More and more applications are emerging that require intelligent sensing capabilities on end nodes. These applications cross industry segments including building automation, factory automation and control, and medical health and fitness. For new product development teams, designing each new product or system individually without capitalizing on previous design work will surely tax the engineering resources of any organization.

A new generation of microcontrollers (MCUs) is quickly and efficiently adaptable to different types of sensing and measurement applications, such as those involving the sensing of light, humidity, temperature, power current, carbon monoxide, and many other conditions or parameters. The most prominent example of this new type of MCU is the MSP430FR23xx MCU family, which integrates ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) technology and a smart analog combo (SAC) with ultra-low-power consumption.

The smart analog combo includes configurable analog signal chain elements including operational amplifiers (Op-Amps) and 12-bit digital-to-analog converters (DACs). The smart analog combo supports flexible configuration of the input path [for example, Op-Amp or programmable gain amplifier (PGA)] and the output path (for example, a 12-bit DAC) on the signal conditioning chain of a unified single IP. Additionally, the MSP430FR23xx MCUs integrate a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and two enhanced comparators.