STMicroelectronics Introduces 5-Function Memory Card Interface for Portable Applications
November 13, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS
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STMicroelectronics (ST) unveiled a tiny, highly integrated chip produced using its integrated passive and active devices (IPAD) technology.
The chip provides five functions required by memory card interfaces in mobile phones, global positioning system (GPS) navigation devices, digital cameras and a range of other consumer and industrial products that use removable secure digital (SD) protocol cards.
The new flip-chip EMIF06-SD02F3 memory-card transceiver integrates signal conditioning, bidirectional level shifting, electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection, electromagnetic interference (EMI) filtering and a 2.9 volt (V) voltage regulator.
Integration of these circuits into a single monolithic chip increases system reliability and saves more than 75% of the board area required by a typical discrete solution, ST said.
The EMIF06-SD02F3 requires less than 7 square millimeters of board space, compared with approximately 30 square millimeters to provide the same functions with discrete components.
This simplifies the design and layout of the application, the company said.
The chip is compliant with standard and high-speed SD standards and with MiniSD, multimedia card (MMC) and uSD/TransFlash. It provides ESD protection to exposed external memory card slots, efficient EMI filtering to protect data lines against radio frequency (RF) interference and pull-up and pull-down resistors to prevent floating data lines.
ESD protection on the card-side pins meets the IEC61000-4-2 Level 4 standard, 15 kV air discharge. The 800 MHz to 3 GHz EMI filter achieves more than 20 dB attenuation at 1 GHz.
In addition, six high-speed bidirectional level shifters, designed for 50 MHz operation and with 3 ns typical propagation delay, enable the interfacing of 2.9 V memory cards with 1.8 V host processors. A maximum channel-to-channel skew of 1.5 ns ensures data transmission integrity, and the drivers are optimized for low-power applications with quiescent off-current of 1 microamp, ST said.
Power for the memory card is provided through an on-chip 2.9 V low drop-out (LDO) complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) voltage regulator, with 200 mA current capability and an input voltage range of 3.1 V to 5 V.
The drop-out voltage is 100 mV maximum with a 200 mA load. According to ST, a switch-off control pin helps minimize a product's power consumption and extends battery life, and the regulator includes thermal shutdown, under-voltage lock-out and short-circuit protection.
The EMIF06-SD02F3 is available in a lead-free, 24 bump, 400 micron pitch flip-chip and is in volume production.
Source: STMicroelectronics.