Date: 25/10/2011

EMI filtering and ESD protection IC from ST for UHS micro-SD interface

STMicroelectronics has introduced a new IC combining EMI filtering and Electro-Static Discharge (ESD) protection, with features for equipment such as mobile phones, tablets and 3G dongles using SD 3.0 Ultra High Speed (UHS-I) micro-SD cards. 500 million mobile handsets could ship with a UHS-I compliant SD Card slot for slotted phones, by 2013, as per strategy analytics report.

Key features of EMIF06-MSD03F3 include:
±15kV ESD protection meeting IEC 61000-4-2
Protection for all SD Card data and power lines
7pF maximum load capacitance
16-bump, 0.4mm pitch chip-scale package (WLCSP)
Tiny 1.54 x 1.54mm outline
ST IPAD Integrated Passive and Active Device technology

ST says that the exposed connections in the card slot must have protection against an electro-static discharge, which can be caused simply by picking up the device and can damage the system's circuitry. However, EMI filters and ESD-protection ICs must be optimized for the specified interface speed to ensure full-speed communication between the system and the card. ST's new EMIF06-MSD03F3 protects micro-SD interfaces up to the specified UHS-I speed of 104 Megabytes per second.

The EMIF06-MSD03F3 allows either electrical or mechanical card-insertion detection this frees designers to use the card detection method that suits their application and host system. The device also has integrated pull-up resistors to guarantee system behavior when no card is inserted, and an EMI filter to block GSM interference.

The EMIF06-MSD03F3 is available in the 0.4mm-pitch WLCSP package, priced from $0.23 for orders over 1000 pieces.