San Jose, CA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- December 21, 2006 – Micrel Inc., a provider of analog, high bandwidth communications and Ethernet IC solutions, has launched the MIC5232, a new 10mA LDO that offers power saving features for extending battery life. The new IC is ideally suited to provide stand-by power to memory and real time clocks used in handheld instrumentation and metering, among several other applications.

“Ultra-Low Quiescent Current LDOs (1uA-type) have been around for some time,” noted Ralf Muenster, Micrel’s director of marketing for power products. “However, most offer poor regulation, no protection circuitry and cannot be back driven, making them ill-suited to today’s consumer products. The MIC5232 offers a lower input voltage and lower output voltage capability, making it an ideal solution for a wide variety of portable applications where saving battery power is crucial.”

The MIC5232 features ultra-low ground current of 1.8uA, typical. A back-bias protection feature allows for external voltage that can be supplied to the output of the MIC5232 without harm or excessive current flow. This feature allows the MIC5232 to be used in a battery back-up system where it regulates a coin cell while preventing reverse current to the coin cell when a higher supply voltage is applied to the output of the LDO.

Additional protection features include thermal shutdown and current limit. The input voltage range of the device is 2.7V to 7V which covers 3.3V and 5V bus and Li-Ion battery input voltage ranges. The MIC5232 is available in fixed output voltages in a tiny 2mm x 2mm MLF®6-L and TSOT-23-5 packages. The parts are qualified to the full industrial temperature range of -40 deg C to 125 deg C.