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Microchip’s PIC18F “K42” Family of MCUs

March 06, 2017 by Karissa Manske

Microchip announced its newest family of 8-bit MCUs: the PIC18F "K42". The family, comprised of 10 products, boasts the largest total memory of any 8-bit PIC MCUs.

Microchip announced its newest family of 8- to 16-bit MCUs: the PIC18F "K42". The family, comprised of 10 products, boasts the largest total memory of previously manufactured MCUs.

The PIC18F "K42" family of 8-bit MCUs includes a high-speed internal oscillator, analog peripherals, and direct memory access (DMA). The DMA controller enables data transfers between memory space and peripherals without CPU involvement. The PIC18F "K42" family is a good choice for a range of applications, including touch sensing, automotive, industrial control, IoT, and medical devices.

 

Image courtesy of Microchip.

 

Low-power operation is possible via doze, idle, and sleep modes (PDF). Products range from 16-128 kB of flash memory and contain up to 8 kB of RAM.  

Specs

  • 64 MHz Internal Oscillator
  • Up to 128 kB Flash Program Memory
  • Up to 1 kB Data EEPROM
  • Up to 8 kB of SRAM
  • Direct Memory Access (DMA)
  • 12-bit ADC, up to 43 channels
  • Windowed Watchdog Timer (WWDT)
  • Up to three Complementary Waveform Generator (CWG) channels
  • Four Configurable Logic Cells (CLC)
  • Two Comparators
  • Zero Cross Detect (ZCD)
  • On-Chip Temperature Sensor
  • Data Signal Modulator (DSM)
  • 5-bit DAC
  • Capacitive Voltage Divider (CVD) for Capacitive Touch Sense
  • Up to four 10-bit PWMs
  • Communication: UART, SPI, and I2C
  • Available in 28-, 40-, and 48-pin packages

Like other Microchip products, the PIC18F "K42" family is supported by Microchip's MPLAB Code Configurator (MCC), a free software plug-in that provides a graphical interface for hardware configuration, and the Curiosity platform. The MCC works alongside Microchip's other development environments: MPLAB X IDE and MPLAB Xpress IDE.