The XMC1400 microcontroller enables cost-sensitive, real-time power control

The XMC1400 microcontroller will enable Infineon Technologies AG to open up new applications in industrial automation, digital power conversion and electronic control. Compared to the previous XMC1000 products, the new XMC1400 series provides better control performance and better connectivity. The XMC1400 features an ARM® Cortex®-M0 processor with a comprehensive range of peripherals carefully tailored to the target application. Targeted applications include actuators in industrial automation, digital power conversion for controlling LED lights and polyphase motors, and electronic control of small internal combustion engines equipped with lawn mowers, sawtooth machines or generators.

Compared to earlier XMC1000 microcontrollers, XMC1400 products have better connectivity and powerful processing power for more precise control. Its clock period is 48MHz, while the XMC1000 series has a clock period of 32MHz. In the XMC1400, important components of controller peripherals such as PWM timers and AD converters can also operate at double frequency, i.e. 96MHz. The XMC1400 also performs trigonometry and division operations in real time, which is unique among Cortex M0-based products. The integrated MATH co-processor works in parallel with the Cortex-M0 CPU to increase real-time computing power.

The powerful XMC1400 microcontroller family features four CCU timer modules (two CCU4 and two CCU8 modules), resulting in up to 16 independent timers that can be used, for example, to generate PWM in real time. In this way, it can meet the special requirements for electronic adjustment and control of ignition, throttle and fuel injection pump in the future price sensitive market of small internal combustion engines. To control the motor, the XMC1400 is equipped with two interfaces for connecting Hall sensors or optical encoders.

In addition, the XMC1400 has a BCCU peripheral unit (brightness and color control unit) for flicker-free digital dimming and color control of the LED. In this way, it is possible to design a multi-channel LED switching mode power supply that can adjust the color LED to simulate the spectrum of sunlight (adjustable white light). The XMC1400 has up to four comparators for regulating the switching power supply. The previous XMC1000 microcontroller had a maximum of three comparators.

Strengthening connectivity towards automation technologies is the foundation for achieving Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 requires decentralized, networked intelligence. In any application where many sensors and actuators are required for networking, the XMC1400 not only provides the desired real-time control performance, but also brings the necessary interfaces. In addition, the XMC1400 ensures a less complex solution with a reasonable system cost. All XMC1400 models come with standard communication interfaces such as UART, I2C, SPI and I2S. The XMC1403 and XMC1404 microcontrollers also have two CAN nodes. CAN(Controller Area Network) is one of the most commonly used bus standards in the field of automation technology.

Just like the XMC1000 microcontroller, Infineon also offers a customer-specific version of the XMC1400, where a secure boot program and the appropriate toolchain securely loads the firmware to the flash memory in encrypted form.