Date: 24/03/2009

Microchip specializes its EEPROM by offering smallest packages

Microchip Technology has released new I2C serial interface EEPROM devices in Wafer-Level Chip Scale Package (WLCSP) package in storage capacity of 4, 64 and 128 Kbit, and 1 and 2 Kbit I2C serial EEPROMs in a 5-pin SC-70 package, and 32 and 64 Kbit serial EEPROMs in a 5-pin SOT-23 package. Microchip claims it's the first one in the industry offering some of these packages.

EEPROMS are key components on embedded systems boards to store the boot source code. Though the flash memory has replaced the EEPROMs to large extent, due to reliability issues of flash, EEPROMs are still employed in embedded systems. It looks like the only innovation; EEPROM vendors can work on these devices is physical size and may be power consumption.


Price details of available chips (for a min order of 10 K units):

24AA01, 24LC01B (24XX01) in 5-pin SC-70: $0.19 each

24AA02, 24LC02B (24XX02) in 5-pin SC-70: $0.20 each

24AA32, 24LC32A (24XX32) in 5-pin SOT-23: $0.29 each

24AA64, 24LC64 (24XX64) in 5-pin SOT-23: $0.36 each

24AA128 in WLCSP: $0.65 each

Microchip offers online purchase facility for these parts visit http://sample.microchip.com for samples and http://www.microchipdirect.com for production volumes.

The other EEPROM focused chip vendors include ST Microelectronics, NXP Semiconductor and Atmel.