TelCom Semiconductor, Inc., a leading manufacturer of temperature sensing integrated circuits, announces the TC74, the world's first serial digital temperature sensor in a small SOT-23 package. It is I2C/SMBus-compatible and is specifically designed for hard disk drives and other computer peripherals. Thermal sensing is required in hard disk drive applications because of increasing power dissipation in modern high-speed (10,000 RPM) designs. The low cost and small package make the TC74 especially suitable in such demanding applications.

The TC74 temperature sensor converts the temperature of its on-board sensor into digital data that can be conveniently read by a microcontroller. The TC74 features +/- 1C resolution and low-power operation: 200 ưA operating current (5 ưA stand by). It operates at 3.3V or 5V, and the nominal conversion rate is six samples per second. In addition, it is address-programmable for "multi-drop" configurations.

The TC74's small size allows the TC74 to have better thermal coupling with a heat source because it gives the system designer more flexibility in mounting. The small footprint is optimal for board placement in tight layouts such as PC cards and portable electronics. Additionally, the SOT-23 package has very low thermal mass, so latency is dramatically reduced.

Sometimes it is the small guy that comes up with a gem. TelCom has come up with a part that, given free reign in the market for maybe 6 months, they have a good chance of making a standard industry product. The size is right -- SOT-23 -- the application is hot, the power consumption is right, and the part is flexible enough for it to be used by different OEMs in slightly different ways.

The TC-74 is sampling now and is priced at $0.85 in 1000-piece lots.