ATSAMD20G16B-MU - 48MHz ARM Cortex-M0+ MCU 64KB Flash | Microchip
MPN: ATSAMD20G16B-MU β Active| Qty | Unit Price | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3.1 | $3.10 |
| 10 | $2.83 | $28.30 |
| 100 | $2.46 | $246.00 |
| 500 | $2.18 | $1,090.00 |
| 1,000 | $1.92 | $1,920.00 |
ATSAMD20G16B-MU Overview
A microcontroller (MCU) is a single-chip computer containing a CPU core, program memory (flash), data memory (SRAM), and integrated peripherals such as timers, communication interfaces, and analog blocks. The SAM D20 family sits within Microchip's broader portfolio of ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers (Cortex-M0+ -> Cortex-M family -> ARM architecture -> 32-bit RISC processor), positioning this device as a low-power, high-performance tier suitable for general-purpose embedded designs.
Key features include 64KB flash with ECC and 8KB SRAM, a 12-bit 350 ksps analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with up to 14 channels, two 16-bit timers/counters for PWM and capture, multiple SERCOM interfaces supporting I2C, SPI, and UART, and a full-speed USB 2.0 device interface on selected variants. Power management includes an integrated SleepWalking peripheral event system, multiple low-power sleep modes with sub-microampere retention current, and a 32 kHz RTC operating from a separate low-power domain.
Architecturally, the ATSAMD20G16B-MU uses a single-cycle IO and peripheral bridge that allows deterministic interrupt response while maintaining low active power, typically drawing under 7 mA/MHz at full CPU load. The 12-bit ADC achieves effective ENOB above 11 bits under proper PCB grounding and reference decoupling, making the device suitable for sensor signal acquisition and metering.
Typical applications include home automation controllers, smart energy metering endpoints, consumer appliances with capacitive touch, industrial sensor nodes, and low-power IoT edge devices requiring USB connectivity or battery-friendly operation. The wide operating voltage range of 1.62V to 3.63V supports single-cell Li-ion or two-cell alkaline battery topologies.
When designing with this part, place a 100 nF decoupling capacitor as close as possible to each VDD pin and provide a low-impedance ground return for the exposed pad, which doubles as the thermal and electrical ground reference. Configure unused pins in INPUT_PULLUP with interrupts disabled to prevent parasitic current paths during sleep states.
Drop-in alternatives for ATSAMD20G16B-MU β same package, pin-to-pin compatible. Different-package parts requiring PCB rework are excluded.
Variants in this series
Same-series models that are drop-in compatible with ATSAMD20G16B-MU (same form factor and footprint) β differing in ADC, Package, Operating Temperature, RoHS Status, DAC.
Quick Comparison Tool β Select alternative parts for side-by-side comparison:
ATSAMD20G16B-AUT
β Drop-Inβ In Stock
$2.18 / Unit
View Datasheet βATSAMD20G17B-MU
β Drop-In β οΈ εζ°εΎ ιͺθ―π Reference alternative (not in catalog)
ATSAMD20E16B-MU
β Drop-In β οΈ εζ°εΎ ιͺθ―β In Stock
$1.95 / Unit
View Datasheet βATSAMD20G15B-MU
β Drop-Inπ Reference alternative (not in catalog)
STM32L011K4T6
β Drop-Inπ Reference alternative (not in catalog)
LPC11U68JBD48
β Drop-Inπ Reference alternative (not in catalog)
ATSAMD20G16B-MU Maximum Ratings & Electrical Characteristics
| Architecture | ARM Cortex-M0+ 32-bit RISC |
| Core | ARM Cortex-M0+ with single-cycle multiplier |
| Maximum CPU Frequency | 48 MHz |
| Flash Memory | 64 KB (64K x 8) |
| SRAM | 8 KB |
| Operating Voltage Range | 1.62 V to 3.63 V |
| ADC | 12-bit, up to 350 ksps, up to 14 channels |
| DAC | 10-bit, 1 MSPS |
| Timers/Counters | Two 16-bit TC modules for PWM/capture |
| Communication Interfaces | Up to 6 SERCOM (I2C/SPI/UART) plus USB 2.0 FS device |
| Package | 48-pin QFN (7x7 mm) with exposed pad |
| Mounting Type | Surface Mount |
| Operating Temperature | -40 C to +85 C (industrial) |
| MSL Level | MSL3 (per JEDEC J-STD-020) |
| RoHS Status | Compliant (Green) |
| Pin Count | 48 |
ATSAMD20G16B-MU Pin Configuration
| Pin 1 | PA02 β General purpose IO / ADC AIN0 |
| Pin 2 | PA03 β General purpose IO / ADC AIN1 / VREFA |
| Pin 3 | PA04 β General purpose IO / ADC AIN2 / DAC VOUT |
| Pin 4 | PA05 β General purpose IO / ADC AIN3 |
| Pin 5 | PA06 β General purpose IO / ADC AIN4 |
| Pin 6 | PA07 β General purpose IO / ADC AIN5 |
| Pin 7 | VDDANA β Analog supply voltage |
| Pin 8 | GND β Ground |
| Pin 9 | PB08 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 10 | PB09 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 11 | PA08 β General purpose IO / NMI |
| Pin 12 | PA09 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 13 | PA10 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 14 | PA11 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 15 | VDDIO β Digital IO supply voltage |
| Pin 16 | GND β Ground |
| Pin 17 | PB10 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 18 | PB11 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 19 | PB12 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 20 | PB13 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 21 | PB14 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 22 | PB15 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 23 | PA12 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 24 | PA13 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 25 | PA14 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 26 | PA15 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 27 | PA16 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 28 | PA17 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 29 | PA18 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 30 | PA19 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 31 | PA20 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 32 | PA21 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 33 | PA22 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 34 | PA23 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 35 | PA24 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 36 | PA25 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 37 | GND β Ground |
| Pin 38 | VDDIO β Digital IO supply voltage |
| Pin 39 | PB16 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 40 | PB17 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 41 | PB18 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 42 | PB19 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 43 | PB20 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 44 | PB21 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 45 | PB22 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 46 | PB23 β General purpose IO |
| Pin 47 | PA27 β General purpose IO / SWDIO |
| Pin 48 | PA30 β General purpose IO / SWCLK |
Typical Applications
ATSAMD20G16B-MU is suitable for 6 applications: Home Automation Controller, Smart Energy Metering Endpoint, USB Human Interface Device (HID), Industrial Sensor Node, Capacitive Touch Appliance Front Panel, Battery-Powered IoT Edge Device.
Home Automation Controller
The ATSAMD20G16B-MU fits home automation controllers by combining the Cortex-M0+ core's deterministic response for time-critical control loops with six SERCOM interfaces for simultaneous I2C sensor and SPI display communication. With 64 KB flash it accommodates complete Matter/Thread protocol stacks or proprietary RF subsystem drivers, while the 1.62-3.63V range allows direct battery-backed operation from a single CR123 cell. The integrated 12-bit ADC captures temperature, humidity, and ambient light sensor signals with 350 ksps throughput, sufficient for whole-home environmental monitoring at sub-second update rates. Compared with 8-bit MCU alternatives, the SAMD20 cuts interrupt latency by approximately 60 percent.
Recommended
Smart Energy Metering Endpoint
The ATSAMD20G16B-MU is well-suited for smart metering endpoints where its 12-bit 350 ksps ADC samples current and voltage waveforms at adequate fidelity for energy calculation, while the Cortex-M0+ core performs RMS and power-factor computation in real time. The 64 KB flash accommodates DLMS/COSEM protocol stacks and tamper-detection firmware, and the integrated RTC with 32 kHz domain provides time-of-use tariff timing without external components. With sub-microampere sleep modes, battery-backed metering designs achieve 10+ year operational life on a single lithium primary cell.
Recommended
USB Human Interface Device (HID)
The ATSAMD20G16B-MU's integrated full-speed USB 2.0 device controller with on-chip PHY supports USB HID class implementations such as custom keyboards, mice, touch surfaces, and industrial pointing devices without external transceivers. With 64 KB flash, designers can embed composite HID device stacks plus application-specific features such as RGB lighting control, while 8 KB SRAM handles multi-endpoint HID report buffering at 1000 Hz polling rates. The 48 MHz CPU provides adequate headroom for firmware-managed USB protocol handling with sub-microsecond interrupt response.
Recommended
Industrial Sensor Node
The ATSAMD20G16B-MU fits industrial sensor nodes due to its industrial -40C to +85C operating range and the Cortex-M0+ core's deterministic interrupt latency for time-critical control applications. The 14-channel 12-bit ADC handles multi-sensor acquisition (temperature, pressure, strain gauge bridges) with on-chip PGA gain stages, while the six SERCOM interfaces support multiple IO-Link or RS-485 sensor bus masters simultaneously. The wide 1.62V to 3.63V supply range accommodates industrial 24V bus systems via onboard regulators with appropriate reverse-polarity protection.
Recommended
Capacitive Touch Appliance Front Panel
The ATSAMD20G16B-MU implements PTC (Peripheral Touch Controller) capacitive touch sensing directly via internal hardware without requiring an external touch IC, making it ideal for appliance front panels with up to 12 touch buttons plus proximity sensing. With 64 KB flash, designers can implement waterproof touch algorithms, gesture recognition, and LED animation drivers, while the integrated SleepWalking peripheral event system enables the MCU to wake on touch with less than 1 microampere standby current. The 48-QFN footprint suits slim appliance chassis designs.
Recommended
Battery-Powered IoT Edge Device
The ATSAMD20G16B-MU enables low-power IoT edge devices with sub-microampere standby current and Cortex-M0+ efficiency delivering approximately 9.4 CoreMark/mA. With 64 KB flash, the device runs application firmware plus secure bootloaders (typically under 30 KB) leaving headroom for OTA update staging buffers, while the Event System chains peripheral triggers without CPU intervention for sensor wake-and-measure workflows. Designers achieve multi-year battery life on CR2032 coin cells when using SleepWalking for duty-cycled measurement tasks.
Recommended
Recommended Products Summary
Engineering reference data for ATSAMD20G16B-MU β comparison, design guidance, and compliance information.
Selection Guide
Comparison with Alternatives
| Parameter | This Product | ATSAMD20G16B-AUT | ATSAMD20G17B-MU | ATSAMD20E16B-MU | STM32L011K4T6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package | 48-QFN (7x7 mm) | 48-QFN (7x7 mm) - same | 48-QFN (7x7 mm) - same | 48-QFN (7x7 mm) - same | 32-LQFP - different footprint |
| Brand | Microchip Technology | Microchip Technology | Microchip Technology | STMicroelectronics | NXP Semiconductors |
| Core | ARM Cortex-M0+ | ARM Cortex-M0+ | ARM Cortex-M0+ | ARM Cortex-M0+ | ARM Cortex-M0+ |
| Maximum Clock | 48 MHz | 48 MHz | 48 MHz | 32 MHz | 50 MHz |
| Flash Memory | 64 KB | 64 KB | 128 KB | 16 KB | 256 KB |
| SRAM | 8 KB | 8 KB | 16 KB | 2 KB | 36 KB |
| Operating Voltage | 1.62V to 3.63V | 1.62V to 3.63V | 1.62V to 3.63V | 1.65V to 3.6V | 1.8V to 3.6V |
| USB Controller | Yes (USB 2.0 FS device) | Yes (USB 2.0 FS device) | Yes (USB 2.0 FS device) | No | Yes (USB 2.0 FS device) |
| Operating Temperature | -40C to +85C | -40C to +85C | -40C to +85C | -40C to +125C | -40C to +85C |
Key Differentiators
- Highest flash density at this price point with integrated USB (vs STM32L011K4T6)
- Larger SRAM than same-tier low-power MCUs (vs STM32L011K4T6)
- Same-family scaling without firmware changes (vs ATSAMD20G15B-MU)
Design Notes
Estimated: at 48 MHz active CPU and 3.3 V supply, the typical active current is approximately 7 mA (about 145 uA/MHz). In standby sleep with full 8 KB SRAM retention at 3.3 V, the leakage is approximately 1.7 uA, dropping to roughly 0.7 uA in power-down mode with RTC running from a 32.768 kHz crystal. Place a 1 uF ceramic plus 100 nF decoupling pair within 5 mm of each VDDANA and VDDIO pin, and provide a low-impedance ground return through the exposed pad (EP) for thermal dissipation.
The 48-QFN exposed thermal pad must be soldered to a continuous ground plane on the top layer for both thermal dissipation and electrical grounding. Place all decoupling capacitors as close as possible to their respective supply pins with vias placed at the capacitor pads to minimize loop inductance. Keep the analog traces (VREFA, AIN inputs) physically separated from digital SERCOM traces by at least 3x trace width to reduce digital-to-analog crosstalk during high-speed ADC sampling.
Configure all unused GPIO pins as INPUT with internal pull-up enabled and interrupts disabled to prevent parasitic current paths in deep sleep states. Do not leave SWDIO/SWCLK pins floating - they must be left in their default state or external pull-ups must be added to prevent debugger misconnection on production boards. The NMI pin (PA08) requires careful routing since it cannot be disabled and can wake the device unintentionally if noise is present on that line.
Compliance Information
RoHS Green compliance per Microchip product page. MSL3 moisture sensitivity per JEDEC J-STD-020. Not AEC-Q100 qualified for automotive - industrial grade only.