Supervisory Circuits Monitor Core Voltages As Low As 1.2V

The relentless pressure to build µP-, µC- and DSP-based handheld and portable electronic products that dissipate less and less power is bringing about a steady reduction in supply voltages for these devices. This trend, in turn, is triggering development of new, more complex circuits that can efficiently monitor the lower supply voltages needed to lower power consumption. With the recent introduction of the TPS312x family of supervisory circuits, design engineers can now monitor core voltages down to 1.2V. And in addition to being able to monitor supply voltages as low as 1.08V while drawing a miniscule 14 µA, the new processor supervisors also offer an integrated watchdog timer for monitoring processor activity and manual reset function that provides added design flexibility, as well as the ability to daisy-chain devices. No external components are needed to realize the supervisory circuit.