Microcontrollers have become core building blocks of modern electronic products. The market for microcontroller units (MCUs) used in Internet of things (IoT) applications is on the rise, which is having a positive effect on overall MCU market growth. The global Internet of Things (IoT) microcontroller market was valued at US$ 1,765.3 Mn in 2015 and is estimated to expand with a CAGR of 11.7% from 2016 to 2023*. ELE Times met with Vinay Thapliyal, MCU Marketing Manager, India, STMicroelectronics, in which he discusses ST’s positioning, technical advantages and MCU products that were showcased at IOTshow.in 2018 at Bangalore. Excerpts from the interview.
ELE Times: What is ST’s positioning in the Microcontroller sector?
Vinay Thapliyal: ST is leading the MCU innovation and is recognized by the industry and our customers as having one of the widest and most innovative portfolios of MCUs from ultra-low power to highest performance solutions. We are by far the market and technology leader in ARM Cortex-based MCUs with the widest range of products. STM32 portfolio alone offers 11 major product series (F0, F1, F2, F3, F4, F7, L0, L1, L4, H7, L4+) and more than 800 part numbers. ST has surpassed 2 billion unit sales of its STM32 microcontrollers. ST also crossed three billion unit sales of its robust and versatile STM8 microcontrollers. To date, we have delivered over 1 Million development kits for STM32 and STM8 family.
ELE Times: What technical advantages do you have in Microcontroller market?
Vinay Thapliyal: ST’s product portfolio contains a comprehensive range of microcontrollers, from robust, low-cost 8-bit MCUs up to 32-bit ARM-based Cortex-M0 and M0+, Cortex-M3, Cortex-M4, Cortex-M7 Flash microcontrollers with a great choice of peripherals. ST has also extended this range to include an ultra-low-power MCU platform. The unparalleled and large range of STM32 devices, based on an industry-standard core and accompanied by a vast choice of tools and software, makes this family of products the ideal choice, both for small projects and for entire platform decisions.
ELE Times: What are the MCU products that were showcased at IOTshow.in 2018 at Bangalore?
Vinay Thapliyal:
LoRa Communication
LoRa, a wireless communication technology developed to create low-power, wide area networks (LPWAN) required for machine to machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The demo included LoRa nodes based on ultra low power STM32L4 and LoRa gateway based on high performance STM32F7 working on public network available on Tata network. It showed the temperature, humidity and pressure information of the nodes with a friendly GUI.
Power Shield
STM32 Power Shield demo is a programmable power supply source with advanced power consumption measurement capability powered by STM32L4 device. It performs consumption averaging (static measurement up to 200mA) as well as real time analysis (dynamic measurement up to 50mA).
STM32L4+ Ultra-low power
STM32L4+ based demo showed TFT and Ultralow power capabilities of this recently launched family. STM32L4+ is another milestone in ultra low power market needs which has inbuilt graphics capabilities and high performance core running up to 120MHz. The STM32L4R9I-Discovery board is a complete demonstration and development platform for STMicroelectronics ARM Cortex-M4 core-based STM32L4R9AI Microcontroller.
ELE Times: Please introduce STM32L4+ spec and its application focus
Vinay Thapliyal: ST has extended the STM32L4 technology providing more performance (up to 120 MHz), more embedded memory (up to 2 Mbytes of Flash memory and 640 Kbytes of SRAM) and richer graphics and connectivity features while keeping the best‐in‐class ultra‐low‐power capability. The new STM32L4+ devices stretches performance to 150DMIPS (233 ULPMark-CP) at 120MHz — can act as the central controller in a full range of fitness bands, smart watches, small medical equipment, smart meters, smart industrial sensors and more. All these applications require sophisticated functions, instant responses, and minimal downtime for battery charging, making the ultra-efficient STM32L4+ an ideal fit. More information is available at st.com/stm32L4+.
*Source: abnnewswire.com.
