Nonvolatile State Savers Claim Industry First May 31, 2007
Launched as the semiconductor industry’s first nonvolatile state saver, the FM1105 and FM1106 save the state of signals on demand and restore them to the correct state automatically upon power up. This capability is realized through the company's ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) technology, which provides fast write times and virtually unlimited write endurance. The FM1105 operates from 4.5V to 5.5V at an operating current of less than 15 µA while changing state continuously at 1 kHz. The FM1106 operates from 2.7V to 3.6V and consumes less than 5 µA while changing state continuously at 1 kHz. Available in SOT23 packages, both devices offer an unlimited number of state changes, can run at frequencies up to 1 MHz, and operate over an industrial temperature range from -40°C to +85°C. They are suitable for applications such as switch interfaces, relay drivers, LED drivers, recording error flags, power down state detection, nonvolatile counters, tamper indicators, door open indicators, motor on/off control, DIP switch replacement, and jumper replacement. Pricing starts at $0.36 each/10,000. RAMTRON INTERNATIONAL CORP., Colorado Springs, CO. (800) 545-3726.
