Texas Instruments (TI) has expanded the MSPM0 Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU family with the MSPM0C1104 which is the world’s smallest microcontroller measuring just 1.38mm2 in its WCSP package, or about the size of a black pepper flake.
Equipped with up to 16KB flash, 1KB SRAM, I/Os such as GPIO, I2C, UART, SPI, and a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), the MSPM0C1104 is optimized for space-constrained applications such as medical wearables and personal electronics.
TI MSPM0C1104 specifications:
- MCU Core – 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ CPU clocked at up to 24MHz
- Memory – 1KB of SRAM
- Storage – Up to 16KB of flash
- Peripherals
- Up to 18x GPIO (5V tolerant)
- 1x UART, 1 I2C, 1x SPI
- Analog
- 1x Analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with up to 10 total external channels, 1.7Msps at 10 bit or 1.5Msps at 12 bit with VDD as the voltage reference
- Configurable 1.4V or 2.5V internal ADC voltage reference (VREF)
- Integrated temperature sensor
- Integrated supply monitor
- Supply voltage – 1.62V to 3.6V
- Low power modes
- RUN – 87µA/MHz
- STOP – 609µA at 4MHz, 311µA at 32kHz
- STANDBY – 5µA with SRAM retention
- Packages
- DSBGA (YCJ) – 8 pins, 1.6 x 0.861 mm (1.3776 mm²)
- SOT-23-THN (DDF) – 8 pins, 2.9 x 2.8 mm (8.12 mm²)
- SOT-23-THN (DYY) – 16 pins, 4.2 x 2 mm (8.4 mm²)
- TSSOP (PW) – 20 pins, 6.5 x 6.4 mm (41.6 mm²)
- VSSOP (DGS) – 20 pins, 5.1 x 4.9 mm (24.99 mm²)
- WQFN (RUK) – 20 pins, 3 x 3 mm (9 mm²)
- WSON (DSG) – 8 pins, 2 x 2 mm (4 mm²
- Temperature Range – -40°C to +125°C
The MSPM0C1104 is supported by the same software development kit as all other MSPM0 MCUs, which includes MSPM0 Software Development Kit (SDK) with code samples, Code Composer Studio IDE, and TI’s Zero Code Studio no-code visual programming IDE. The company also provides reference designs and a hardware development kit for rapid prototyping: the “LP-MSPM0C1104” MSPM0C1104 LaunchPad development kit with a 20-pin version of MCU (still small), an on-board debugger based on MSP432 (which looks gigantic on the board), a red LED, a user botton, and some I/O headers.
Texas Instruments says the price of the WCSP device is US$0.20 in 1,000-unit quantities, and the MSPM0C1104 LaunchPad development kit goes for US$5.99 on TI.com. More details can be found on the product page and the company also exhibits at Embedded World 2025, in Hall 3A, Booth No. 131 until March 13.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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An MCU the size of a bypass cap? 5V tolerant inputs? This is getting very interesting, indeed. Not sure why you’d use it in a wearable instead of using a wireless soc, though
The MSP432 has an absurdly larger number of pins than the target processor. It’s got 1M of flash and 256K of SRAM. What’s it do, host the development environment for the target? I half expected to see an HDMI and USB-A connectors on there.
The target chip is nice and tiny yet has a decent set of features. Certainly for an $0.20 chip (in quantity).
I’m just so happy to see it’s not MSP430. Hated that family of chips.
I presume the MSP432 provides programming and debug capabilities for the target chip. A little ridiculous for an 8-pin microcontroller, but I guess it is easier to do that than redevelop their JTAG/SWD stack onto something smaller.
The features list look pretty good for the price and the size! It would deserve to support running at lower voltages to support being powered by a single button cell.
The run vs stop uA numbers look odd, why to stop it if it draws less when running?
Pretty disappointed that TI opted to stick to Arm instead of opting for RISC-V for this new series. Clearly it’s a move away from MSP430, so why not make a fresh, forward-looking break? The Ibex core is perfect for applications like this.
If you look at the github, the smallest Ibex core hasn’t been verified. The other ones are close to being verified.
Also the smallest ibex core is still 30% larger than the smallest cortex m0+.
Sadly, the smallest RISC-V cores aren’t ready yet for production.
TI distributes samples of the MSPM0C1104 MCU on a card with passive components as comparison.
A small cpu that still has good features and low power applications.
What ? No CAN FD peripheral
What is this, a DIP for ANTS?