Low power is a key factor in the design of wearable devices. Microcontollers (MCUs) with low-run currents, multiple low-power sleep modes, flexible wake-up sources and intelligent power management are critical to the success of these designs. Reduced product power consumption enables wearable monitors to use smaller batteries, run longer between re-charging and offer an overall smaller product footprint. Our portfolio of eXtreme Low-Power (XLP) technology PIC^® MCUs feature sleep currents as low as 9 nA and run currents down to 30 μA/MHz.

Imagine a wristband that can:

• Detect a wave of your hand or even more complex gestures and send commands to your phone, computer or car based on these gestures
• Change the content of your wearable screen with a tap, flick or a wave
• Adjust the timer for your workout or view and organize your measured healthcare data with simple, intuitive gestures

Our innovative and patented touch- and input-sensing technologies provide this and much more. Wearable devices depend on intelligent power management to maximize battery life while maintaining a stylish, modern look for functionality. Our 1D, 2D and 3D electronics solutions utilize industry-leading low-power technology, enabling optimal performance for a wide variety of use cases.

In a connected world, a wearable device must be protected from the threat of data interception or unauthorized control. We can simplify and accelerate the development of secure healthcare devices with our high-performance, cost-effective security and authentication products, software libraries, development tools, as well as PIC^® MCUs with an integrated hardware crypto engine.

Wireless connectivity allows wearable devices to interface with smartphones, tablets, PCs and other intelligent healthcare devices but designing wireless connectivity into wearable devices can be a formidable challenge. Radio Frequency (RF) circuit design, antenna design and government regulatory approvals are common sources of major time and cost overruns. Agency-certified, Bluetooth^®, Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi^® modules offer significant time and cost savings in RF design and regulatory approval. Our full range of these and other wireless modules gives you the ability to quickly develop wireless solutions that connect to smartphones, tablets, PCs and ultimately to the cloud.

New medical and fitness designs must support an increase in functional integration, as well as offer a reduction in overall power consumption, cost, and physical footprint. These cost-sensitive embedded designs require a move away from the traditional path of needing more and more MIPS, bytes and megahertz. They need a paradigm shift into the era of function enablement.

We are leading the way in adding functionality and flexibility to embedded designs. Our PIC^® and AVR^® microcontrollers (MCUs) with Core Independent Peripherals incorporate on-chip peripherals that can operate without supervision from the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and are able to communicate directly with other peripherals to create flexible feedback loops. These peripherals deliver blocks of function-specific hardware intelligence that require little to no code, consume very little power and require much less RAM and Flash to implement a given function within the MCU. Our integrated solutions enable flexible, power-efficient designs with the capability to perform the same tasks as much larger and more expensive MCUs without the added cost.

Analog design for medical and fitness devices tends to be difficult and can consume precious development time. Our intelligent PIC, AVR and SAM MCUs integrate analog functions such as high-performance Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs), Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs), op amps, analog switch matrixes and voltage references to provide simple-to-use interfaces that ease analog design.