Nuvoton Launches New NuMicro ML56 series MCUs

Featuring Low Power, built-in Capacitive Touch Sensing, and LCD driver

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Hsinchu, Taiwan – Nuvoton NuMicro ML56 series is a microcontroller series with low power, built-in capacitive touch sensing, and LCD driver. It is based on 1T 8051 core, embedded 64 KB flash, and 4 KB SRAM. It runs less than 100 µA/MHz in normal run mode for low power operation, and the power-down current is below 2 µA with an LCD panel display. NuMicro ML56 series runs up to 24 MHz, operating from 1.8V to 3.6V and -40°C to 105°C. With up to 14 channels of touch keys and 224 dots of LCD driver, it can fulfill the user interface of the smart family and surveillance system of IIoT application, which requires user interface and cares about power consumption. 

NuMicro ML56 series integrates capacitive touch sensing circuit with enhanced touch key controller, supporting up to 14 independent touch channels with low power characteristics, waterproof, and high noise resistance features. With less than 2 µA consumption, you can complete all touch keys’ calibration in Power-down mode. Also, the touch key can be one of the wake up source; as for the wafer proof characteristic, even with 2 mm depth water droplet, the ML56 series can still identify the exact finger touch; IEC 61000-4-6 conducted noise immunity (CNI) with 10-Vrms noise voltage helps customer pass their EMC standard, which makes it especially suitable for home appliances and industrial control. Moreover, Nuvoton provides a complete development tool and touch library to shorten customer development and mass production by easy calibration of touch key functions.

NuMicro ML56 series has built-in 4 COM x 32 SEG, 6 COM x 30 SEG, 8 COM x 28 SEG LCD controllers to drive up to 224 dots, and supports the Type-A and Type-B LCD panel. It provides two VLCD input sources: external voltage, and another is an internal charge pump. The internal charge pump keeps the VLCD constant voltage to maintain the LCD panel’s display quality while VDD input changes. There are two VLCD driving modes: buffer mode and internal resistor mode. The buffer mode with a strong driving current supports up to 10 cm by 10 cm large-sized panel; the internal resistor mode drives small-sized panels and reduces power consumption.

The ML56 series features CRC-8 checksum for the safety library requirement to realize power-on and require a Flash memory self-test. It also provides up to 4 channels of Peripheral Direct Memory Access (PDMA) controller to speed-up the data transfer and off-loads the CPU loading. For lighting control, the PDMA accompanies with UART or SPI interface can transmit the data continuously. The ML56 series is not only an 8051 microcontroller, but it also equipped with enhanced analog features, such as 12-bit 500k SPS ADC, up to 2ch of comparators, 4-level of internal voltage reference for ADC and ACMP; the ML54 series built-in RTC to record data and show calendar while in power-down mode, it also provides three packages: LQFP 44, LQFP48, and LQFP64 with pin-compatible to NuMicro 32-bit microcontrollers to simplify the system design and change parts easily.

Aiming at the low power devices in IIoT application, the ML56 series supports high immunity of 7 kV ESD and 4.4 kV EFT. To protect customers’ intellectual properties, the ML51 series provides three protection mechanisms. (1) a flash lock bit can prevent a program from being read out by an external programmer (2) 128 Bytes Secure Protection ROM (SPROM) (3) 96-bit Unique Identification (UID) and 128-bit Unique Customer Identification (UCID).

Development Tools

Nuvoton provides easy-to-use development tools such as Nu-Link/ Nu-Link-Pro/ Nu-Link2-Pro supporting advanced debug function, PinConfigure multi-function pin setting, PinView showing pin status in real-time, BSP driver, and single button/slider/wheel sample codes. The IDE supports Keil C-51 and IAR EW8051, which can debug, trace and analyze your program on the development board. Nuvoton provides NuSenadj touch key calibration tool for the mass production of a touch key.

Packaging and Availability

NuMicro ML56 series microcontrollers have been mass-produced, and its development tools are available at Nuvoton’s official online store: https://direct.nuvoton.com