Five microcontroller (MCU) product lines for medical applications by Freescale Semiconductor,  Inc, Austin, TX,  draw low power with stop currents of less than 450 nanoamps and integrate an LCD segment display, USB connectivity and advanced analog circuitry. This provides up to a 30% reduction in components. The chips are tailored for the embedded medical market and are best suited for portable medical applications, such as blood glucose meters and heart rate monitors. Other applications include diagnostic and therapy solutions, such as electrocardiograms (ECG), patient monitors, and medical lab equipment. The system-on-chip solutions:

• Flexis MM line, consisting of new pin- and peripheral-compatible 8- and 32-bit MCUs (MC9S08MM128 and MCF51MM256), is the flagship of the Freescale medical product portfolio. It features MCUs designed to meet the rigorous accuracy standards set by the FDA for medical devices and offers several connectivity options, including USB, and an integrated analog front end (AFE). It also includes a Personal Health Care Device USB stack designed using the Continua Health Organization standards.

• Flexis JE line features ultra-low-power 8- and 32-bit products (MC9S08JE128 and MCF51JE256) with all of the same features of the Flexis MM products, but without the integrated AFE.

• LH Series of 8-bit MCU’s (MC9S08LH) has a built-in LCD driver and a high-speed 16-bit SAR analog-to-digital converter, offering enhanced accuracy and display at an inexpensive price.

Freescale also offers a host of enablement solutions to help speed time to market:

• Flexis MM products feature a medical-specific development kit that uses ECG to demonstrate the features of the development system.

• Tower System is a modular development platform that is designed to save development time through rapid prototyping and tool reuse.

• Code Warrior Development Studio, including Processor Expert software code generation wizard, is a comprehensive integrated development environment that provides a visual and automated framework to help accelerate the development of complex embedded applications.

• Freescale MQX real-time operating system ships with Freescale 32-bit MCUs and provides customers a comprehensive, medical-device proven, scalable RTOS and USB stack that simplifies hardware management and streamlines software development.