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5 ways TI's tiny devices deliver huge innovations toengineers

Pete Semig
As electronic circuits have become smaller, their components have gotten smarter, faster and capable ofprocessing more information – often requiring less power than ever before. “Small size” has been a key
semiconductor trend for years, and many tiny devices from TI are helping you overcome design challenges
in a multitude of applications. Here are five big reasons to go small.
1. Less board space = integrated features
Whether it’s in their cars, their home or their hands, consumers are always looking to get the most out of
their products. But adding more features often produces larger designs. As power, mixed-signal and embedded
processing devices continue shrinking, we can help you save space while upgrading system performance withadditional sensors, processors and other devices.
With options measuring as small as 0.64 mm2, TI designed the performance of the TLV9061 operational
amplifier (op amp) family to meet or exceed common specifications for an all-around op amp. In October, itearned a global “Innovator of the Year” award in the Analog and Power category of the Design & Elektronik
awards. Its rail-to-rail input and output range, along with a wide voltage supply, enable a breadth of low-voltage
applications. In addition, high-performance features – including high gain bandwidth, low offset voltage and low
broadband noise – make it easier for you to find a versatile op amp for your designs. By drastically reducing thesize of discrete op amps like the TLV9061, we’re enabling engineers to utilize the additional board space to add
more sensors, processors and more.
2. Less board space = smaller designs
To meet the demanding size constraints of today’s shrinking electronics, individual components must be as small
as possible without compromising reliability. With devices spanning IO-Link to isolation, TI’s interface portfolio
offers both small size and robust performance – and empowers you to design miniaturized solutions.
In smart factories, one of the smallest sensors is the cylindrical sensor, which has a printed circuit board (PCB)
measuring 17.5 mm by 2.5 mm. These tiny systems require devices that provide robust electrostatic discharge
protection and thermal management integrated in the package – and thus drove the development of a new
package for TIOL111 and TIOS101 devices, producing two of the smallest, most robust IO-Link transceivers on
the market.
When it comes to isolation, package size is just as important as the level of protection from both faults andsystem noise. These “circuit lifesavers” need to be tiny enough to keep the overall system design small whileremaining robust enough to withstand high voltages.
The 8-pin small outline integrated circuit package for TI’s isolated ISO1042 and ISO1042-Q1 CAN transceivers
is among the smallest reinforced isolated CAN transceivers on the market, yet has one of the industry’s highest
working voltages: 1 kVrms.
3. Less material = less weight
The automotive market is undergoing a technological boom, with LIDAR at the forefront. Next-generation
LIDAR requires higher-power laser diode pulses in shorter pulse widths at higher frequencies. Because higher
frequencies enable smaller systems, it’s possible for you to shrink your system while maintaining high drive
performance for long-distance LIDAR.

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5 ways TI's tiny devices deliver huge innovations to engineers
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TI’s LMG1020 gallium nitride (GaN) driver enables you to meet the tight propagation delay requirements neededfor a higher peak power of the laser diode. The enables optimal power and speed in a laser design that’s
impossible with a metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor.
The LMG1020 is capable of a 1-ns minimum input pulse width for 60-MHz operation, enabling the higher
switching frequencies needed to reduce the size of magnetics and offering one of the highest drive strengths for
its small size.
4. Achieve higher performance
TI’s operational amplifiers help solve key issues that you’re facing when designing compact, portable electronics,
such as battery life and recharge time. Today, fast charging is the preferred standard because it enables
better charging rates while maintaining cooler battery temperatures. This requires a robust, precision batterymanagement design to accurately control charging and discharging cycles, maintaining optimum temperaturesand maximizing battery life.
The OPA2333P is the industry’s lowest-power, sub-300-kHz, high-precision dual operational amplifier in a
micro-sized, 8-pin very,very thin small outline no-lead (WSON) package measuring only 2 mm by 2 mm. This
low-voltage, low-power amplifier offers ultra-high DC precision due to zero-drift technology, enabling designs
that can detect high load currents with a wide output voltage range. This device is a good fit for bidirectional
current-sensing designs that you might find in mobile devices featuring fast charging modes.
5. Enable applications previously impossible
Historically, medical monitors required multiple cables or large equipment to detect and record a patient’s vital
signs. Now, blood glucose monitors can fit in the palm of your hand and connect to a smartphone. In the smart
home realm, doors and windows have security sensors running off small coin-cell batteries.
Although the creation of smaller-footprint designs has revolutionized the ability to add electronics to virtually any
product, it’s also generated increasing pressure to continually shrink designs.
TI makes it easier to optimize the area of a design by producing highly integrated devices in tiny packages.
One example is the CC2640R2F SimpleLink™ Bluetooth® low energy wireless microcontroller, available in a
2.7-mm-by-2.7-mm wafer chip-scale package that is 40% thinner and 23% smaller in area compared to its
4-mm-by-4-mm quad flat no-lead package. By reducing the device area, you can add wireless connectivity to a
product without drastically increasing the PCB dimensions and create small-sized, ultra-low-power Bluetooth 5solutions that were previously unimaginable.
Additional resources
Learn more about TI’s portfolio of products available in small packages:•••••

2Power management
Amplifiers
Digital-to-analog converters
IsolationInterface

5 ways TI's tiny devices deliver huge innovations to engineers
Copyright © 2023 Texas Instruments Incorporated

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