Secure Payments, Competitive Disruptive Chip-Scale Packaging for IoT

Freescale Semiconductor has announced the Kinetis K22 microcontroller (MCU), an ultra-thin 0.34mm high package that integrates 120MHz performance, a wide range of memory and interfaces. The device is ideal for applications such as chip-and-PIN credit cards, wearables and consumer electronics where security and small form factor are essential.

Freescale plans to deploy this new ultra-thin packaging technology across its broad portfolio of Kinetis MCUs, including several products scheduled for release in the coming months.

As the secure POS, IoT (Internet of Things) and consumer electronics markets continue to push the limits of size, performance, security and battery life, minimizing MCU height is becoming one of the industry's biggest hurdles. Freescale’s ultra-thin package dramatically reduces the Z-axis of the device, meeting the insatiable demand for smaller form factors, more innovative design options, and smarter integration.

“In the age of the Internet of Things (IoT), system designers are continually challenged to deliver breakthrough solutions that meet the relentless demand to ask, ‘What’s next?’” said Steve Tateosian, manager of Freescale’s microcontroller platforms business unit. “Freescale’s new blade-thin Kinetis package demonstrates our commitment to advancing the consumer electronics, IoT and secure payments markets by enabling manufacturers to focus on their most pressing design challenges while pushing the boundaries of functionality and integration.”

The reduction in the height of conventional MCUs presents exciting possibilities for system designers, including new uses for innovative applications. For example, Freescale’s new MCUs could enable the development of new products that monitor blood sugar levels in diabetics by attaching them to the skin in the form of stretchable electronic patches or implanting them under the skin.

Freescale has a history of leading the IoT (Internet of Things) and smart device markets by driving technology innovation and advancements in smaller, smarter designs, with its latest breakthrough being the ultra-thin Kinetis MCU package. Earlier this year, Freescale introduced the world’s smallest single-chip module (SCM) for the Internet of Things (IoT), replacing a 6-inch substrate with a device the size of a U.S. dime and reducing more than 100 components to just one. The device was preceded by the Kinetis KL03 MCU, the world’s smallest and most energy-efficient ARM®-based 32-bit MCU, which fits into the groove of a golf ball.