powered applications.  With an increasing number of applications and regulations demanding lower power and energy saving modes, the C8051F91x/0x is debuting at the perfect time.  It has the industry’s lowest active mode current consumption which saves power when the application is running.  It also has the industry’s lowest current consumption sleep modes that save power when the device is sleeping, a majority of the time in typical battery powered applications.  The C8051F91x/0x family includes 16 or 8 kB of Flash, a 12-bit ADC, multiple comparators, and a 25 MHz processor all in a compact 4x4 mm package.  This provides you the right mix of digital and analog features at a competitive price.

Target applications for the C8051F91x/0x MCU family include RFID tags, pedometers, smart meters, sensor interfaces, energy harvesting applications, alarm systems and smoke and fire detectors.  The C8051F91x/0x can also be optionally paired with the CP240x LCD driver family to target LCD applications.  The overall system-level power consumption of this MCU + LCD controller combination is better than all competitive alternatives.  The CP240x can also be paired with other any other Silicon Labs MCU with a SPI or I2C.  Examples with this MCU + LCD combination include thermostat displays, home security systems, portable health care devices and other battery-operated handheld devices. 

The C8051F91x/0x may also be bundled with Silicon Labs EZRadioPRO® wireless receivers for use in wireless nodes found in weather stations, water and gas meters, home automation and security.  By pairing the industry’s lowest power MCU with the industry’s highest performance wireless transceiver, Silicon Labs’ is far superior in terms of current consumption, size, receive sensitivity and transmit power.  To help demonstrate the low power and small size benefits offered by Silicon Labs, we now offer a two-board RF-to-USB reference design that wirelessly streams data from a transmit board to a computer via a USB dongle.  This demonstrates Silicon Labs’ sub-gigahertz, USB and low power technologies while also a useful product enhancer for numerous applications.