News & Events
Xicor Announces Quad, 256 Tap, Non-Volatile Digital Potentiometer
-- New Quad Chip Offers Standby Current of < 1µA~-- Sixteen E2 Non-Volatile Registers
Milpitas, California, June 14, 1999 Xicor today announced the X9250 and X9258, quad, 256 tap, non-volatile digitally programmable potentiometers. These devices achieve one of the lowest standby currents available in the industry of 1µA maximum. The X9250/58 can be used wherever digital control of a variable resistance is needed in a system.
The ability to recover its last position after a power down cycle is valuable in many applications. The parts may be used to preset analog system values or trim offset voltages during manufacturing. This allows settings to be made automatically without human intervention on the production line and also results in a circuit with long term temperature and time stability as well as a very reliable "tamper-proof" setting. The parts can also be used to allow a system to adapt itself to different operating conditions while running and then remember those settings in the event of loss of power. This can be very valuable in process control applications where resumption of system parameters is vital for system safety and consistency in the process itself.
The X9250 is a quad 100Kohm 256 tap, non-volatile digital potentiometer with a serial port that utilizes the SPI protocol. The X9258 is identical to the X9250 with a serial port that utilizes a 2-wire protocol. Both devices have four E2 registers associated with each of the four variable resistors for storage of the current tap position. One register for each pot is used to store the value of the wiper position. This value is used to restore the tap position of the potentiometer on power up. The remaining three registers associated with each pot can be used to store predetermined tap positions or system data that will be needed after system power cycle. The 256 tap resolution offers 8 bits of resolution or accuracy of < 0.4%. This resolution is adequate for most applications.
The availability of 12 registers for storing system parameters and the low power consumption of the X9250/58 makes it ideal for portable battery operated systems. The typical standby current of 200 nA allows the designer of portable systems to stretch battery life and the additional registers potentially eliminate the need for extra nonvolatile storage in a system.
Availability and Price
The X9250 and X9258 are available in 24-pin SOIC packages with a total end-to-end resistance of 100Kohm with pricing at the 1000 piece level of $4.53. The parts are sampling now and production quantities will be available in September, 1999.
Reader Contact
Paul Standish, mixed signal product marketing director, Xicor, Inc., 1511 Buckeye Drive, Milpitas, CA 95035. Telephone: (408) 546-3492. E-mail: pstandis@xicor.com Web site: www.xicor.com.
Company Background
Xicor, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures and sells nonvolatile in-the-system programmable products which retain information even when the system is turned off or power is inadvertently lost. Xicors product line includes digitally controlled potentiometers (XDCPs), system management ICs, and secure and standard memory ICs. Xicor product, corporate and financial information is readily accessible on the worldwide web at http://www.xicor.com.
