Enabling developers to save valuable board space, Texas Instruments (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) today announced it has expanded the availability of tiny package sizes to several new families of ultra-low power MSP430™ microcontrollers (MCUs). Developers can now design smaller products with TI's ultra-low power FRAM-based MSP430FR5738 and Flash-based MSP430F51x2 MCUs in wafer-level chip scale packages (WLCSP) as small as 2.0 x 2.2 x 0.3 mm, in addition to the five existing MSP430 MCU families with tiny package options.

These tiny package sizes make MSP430 MCUs ideal for a variety of ultra-low power applications such as sensor hubs, digital credit cards, ingestible sensors, health and fitness products like smart watches, and consumer electronics like tablets and notebooks.

Features and benefits of TI's expanded portfolio of tiny package MCUs:

-- Devices with embedded FRAM memory such as MSP430FR5738 MCUs provide longer battery lifetime for ultra-low power data logging applications.
-- Available with 1.8V I/O on MSP430F5229 MCUs to enable applications with advanced sensor fusion capabilities such as gesture recognition, motion tracking, environment sensing, and contextual awareness.
-- Ecosystem of libraries and support eases USB development on MSP430F5528 MCUs in consumer electronics applications such as smart phones, notebooks and tablets.
-- Range of 1.8V and 5V tolerant I/O on MSP430F51x2 MCUs allow developers to interface with a broader range of components, in addition to a PWM timer for high-resolution applications.
-- Broad GPIO range (32-53) allows MSP430 MCUs flexibility in the system, enabling more advanced features like environmental sensors.