World's smallest MCU enables innovation in the tiniest of applications

Texas Instruments has introduced the world's smallest MCU, expanding its comprehensive Arm Cortex-M0+ MSPM0 MCU portfolio. Measuring only 1.38mm2, about the size of a black pepper flake, the wafer chip-scale package (WCSP) for the MSPM0C1104 MCU allows designers to optimise board space in applications such as medical wearables and personal electronics without compromising performance.

"In tiny systems such as earbuds and medical probes, board space is a scarce and valuable resource," said Vinay Agarwal, vice president and general manager of MSP Microcontrollers at Texas Instruments. "With the addition of the world's smallest MCU, our MSPM0 MCU portfolio provides unlimited possibilities to enable smarter, more connected experiences in our day-to-day lives."

With over 100 cost-effective MCUs, the company's MSPM0 MCU portfolio provides scalable configurations of on-chip analog peripherals and a range of computing options to improve the sensing and control capabilities of embedded designs.

Consumers are continuously demanding that everyday electronic items, such as electric toothbrushes and stylus pens, deliver more features in a smaller footprint at a lower cost. To innovate within these shrinking products, engineers increasingly seek compact, integrated components that allow them to add functionality while preserving board space. The new MCU employs the advantages of WCSP packaging technology, along with intentional feature selection and the company's cost optimisation efforts. The size of the eight-ball WCSP is 1.38mm2, making it 38% smaller than competing devices.

The MCU features 16KB of memory; a 12-bit ADC with three channels; six general-purpose input/output pins; and compatibility with standard communication interfaces such as UART, SPI and I2C. Integrating accurate, high-speed analog components into the world's smallest MCU offers engineers the flexibility to maintain the computing performance of their embedded systems without increasing board size.

The new MSPM0C1104 joins the company's MSPM0 MCU portfolio, which offers scalability, cost optimisation and ease of use to accelerate time to market. Its MSPM0 MCUs feature pin-to-pin compatible package options and feature sets to match memory, analog and computing requirements in personal electronics, industrial and automotive applications. This optimisation and feature integration across the portfolio help engineers design products of any size while reducing cost and complexity in their systems.

For further support, the company's comprehensive ecosystem includes an optimised software development kit for all MSPM0 MCUs, a hardware development kit for rapid prototyping, reference designs, and subsystems, which are code examples for common MCU functions. Its Zero Code Studio tool allows users to configure, develop and run MCU applications in minutes without coding. Engineers can use this ecosystem to scale designs and reuse code without significant hardware or software modifications. In addition to this ecosystem, its MSPM0 MCU portfolio is supported by growing investments in its internal manufacturing capacity to support future demand.