MAX3107 Tiny SPI/I²C UART integrates an oscillator and saves space, power, and cost for industrial and mobile applications

Tiny SPI/I²C UART with integrated oscillator saves space, power, and cost.

Tiny UART integrates an oscillator that has 128byte FIFOs to buffer and reduce the microcontroller activity required for mobile applications; fast data rates enable high-speed communication for industrial and mobile applications.

SUNNYVALE, CA—January 14, 2010—Maxim Integrated Products (NASDAQ: MXIM) introduces the industry's lowest power, fastest, and smallest serial UART to communicate over an SPI™/I²C interface. The MAX3107 has low power consumption which will extend battery life in portable applications. The device's fast data rates (24Mbps) and deep FIFO (128 words) allow additional buffering and thus relieve demand on the system's microcontroller. The MAX3107 is packaged in a space-saving, 24 pin (3.5mm x 3.5mm) TQFN, which is 24% smaller than other serial UARTs in the market today. The MAX3107 UART also offers an industry first, an integrated oscillator that reduces BOM cost by an average of 20%. The MAX3107 is ideally suited for industrial field busses that require high-speed PROFIBUS DP communication protocols, and for low-power handheld consumer MIDs (mobile Internet devices).

High-speed demands of mobile applications

For short, local-link applications as in a mobile phone, this UART can serve as the buffer between the system's applications processor (i.e., a microcontroller) and modules like Bluetooth®, satellite radio, GPS, or 3G modems. Higher data rates are now used for communication with Bluetooth (up to 3Mbps) and 3G modems (up to 20Mbps). These data rates typically cannot be supported by a microcontroller's embedded UART. To address these communication demands, designers traditionally used an external UART that supported these speeds. That additional UART also helped to offload (i.e., buffer) the microprocessor's activities.

The MAX3107 meets this high-speed challenge by providing the fast data rates required by today's communication devices. Its best-in-class data rates (up to 24Mbps) make it ideal for 3G modem applications. Additionally, the MAX3107's integrated oscillator reduces the need for external clocking.

High-speed demands of industrial interfaces

The MAX3107 UART interfaces an SPI or I²C synchronous serial microprocessor bus to asynchronous, serial data-communication ports like RS-485, RS-232, PROFIBUS, or IrDA®. The PROFIBUS DP standard requires fast data-rate communication (up to 12Mbps) which most embedded UARTs on today's microcontrollers cannot support. The MAX3107's 24Mbps performance is ideal for these communication protocols.

High-throughput demands of industrial applications

The MAX3107 improves SPI/I²C data throughput. The UART's receiver and the transmitter each have a 128-word-deep FIFO (vs. the competition's 64), which reduces the intervals that the host processor must dedicate for high-speed, high-volume data transfer.

As the data rates of the asynchronous Rx/Tx interfaces increase and approach the maximum limits of the host controller's SPI/I²C data rates, a UART's management and flow control can consume a significant portion of the host's activity. By increasing the FIFO size in the MAX3107, the host is interrupted less often, thus providing more efficient SPI/I²C-based DMA block data transfer to/from the FIFOs.

The MAX3107's PLL, clock divider, prescaler, and fractional baud-rate generator allow the ultimate flexibility in high-resolution baud-rate programming. The baud rate is no longer dependent on the frequency of the reference clock, but can be independently set to meet system needs.

In addition, low-level activity is also offloaded from the host controller to the UART because of the MAX3107's automatic hardware and software flow control with selectable FIFO interrupt triggering. Automatic half-duplex transceiver control with programmable setup and hold times allows the MAX3107 to be used in high-speed applications like PROFIBUS DP.

Low-power demands of mobile applications

The MAX3107 uses multiple operational modes to lower power consumption. The sleep mode turns off all UART-related on-chip clocking, while the shutdown mode turns the chip off completely. These modes reduce the supply currents to a trickle during periods of nonoperation. In AutoSleep mode, the MAX3107 automatically enters sleep mode after a period of no activity on its IO pins. The device automatically wakes up when activity is detected on any input pin. During both standby modes of operation, the UART stops transmitting and receiving and disables specific functionality to reduce power consumption. These many power-saving modes reduce battery drain and extend battery life to make the MAX3107 the ideal ultra-low-power UART for mobile applications.

The MAX3107 operates from +2.35V to +3.6V and is fully specified over the industrial -40°C to +85°C temperature range. It comes packaged in a 24-pin (3.5mm x 3.5mm) TQFN and is priced at $3.25 (1000-up, FOB, USA). An EV (evaluation) kit is available to speed designs. Contact the factory for ordering and sampling information. For further information please visit: www.maxim-ic.com/Tiny-UART.

Maxim Integrated Products is a publicly traded company that designs, manufactures, and sells high-performance semiconductor products. The Company was founded over 25 years ago with the mission to deliver innovative analog and mixed-signal engineering solutions that add value to its customers' products. To date, it has developed over 6200 products serving the industrial, communications, consumer, and computing markets.