PIC18F-Q41 Sensor Interface Microcontrollers

In many applications, all you need is an MCU with reasonably low processing capabilities just to interface with sensors and send some data through a transceiver or even provide output to a display or actuate on something. For these simple tasks, an 8-bit microcontroller is usually just fine, and the most important aspect becomes the set of peripherals available within that microcontroller. Regarding this, you may want to take a look at the PIC18 Q41 microcontroller family from Microchip, as it fits into the needs we just described!

But what does the new PIC18 Q41 series of MCU’s from Microchip bring to the table? They are available in small footprints (14 / 20 pins), focusing on analog features, including a 12-bit ADC with computation, a capacitive voltage divider, enabling some advanced functionalities, such as touch sensing, averaging, filtering, oversampling, and threshold comparison. It also contains two 8-bit DAC modules and an operational amplifier. Besides the rich analog capabilities, they also incorporate some expected features that you may need in your projects, including 16-bit PWM, DMA capabilities, and popular communication protocols, such as I2C, SPI, UART (with asynchronous support), other less popular, DMX, DALI and LIN, and a programmable 32-bit CRC with Memory Scan. Lastly, it provides some interesting memory features, including MAP (Memory Access Partition) to support users in data protection and bootloader applications, and DIA (Device Information Area), which stores factory calibration values to improve the accuracy of the temperature sensor.

Regarding features, here is what the new PIC18 Q41 series from Microchip has to offer: 

• 64 MHz clock input with 62.5 ns minimum instruction cycle
• Memories: Up to 64 kB Flash + up to 4 kB data SRAM and 512 kB data EEPROM
• Analog: operational amplifier, 12-bit ADC with computation (ADCC) with up to 17 channels and automated math functions on input signals, 2x 8-bit buffered DAC’s, 2x comparators, zero-cross detect, hardware capacitive voltage divider (CVD)
• Digital: 3x 16-bit PWM, 3x 16bit timers, 2x 8-bit timers, 4x Configurable Logic Cells (CLC), 1x Complementary Waveform Generator (CWG), 1x Numerically Controlled Oscillator (NCO), programmable CRC with Memory Scan, 3x UART, 2x SPI, 1x I2C
• Power saving: 4 low power modes (Doze, Idle, Sleep and PMD – Peripheral Module Disable), with consumption of less than 1 uA in sleep

From the set of features, you can see that peripherals are not a problem, as there is a lot of analog functionality and some interesting digital peripherals to integrate into your new projects. Its small set of pins will also simplify your life when designing a PCB for it, in projects where you do not need many pins, of course. Regarding pricing, the PIC18 Q41 series from Microchip is available for as low as $1.25.

Microchip PIC18 Q41 product family link: https://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/en/PIC18F15Q41

Please follow and like us: