Unterpremstaetten, Austria --- (METERING.COM) --- December 4, 2006 – austriamicrosystems, a global designer and manufacturer of analog integrated circuits (ICs) for communication, industrial, medical and automotive applications, has introduced its first line of comparators. The AS1970-75 family offers a choice of single, dual or quad input, combined with low power consumption down to 8.5 uA per comparator input, and these ICs are well suited to a variety of battery-powered applications.

The AS1970-75 family can be used with single +2.5V to +5.5V supplies, making it perfect for 3V and 5V applications. Dual +/-1.25 to +/-2.75V supplies can also be supported. The ICs can be powered by just two AA cells while offering rail-to-rail capability and a low input bias current of 1uA. Furthermore the low 0.5 mV input offset voltage and internal 3 mV hysteresis combined with low power consumption makes the AS1970-75 family ideal for battery monitoring and management applications in portable devices.

“Because of the unique design of its output stage, the AS1970-75 family virtually eliminates supply-current glitches typical of many other comparators,” said Walter Moshammer, Director Marketing Standard Linear at austriamicrosystems. “The jutting architecture also dramatically increases battery life, even in high-speed applications.”

The AS1970/72/74 has a push/pull output stage that sinks and sources current. The AS1972/73/75 has an open-drain output stage that can be pulled beyond VCC, making them suitable for mixed-voltage designs, logic-level translators or bipolar-to-unipolar converters. Large internal output drivers allow rail to rail output swings with loads up to 8 mA.

The AS1970/71 single comparators are available in a 5-pin SOT23 package; the AS1972/73 dual comparators come in a 8-pin MSOP package and the AS1974/75 quad comparator are delivered in a 14-pin TSSOP package.