Microchip Technology has announced a family of five new temperature sensor management chips suitable for use with 1.8 V systems. The sensing elements — including one On-Chip-Sensor — are PN junctions which can be made from discrete transistors or from an integrated device forming part of a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Graphics processor Unit (GPU) or a microcontroller etc,. The EMC18xx family of devices can monitor temperature from up to five sensors and provides alerts to a host controller warning of unexpected temperature rate-of-change anomalies.

The family is suitable for applications migrating from 3.3V systems to devices using lower voltage rails typical of battery operated IoT applications and a wide range of personal computing devices and systems.  Internal registers of the EMC18xx family are compatible with Microchip’s existing EMC14xx 3.3 V temperature sensor management chips making the migration to 1.8V problem-free and achievable. The three-sensor version is available in an 8-pin 2 x 2 mm footprint and the five-sensor version in a 10-pin 2 x 2.5 mm footprint, the chip can help reduce the overall number of devices needed for remote temperature monitoring. Advanced features include Resistance Error Correction (REC) and Beta Compensation (to support CPU diode sensors made from the BJT/Transistor model). Communication to a controller takes place via a 2-wire SMBus/I²C compatible interface operating up to 400 kHz.

The ADM00773 evaluation board provides everything necessary to demonstrate the 1.8V three-channel two-wire EMC1833 temperature sensor management chip and gives functional insight into the other members of the EMC18xx family. The evaluation board connects to a PC via a USB interface board and comes with the Microchip Thermal Management Software Graphical User Interface (GUI).