May 14, 2015 – Silicon Labs (Country Manager: Woon-Dal Paik), a specialist in microcontrollers, sensing, and wireless connectivity solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT), announced the launch of the industry's most energy-efficient USB microcontroller (product name: Happy Gecko MCU). The new Happy Gecko MCU is the latest addition to Silicon Labs' award-winning EFM32® 32-bit MCU portfolio. Designed to consume up to 80% less USB power than competitor MCU replacements, it extends battery life and enables energy harvesting applications. Based on ARM® Cortex®-M0+ cores and low-energy peripherals, the Happy Gecko family simplifies USB connectivity across a wide range of IoT applications, including smart meters, home and building automation, alarm and security systems, smart accessories, and wearable devices.

Silicon Labs, a leading supplier of USB bridge chips and smart interface ICs, developed the Happy Gecko family to meet the growing demand for cost-effective, low-power USB connectivity solutions. With over 3 billion USB devices shipped annually, USB is the fastest-growing interface for consumer applications and is also playing a leading role as a key driver in the industrial automation sector. In today's IoT field, developers have found that adding a USB interface to portable, battery-powered devices can double the current consumption of applications. Silicon Labs' Happy Gecko MCU products provide an energy-friendly USB connectivity solution ideal for power-sensitive IoT applications.

The Happy Gecko USB MCU features a state-of-the-art energy management system with five energy modes, enabling applications to maintain an optimal energy state by spending as little time as possible in active mode. In deep sleep mode, the Happy Gecko MCU boasts an industry-leading standby current consumption of 0.9 μA (with 32.768 kHz RTC, RAM/CPU state maintenance, brown-out detection, and power-on reset circuit enabled). Active mode power consumption drops to 130 μA/MHz at 24 MHz operation in actual code (prime number algorithm). The USB MCU further reduces power consumption from standby mode with a wake-up time of 2 microseconds.

Like all EFM32 MCU products, the Happy Gecko family includes the Peripheral Reflex System (PRS), which dramatically improves overall energy efficiency. The 6-channel PRS monitors complex system-level events and enables different MCU peripherals to communicate autonomously with each other without CPU intervention. By monitoring for specific events before the CPU wakes up, the PRS reduces system power consumption and extends battery life by keeping the Cortex-M0+ core in an energy-saving standby mode for as long as possible.

The Happy Gecko MCU is equipped with many low-energy precision analog peripherals, identical to those found in other entry-level EFM32 devices. The low-energy peripherals include an analog comparator, a power supply voltage comparator, an on-chip temperature sensor, a programmable current DAC (digital-to-analog converter), and a 12-bit ADC (analog-to-digital converter) that consumes 350 μA of current at a 1 MHz sample rate. On-chip AES encryption enables wireless connectivity IoT applications requiring security features, such as smart meters and wireless sensor networks.

The exceptionally high single-die integration of the Happy Gecko product family enables developers to reduce component count and bill-of-materials (BOM) costs. While typical USB connectivity alternatives require external components such as crystals and regulators, the highly integrated Happy Gecko MCU products utilize a crystalless architecture with built-in full-speed USB PHY, on-chip regulators, and resistors, thereby eliminating almost all discrete external components required by alternatives. Happy Gecko MCUs are available in space-saving QFN, QFP, and CSP (chip-scale package) package options that are small enough to be used with USB connectors and thin-form-factor wearable designs.

Daniel Cooley, Vice President and General Manager of the MCU and Wireless Products Business Unit at Silicon Labs, said, “The Happy Gecko MCU provides the benefits of Silicon Labs’ energy-friendly EFM32 architecture to developers looking for an economical, plug-and-play solution for USB connectivity in battery-powered IoT applications. With the Happy Gecko USB MCU and the Simplicity Studio development environment, system designers can connect their 32-bit applications to virtually anything with the lowest energy consumption and BOM costs.”

Simple USB design method

The Happy Gecko product family is supported by Silicon Labs' Simplicity Studio development platform. Simplicity Studio enables developers to simplify low-energy designs. Simplicity Energy Profiler allows for real-time energy profiling and code debugging. Simplicity Battery Estimator calculates predicted battery life based on application profiles, energy modes, and peripherals in use. Simplicity Configurator provides a visual interface for MCU pin configuration and automatically generates initialization code. Code developed with the EFM32 MCU can be reused for Happy Gecko applications. Developers can download Simplicity Studio for free from www.silabs.com/simplicity-studio to view Silicon Labs' USB source code and software examples.

To support developers in rapidly progressing from design ideas to final products, the Happy Gecko family is powered by the ARM® mbed™ ecosystem, which includes a new power management API jointly developed by Silicon Labs and ARM. The low-power mbed API is designed for low-energy application scenarios and enables rapid prototyping for energy-constrained IoT designs. Running on the EFM32 MCU, the ARM mbed API drastically reduces energy consumption at the system level by automatically switching to an optimal sleep mode based on the MCU peripherals in use. The Happy Gecko Starter Kit supports ARM mbed immediately upon purchase. Silicon Labs has also released mbed APIs for the Leopard, Giant, Wonder, and Zero Gecko MCU products. For additional ARM mbed information, including mbed software, example code, services, and access to the mbed community, visit www.silabs.com/mbed.

Product Price and Supply Information

The Happy Gecko product family includes 20 MCU devices that offer multiple memory, package, and peripheral options, as well as pin and software compatibility with Silicon Labs' entire EFM32 MCU portfolio. Sample and production quantities of Happy Gecko MCUs are available in 24-pin, 32-pin QFN, 48-pin QFP, and 3 mm x 2.9 mm CSP packages. Pricing for Happy Gecko MCUs starts at $0.83 USD per unit for 10,000-unit quantities. The Happy Gecko SLSTK3400A starter kit is currently available and is priced at $29. Detailed information about the Happy Gecko MCU family, as well as orders for samples and kits, can be found at www.silabs.com/Happy-Gecko.