MCUs for secure industrial and automotive applications

Mouser now offers Microchip Technology's PIC32CZ CA MCUs. These 32-bit high-performance MCUs provide a wide range of connectivity options, making them excellent for industrial gateways, graphics, or automotive applications.

These MCUs feature an Arm Cortex-M7 processor, 8MB of flash and 1MB of SRAM, and a wide range of connectivity options, including high-speed USB, CAN FD, SQI, SDHC, I2S, Media LB bus, EBI, and SERCOM. The PIC32CZ CA90 MCUs also include an integrated HSM, offering a unified security solution for industrial and consumer applications. The HSM operates as a secure subsystem with a distinct MCU on board that manages firmware and security features, such as hardware secure launch, key storage, cryptographic acceleration and more. The HSM creates a firewalled secure subsystem separate from the main host MCU, keeping all security separate from the main host MCU.

The MCU also include secure boot, which verifies the authenticity and integrity of application code, protecting against malicious tampering. Also, cryptographic hardware within the PIC32CZ CA90 is used to verify the signature of the application code and its hash. This multi-layered security approach ensures that the device executes only authenticated and unaltered code, safeguarding against unauthorised access or tampering.

The MCUs can be configured using various connectivity options, including USART/UART, I2C, SPI, CAN FD, high-speed USB and gigabit Ethernet. The Ethernet option includes AVB and precision time protocol (PTP) based on the IEEE 1588 standard. These MCUs are available in 100-pin, 144-pin, 176-pin, and 208-pin TQFP and BGA packages. To mitigate data corruption, these devices are scalable with 2, 4 or 8MB of onboard Flash, 1MB of SRAM, and ECC memory.

The PIC32CZ CA80 and PIC32CZ CA90 are supported by the EV51S73A and EV16W43A Curiosity Ultra development boards, which are also available to order. These boards provide a complete evaluation and prototyping platform for the MCUs. The MPLAB integrated development environment and MPLAB Harmony, including an embedded programmer/debugger, support the Curiosity Ultra development boards. Connectors allow for adding Arduino Uno R3, MikroElektronika Click boards or Xplained Pro expansion boards for developing Bluetooth audio, IoT, robotics and other proof-of-concept designs.