Infineon Extends its XC2000 Automotive Microcontroller Family: New Low-End Devices Enable Body, Safety and Powertrain Solutions with 32-Bit Performance at 8-Bit Costs

Neubiberg, Germany – June 21, 2011 – Giving the medium-sized and compact car category access to the safety and convenience applications of the premium segment and enabling their compliance with the strictest fuel consumption and pollutant emission requirements, Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) today announced the cost-optimized extension of its successful XC2000 automotive microcontroller portfolio. Enabling 32-bit equivalent performance at 8-bit microcontroller costs the new 16-bit devices address low-end and ultra-low-cost automotive applications and support cost reductions of existing body (with XC2200 series), safety (with XC2300 series) and powertrain (with XC2700 series) designs. With this family extension, Infineon in particular assists automotive system suppliers that seek to broaden offerings towards a wider performance range without introducing multiple microcontroller platforms. Infineon’s approach provides scalable automotive solutions with a high degree of hardware and software reuse that achieves significant cost savings.

Typical applications addressed by the new XC2000 16-bit devices include low-cost body control modules (BCM), low-cost airbags or low-end engine management designs. To further optimize the PCB size Infineon offers its new XC2000 devices in cost-optimized and very small packages.

“The new XC2000 devices with 32-bit equivalent performance at 8-bit prices complete the industry’s most scalable 16-bit MCU portfolio, addressing the diverse needs of automotive system suppliers from emerging markets to luxury class. Infineon gives the medium-sized and compact car category access to the safety and convenience applications of the premium segment,” said Peter Schaefer, Vice President and General Manager, Microcontrollers, Infineon Technologies AG. “Our customers can select the most appropriate devices with cost optimized peripherals and re-using existing software across a complete family, exactly fulfilling their design needs and market requirements.”

Key features of the new cost-optimized XC2000 MCU devices

The new 16-bit low-cost devices of the XC2000 family are based on a high-performance C166SV2 CPU with 5-stage pipeline. The products offer a Multiply Accumulate (MAC) unit with DSP functionality for dedicated filter algorithms. In addition, they provide an optimized peripheral set for low-cost applications with up to two CAN nodes, up to four flexible serial interfaces and up to 19 AD converter (ADC) channels. The high-speed 12-bit ADC provide a fast conversion time of less than 1 µs. An integrated window watch dog with independent clock reduces the demand of external components for automotive applications. On-chip power supply, power control and debug support enable an easy design. The new low-cost devices are offered with flash capacities of 32KB, 64KB, 96KB and 160KB, which expands the scalability of the whole XC2000 family from 32KB to 1.6MB flash memory. An optimized PIN-out results in an increased number of available I/Os with up to 49 I/Os within a 64-pin package. In addition, Infineon offers derivates in cost optimized packages like VQFN-48 with small dimensions of 7 mm x 7 mm for footprint critical applications.

Rounding off into the low-end: New derivates of XC2200 (body), XC2300 (safety) and XC2700 (powertrain) series

The XC2200L series, with the XC223xL (LQFP-64) and XC222xL (VQFN-48) derivatives further enlarges the XC2200 microcontroller family to the low-end offering memory sizes of 64KB to 160KB Flash and up to 12KB RAM. The XC2200L microcontrollers were developed for use in cost-sensitive body applications. The devices provide up to 60 MIPS peak performance with a 66MHz CPU clock.

The XC2200U series, with the XC222xU (VQFN-48) and XC221xU (TSSOP-38) variants address the 16-bit entry level segment. With up to 40MHz and a memory size of 32KB to 64KB Flash and up to 8KB RAM, the microcontrollers of this series are well suited for the 8-bit body application segment.

The XC2300D series, with the XC233xD (LQFP-64) and XC232xD (VQFN-48) derivatives operate up to 66MHz. With up to 160KB Flash and 12KB RAM and dedicated peripherals they are ideal for low-cost safety applications.

The XC2300S series, with the XC232xS (VQFN-48) and XC231xS (TSSOP-38) variants address the entry level 16-bit segment. With up to 40MHz and a maximum memory size of 64KB Flash and up to 8KB RAM, the XC2300S microcontrollers are well suited to start with a 16-bit MCU in the very low-end 8-bit safety application segment.

The XC2700 series, with the XC2733X (LQFP-64) and XC2723X (VQFN-48) derivatives operate up to 40MHz. With up to 160KB Flash and up to 12KB RAM they are an ideal solution for the cost-sensitive powertrain segments including 2- and 3-wheel vehicle applications. With a maximum memory size of 64KB Flash and up to 8KB RAM the XC2722X (VQFN-48) and XC2712X (TSSOP-38) series address e.g. cost-optimized control of advanced auxiliaries (fans, pumps, etc.).

Availability

Engineering samples of the new low-end 16-bit XC2000 automotive microcontrollers are available with volume production scheduled for mid of 2011. The new MCU series are supported by the full suite of development tools, including evaluation boards, debuggers, compilers and documentation offered by Infineon and partners.

Further information

Further information on Infineon’s automotive semiconductor portfolio and microcontrollers are available at www.infineon.com/automotive and www.infineon.com/microcontrollers and www.infineon.com/XC2000.

Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions addressing three central challenges to modern society: energy efficiency, mobility, and security. In the 2010 fiscal year (ending September 30), the company reported sales of Euro 3.295 billion with approximately 26,650 ¹ employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX) and in the USA on the over-the-counter market OTCQX International Premier (ticker symbol: IFNNY).

¹Mentioned number of employees contains about 3,500 employees of the Wireless mobile phone business (Wireless Solutions), which was sold to Intel Corporation.