Microchip Technology Launches Its First Low-Cost High Performance Infrared Products Family

Microchip Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MCHP) Tuesday announced the company's first products supporting infrared wireless communication, the MCP2120 Encoder/Decoder and the MCP2150 Infrared Communication Controller Supporting the IrDA(R) Standard.

These user-friendly devices offer high performance, low-cost solutions with benefits of low power consumption and IrDA Standard support in space-saving packages.

"These new products emphasize the company's commitment to providing connectivity solutions and expanding its analog and interface offering. The MCP2150 is the only low pin count communication controller on the market that supports both the IrDA Standard protocol stack and bit encoding/decoding.

"The device facilitates the ability to meet the requirements for adding IrDA Standard wireless connectivity to systems, allowing the system designer to speed up time-to-market by focusing on the key features of their design, not on implementing wireless communication with other systems," commented Keith Pazul, product marketing manager at Microchip.

The MCP2120 is a fully static infrared encoder/decoder that is used with any Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) and industry-standard infrared transceiver to create an infrared link. With a reliable and high speed connection, this device translates UART bit streams to pulses while consuming very little power (<1mA at 3.3V and 8MHz typical; 3uA typical at 5.0V when disabled).

The MCP2120 offers both hardware and software programmable baud rate selection and is packaged in 14-pin PDIP and SOIC packages. The software baud rate selection is structured to utilize standard operating system device drivers optimizing it for use with PCs.

The MCP2150 Infrared Communication Controller is the simplest, lowest-cost solution for adding IrDA Standard wireless connectivity to embedded systems. Support for the IrComm, TinyTP, IrLMP and IrLAP layers of the IrDA Standard protocol stack (up to 115.2kBaud) is embedded on-chip along with the bit encoding/decoding portion of the IrPHY layer.

All of this functionality is in small form-factor 20-pin SSOP, 18-pin PDIP and SOIC packages. The MCP2150 facilitates the reduction of design time by eliminating the need to use large amounts of system resources and have thorough knowledge of the IrDA Standard protocol stack to add this wireless connectivity to designers' systems.

With the introduction of its first infrared connectivity products to its existing portfolio, Microchip offers its customers a cost and power saving solution to wireless data transfer.

These new infrared communication devices connect to standard microcontroller UART peripherals and infrared transceivers and find applications in a variety of markets such as telecommunication, consumer, industrial, medical and automotive. Samples and development tool support is available immediately for these devices.

The MCP2120/2150 Developer's Kit includes everything a designer needs to create a system employing infrared communication.

The MCP2120 is available in 14-pin PDIP and SOIC packages with 1,000 piece pricing starting at $1.60 each. The MCP2150 is available in 20-pin SSOP, 18-pin PDIP and SOIC packages with pricing starting at $5.89 each in 1,000 piece quantities. The data sheet and information on development tools, can be accessed at http://www.microchip.com.

Microchip has integrated analog technology, peripherals and features to meet today's demanding design requirements. Our broad spectrum of 250 stand-alone analog devices address thermal management, power management, mixed-signal, linear and interface solutions.

Combined with Intelligent Analog microcontrollers, Microchip offers an extensive analog portfolio for thousands of high-performance design applications in the automotive, communications (wireless), consumer, computing and industrial control markets.

Microchip Technology Inc. manufactures the popular PICmicro(R) field-programmable RISC microcontrollers, which serve 8- and 16-bit embedded control applications, and a broad spectrum of high performance linear and mixed-signal, power management and thermal management devices.

The company also offers complementary microperipheral products including interface devices; microID(TM) RFID devices; serial EEPROMs; and the patented KEELOQ(R) security devices. This synergistic product portfolio targets thousands of applications and a growing demand for high-performance designs in the automotive, communications, computing, consumer and industrial control markets.

The company's quality systems are ISO 9001 (1994 version) and QS9000 (1998 version) certified. Microchip is headquartered in Chandler, Ariz. with design facilities in Mountain View and Bangalore, India; semiconductor fabrication facilities in Tempe and Chandler, Ariz. and Puyallup, Wash.; and assembly and test operations near Bangkok, Thailand.

Microchip employs approximately 3,050 people worldwide and has sales offices throughout Asia, Europe, Japan and the Americas. More information on the company can be found at http://www.microchip.com.