I'm about to ask for samples from the range of parts from Nanjing Chipower. Of immediate interest is a boost converter IC, versions with internal 1A switch or external FET drive, 1.25V internal reference allows any voltage from say 1.5V on up. active high enable, guaranteed to start on 0.9V and operate up to about 10V. ie can use a single AA anything or a single LiIon cell or 6V SLA anything in between (eg 1 or 2 or 3 x AA Alkaline, NiCd, NimH). Idle current wit oscillator running but Vout at setpoint =3D 6 uA. Shutdown current (enable pin low) is (they say) 0 uA. It's a series N Channel FET in power supply with gate low so 0 is close enough. Price? Yet to dance the dance again in current situation but a year or two back I had a quote for 0.9 HKD or about 16 cents US in moderate production volumes. Which is why the $1.46 feels high. They also do buck converters and much el= se. All will be priced relatively equivalently for what they do. PDFS here http://www.chipower.com.cn/en/produce.asp.htm Product summary page (jpg) http://www.chipower.com.cn/cn/uploadphotos/2011y.jpg Russell McMahon On 4 March 2012 11:48, Jesse Lackey wrote: > Hummm, at $1.46/100 for the MCP16321 it is pretty low-cost for my needs. > =A0In comparison to similar from TI & Linear it feels pretty low-cost. > (Maxim is blacklisted and never considered for new designs.) =A0Other > smaller analog IC companies headquartered overseas have interesting > cheap parts but availability is unknown and not worth the risk. > > Fortunately this and most of my designs are in the runs of low hundreds > 2X a year kind of category. =A0So $1.46 is nicer than $3-something, and > microchip availability in general is pretty good. > > However 70c would be even nicer. =A0:) > > J > > RussellMc wrote: >>> Nice to see mchip is getting into low-cost, well-documented, >>> easily-available analog type stuff. =A0That combination is hard to find= .. >> >> Choose any 2. >> I consider that cost level excessive. >> If somebody would redo an MC34063 with up to 1 MHz operation and a >> decent internal MOSFET in place of the non saturating darlington and >> with otherwise similar functionality and price it should conquer the >> world. =A0Start on 0.9V, run on 2V would be a bonus :-). Add optional >> current trip sensing (switch source current sense) and a much lower >> reference voltage would be good. >> >> How hard can it be? >> Hard, apparently. >> >> An MC34063 can drive almost any topology (boost, buck, boost-buck, >> Cuk, SEPIC, flyback, ...) , has a usefully capable internal switch , >> good voltage rating, and high side current sense. It lacks the various >> soft starts and lockouts and more of many modern IC but you can do >> most things with it with not too much effort at a fraction of the cost >> of much more modern ICs. 100 kHz max is annoying. Darlington switch >> makes efficincy poor at lower voltages. Update it and it would be >> suitable for many more tasks than it is already. >> >> >> >> =A0 =A0 =A0 Russell McMahon >> > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .