California-based Maxim Integrated has added a glitch-free supervisor to its analogue family to protect low-voltage IoT applications.

Designers can now enhance system reliability in low-voltage IoT applications with the Max 16162 nano-power supervisor with glitch-free power-up. This supervisor IC can fully assert a system reset through the entire system power supply ramp, thereby eliminating low-voltage glitches during power-up and delivering higher system reliability.

More IoT system designers are switching to microcontrollers with core voltages of 1V and below, and traditional supervisory ICs show unreliable outputs at these lower input voltages. This leaves systems vulnerable to faulty power-up, causing the MCU to wake up in an undefined state with incorrect IO outputs, wrong data reads or other errors.

The Max 16162 eliminates glitches until the input voltage achieves the appropriate voltage threshold. Eliminating glitches improves reliability not only for IoT systems, but also portable medical monitoring devices, wearables, base stations, programmable logic controllers and automation controls.

The device draws 825nA, so it provides protection without exacting a toll on limited power budgets. With a package size of 1.06 by 0.73mm, the IC is said to be 23 per cent smaller than the closest competitor.

“ICs operating under 1V offer tremendous advantages for power savings and IoT proliferation but come with unacceptable reliability risks when not designed properly,” said Elnaz Shayesteh, business manager for Maxim’s core products group. “We developed the industry’s first low-voltage glitch-free supervisory IC so system developers may eliminate the errors observed during power-up. No other company offers glitch-free capability at these voltages, further solidifying Maxim Integrated’s innovation leadership in robust protection technology.”