Nanopower Semiconductor

NanoPower – a fabless semiconductor company that has developed nPZero technology, which is a subthreshold IC that offers extremely lower-power performance for any battery-powered application.  Power saving is up to 90% in different operating modes, and nPZero can be combined with any wireless and sensor technology.

Nanopower Products:

nPZero power-saving IC

offers up to 90% reduction in power consumption of battery and energy-harvesting-powered devices

Main functions and features

What differentiates the nPZero power-saving IC from other products on the market:

Unique low power

consumption through a full subthreshold design.

Compatible

with a range of peripherals (I2C and SPI) and hosts (MCU, processor, or wireless SoC).

Standalone operation

enables the host to be powered off while the system is still operating. Peripherals are managed without an active host. The nPZero IC takes over the controller role in the system; powering up, configuring, and reading peripherals. When required, the controller role is handed back to the host.

Intelligent functions

with the ability to act dependent on user-defined rules. A programmable logic with a reconfigurable state machine that enables actions based on events. For example, sensor values above/below a set threshold can trigger actions, including, e.g., waking up the host to initiate wireless communication.

Peripheral power optimization

by individual power cycling of peripherals to ensure the lowest possible power consumption.

Internal low-power memory

to store commands, peripheral and host configurations, and sensor values.

Internal clock

with different alternatives depending on accuracy requirements.

Configurable

for specific applications with API for programming via the host.