Freescale microcontrollers keep medical applications pumping

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2010-06-18 12:01

서울--(뉴스와이어)--Medical electronics represents the fastest-growing opportunity for industrial semiconductors, with year-on-year growth expected to top 11 percent, according to Databeans. Today, Freescale Semiconductor increased its commitment to and investment in this growing market by introducing five microcontroller (MCU) product lines specifically designed to meet the rigorous demands of medical applications.

These MCUs draw extremely low power with stop currents of less than 450 nanoamps and integrate an LCD segment display, USB connectivity and advanced analog circuitry. As a result, Freescale medical MCU solutions can offer up to a 30 percent reduction in components, providing significant system cost savings compared to the leading competitor. These products are included in the Freescale Product Longevity Program, with a minimum of 15 years of assured supply from the date of qualification.

“With the introduction of these five medical MCU families, engineers have the power at their fingertips to design the medical equipment of tomorrow,” said Aiden Mitchell, director of industrial and multi-market MCUs for Freescale. “We’re creating best-in-class MCU solutions with the portable medical designer in mind, and these medical devices provide the accuracy, connectivity and flexibility that have become synonymous with Freescale products.”

The Freescale chips are tailored for the embedded medical market and are best suited for portable medical applications, such as blood glucose meters and heart rate monitors. Other applications include diagnostic and therapy solutions, such as electrocardiograms (ECG), patient monitors and medical lab equipment. Freescale’s medical MCUs are also designed to meet or exceed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) accuracy standards for specific portable medical applications like blood glucose meters.

Freescale’s ultra-low-power devices for the medical market range from modular 8-bit to fully integrated 32-bit system-on-chip solutions:

· Flexis MM – the Flexis MM product line, consisting of new pin- and peripheral-compatible 8- and 32-bit MCUs (MC9S08MM128 and MCF51MM256), is the flagship of the Freescale medical product portfolio. It features MCUs designed to meet the rigorous accuracy standards set by the FDA for medical devices and offers several connectivity options, including USB, and an integrated analog front end (AFE). It also includes a Personal Health Care Device USB stack designed using the Continua Health Organization standards.

· Flexis JE – the Flexis JE product line features ultra-low-power 8- and 32-bit products (MC9S08JE128 and MCF51JE256) with all of the same features of the Flexis MM products, but without the integrated AFE.

· Flexis LH – the Flexis LH 8-bit MCU (MC9S08LH) has a built-in LCD driver and a high-speed 16-bit SAR analog-to-digital converter, offering enhanced accuracy and display at an inexpensive price.

Freescale also offers a host of enablement solutions to help speed time to market:
· The Flexis MM products feature a medical-specific development kit that uses ECG to demonstrate the features of the development system.
· The Freescale Tower System is a modular development platform that is designed to save development time through rapid prototyping and tool reuse.
· CodeWarrior Development Studio, including Processor Expert software code generation wizard, is a comprehensive integrated development environment that provides a visual and automated framework to help accelerate the development of complex embedded applications.
· Freescale MQX™ real-time operating system ships with Freescale 32-bit MCUs and provides customers a comprehensive, medical-device proven, scalable RTOS and USB stack that simplifies hardware management and streamlines software development.

These software and tool options, as well as reference designs, application notes, software examples and online training, help speed up the development process and are designed to save customers time and money.

Pricing and availability
These medical-specific products and the support tools are currently sampling with alpha customers and are expected to be available in the third quarter of this year, with suggested resale pricing starting as low as $2.08 at high volumes.

The Flexis MM, JE and LH microcontrollers are a part of the Freescale Energy Efficient Solutions program, which highlights selected products that excel in effective implementation of energy-efficient technologies and/or deliver market-leading performance in the application spaces they are designed to address. The mark stands for Freescale’s technology expertise in delivering products optimized for high performance within the constrained energy and power budgets of embedded environments.

For more information about these products and other Freescale medical solutions, please visit www.freescale.com/medical.

웹사이트: http://www.freescale.com