TAIPEI, Taiwan - Internet of Things (IoT) and smart trends continue to drive the growth of microcontroller (MCU) chips with both the vastness of applications and performance simultaneously experiencing rapid growth. MCU chip provider Holtek Semiconductor today at a yearly presentation for new products launched several types of 32-bit MCU products with applications that include wireless charging, rapid USB Type-C charging, and LoRa long distance wireless transmission products.
This time Holtek's new 32-bit products are mainly equipped with ARM Cortex M0+/M3 series processors. The M0+(HT32F5 series) emphasizes high C/P value and high energy efficiency, and the M3(HT32F1/HT32F2 series) emphasizes high performance demand and versatility. The two series can be utilized in smart home appliances, networking, wearable devices and smart toy products.
Holtek General Manager Gau, Kuo-Tung pointed out that the M0+ series provides 5V voltage products, and clients can make direct use of them in the design of home appliances. In addition, they can chose Flash memory capacity in the range of 16K to 128K for a wider space of applications.
Holtek today also announced a new type of smart fire alarm module with built-in LoRa technology developed in collaboration with Semtech. This smart fire alarm module is equipped with Semtech's LoRa technology and Holtek's newly-launched smoke detection MCU, and it includes an alarm as well as a main controller. The main controller utilizes the Holtek M0+ MCU monitor to carry out smoke detection with LoRa technology for long-distance communication.
The wireless charging applications were inspired by the launch of the iPhone 8 with the demand for wireless charging modules increasing this year, and Holtek has launched the new MCU HT66FW2350 wireless application in response. There has also been significant evolution in key power control technology in the new chips, which are now capable of providing the following three power control modes: frequency, duty cycle, and phase and can reach 18W of transmission power.
Today Holtek also showcased two types of wireless charging boards, which are 5W and 15W, and both of them are compatible with iPhones. The 5W wireless charging board has already been modularized and obtained WPC certification, and the 15W wireless charging board has already been completely developed, and WPC certification is expected to be obtained in the fourth quarter of this year.
Similarly benefiting from Apple driven applications, Holtek today also launched two types of USB Type-C Power Delivery (PD) charging products which utilize specialized MCU: the HT32FP2350 and the HT32FP2450. These are both capable of PD 3.0 communications and are designed for integration with power management circuits for use in a wide variety of rapid PD charging products.
(TR/ Phil Sweeney)
