Lattice Semiconductor announced the launch of a new ultra-low density iCE40™ FPGA product, which is the world's most flexible single-chip sensor solution and is available for use in a new generation of context-aware, ultra-low-power mobile devices.
These new additions to the iCE40 FPGA family enable customers to integrate more functionality into space-constrained areas. Available in a 1.4mm x 1.48mm x 0.45mm package, their compact size and excellent cost-effectiveness allow them to be adopted in almost any location, saving board space and reducing system complexity.

These new iCE40LM FPGAs, which support hard IP for use with strobe generators, I2C, and SPI interfaces, enable context-aware systems that capture user and environmental inputs in real time with minimal delay or error by enabling near-zero latency for the mobile market. This allows designers to develop mobile products that achieve rich user experiences based on motion, direction of movement, location, and other interactions with the environment.

These new iCE40 FPGAs can integrate advanced features such as IrDA, barcode emulation, and service LEDs into a single chip in a miniaturized size, and can implement additional customer-requested functions using logic. In addition, the iCE40LM FPGA solution has been shown to reduce power consumption by up to 100 times compared to conventional application processor implementations, thereby extending battery life and increasing its usefulness from an end-user perspective.

Joy Wrigley, Senior Product Line Manager for the Ultra-Low Density Product Family at Lattice Semiconductor, stated, “By combining very low dynamic power with the world’s most miniaturized sensor management solution, we are enabling a whole new level of intelligent devices that are aware of where they are and what they are doing. We are actively investing in packaging technology to reduce system size while integrating more functions, allowing OEMs to implement a greater number of diverse sensors in their mobile systems at the lowest possible cost. Context awareness is expected to be a game-changer in the mobile industry, and the iCE40LM sensor solution will enable designers to quickly access this differentiated technology.”

These new iCE40LM FPGAs enable mobile device designers to conveniently implement different designs by adding or customizing sensor management functions and features based on a single platform. The newly added products are the iCE40LM 4K, iCE40LM 2K, and iCE40LM 1K FPGAs, which consume very low power of less than 1mW in dynamic mode.

Meanwhile, the iCE40LP FPGA product line offers versions that further reduce the footprint of the iCE40 family by adding new 16-ball WLCSP (wafer-level chip-scale) packages, such as the iCE40LP 640 FPGA and iCE40LP 1K FPGA. Important for “Internet of Things” or “always-on” applications, these additions to the iCE40 family feature an advanced 0.35mm ball pitch package with dimensions of only 1.4mm x 1.48mm x 0.45mm.