Top 10 MCUs Most Popular with Manufacturers in 2022

Whether it's a DIY or a professional product, at the heart of any embedded electronic device is a microcontroller. Microcontrollers help developers take input from sensors and output to actuators to control devices by running code/firmware.

Although microcontrollers are often developed as general-purpose components, different microcontrollers have different features and functions that make them suitable for different application scenarios. Therefore, in order to meet the current diverse application requirements, the features and functions of microcontrollers continue to increase, but the powerful functions have brought selection difficulties to electronic engineers.

Based on the frequency with which microcontrollers appear in product applications and the size of their technical communities, electronics-lab has selected 10 of the most popular microcontrollers below. Not only microcontrollers, learn more about largest semiconductor companies news could be helpful to explore.

1. STM32F103C8T6

The STM32F103C8T6 is a popular model of the STM32F103x medium-density performance line series of microcontrollers, which uses a high-performance ARM® Cortex®-M3 32-bit RISC core, operates at 72 MHz, and has a wide range of enhanced I/O and connections to two APB bus peripherals.

All members of the STM32F103x family, including the CT86, offer two 12-bit ADCs, three general-purpose 16-bit timers and a PWM timer, as well as standard and advanced communication interfaces: up to three USARTs, two I2C and SPI, one USB and one CAN.

Development board based on STM32F103C8T6:

• Blue Pill

2. Atmega328

Arguably one of the most popular microcontrollers in the world, the ATmega328 has been the microcontroller of choice for many designers. Designers wanted to avoid bulky Arduino boards while retaining the ease of programming, community support, and other amazing features associated with the Arduino development platform.

ATmega328 is an 8-bit AVR microcontroller based on advanced risc architecture, combined with 32KB ISP flash memory and read-while-write function.

Development board based on ATmega328:

• Arduino
• Nano Arduino UNO
• Arduino Pro Mini
• Sparkfun Redboard

3. PIC16F877A

As we know that the PIC16F877A is the most popular 8-bit microcontroller in the PIC family of MCUs. While some consider it obsolete, the PIC16F877A is undoubtedly still one of the most popular microcontrollers in the world.

The PIC16F877A is considered to be the microcontroller of choice in practice for beginners using PICs for embedded development, but it remains their microcontroller of choice when they become experts.

Development board based on PIC16F877A:

• PIC development board

In fact, development boards are one of the reasons why PIC microcontrollers are becoming less and less popular. While PIC development boards are often great for beginners because they come with different components that help with learning, they are unnecessary and bulky for most designers.

4. Attiny85

The ATtiny family of microcontrollers is popular for their small form factor and is considered the go-to microcontroller for those projects that require a small form factor with low GPIO count requirements. Of all the microcontrollers in this family, the ATtiny85 is considered the most popular, probably because it seems to have more I/O pins compared to the others.

While Microchip has announced a new line of ATtiny chips with significant performance upgrades, the ATtiny85 is still revered, largely because most designers have become so familiar with it over time.

The standout features of the ATtiny85 are their small size and relatively low power consumption characteristics.

Development board based on ATtiny85:

• Mini ATtiny85 USB
• Digispark ATtiny85

5. MSP430G2452

The MSP430 series of microcontrollers are known for their low power consumption.

TI's MSP430 series of microcontrollers are considered to be the most modern microcontrollers and by far the most popular member of this family is the MSP430G2452. The MSP430G2452 is a powerful and relatively inexpensive microcontroller based on a 16-bit RISC CPU from TI.

Development board based on MSP430G2452:

• MSP-EXP430G2 LaunchPad TI development board

6.ESP8266

The popularity of the ESP8266 is undisputed. It is without a doubt one of the most influential microcontrollers of the past decade, and it is definitely one of the benchmarks of the current trend of microcontrollers with converged communication capabilities.

Developed by Espressif Systems, ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi microchip with a complete TCP/IP protocol stack and microcontroller capabilities. Multiple versions of this MCU were quickly created after that, initially as a Wi-Fi module for microcontrollers, and quickly moved on to modules like the ESP-12e, which became the heart of several projects and products.

Some of the standout features of the ESP8266 include:

1. Integrated WiFI and microcontroller reduces BOM and procurement-related hassles
2. Low cost
3. Pre-certified (FCC and CE)
4. Large community support
5. Compatibility with popular platforms such as Arduino IDE

ESP8266-based development board:

There are over 100 development boards based on different variations of the ESP8266. These include:

• NodeMCU DevkIT
• Wemos D1
• Wemos D1 Mini
• Adafruit Feather HUZZAH ESP8266
• SparkFun ESP8266 Thing

7.ESP32

As an upgraded version of ESP8266, esp32 has enjoyed great support and adoption since its release a few years ago. It is a low-cost, low-power microcontroller system with Wi-Fi and dual-mode Bluetooth. It uses the Tensilica Xtensa LX6 microprocessor in dual-core and single-core versions and includes built-in antenna switches, RF equalizers, power amplifiers, low-noise receive amplifiers, filters, and power management modules.

ESP32 is designed for modern applications. In addition to WiFi, ESP32 also has Bluetooth function and integrates several security functions, such as encrypted hardware acceleration, flash encryption and secure boot.

ESP32-based development board:

Like the ESP8266, there are many ESP32-based development boards, including:

• HUZZAH32
• ESP32-DevKitC
• NodeMCU-32S
• ESPduino32
• ESP32 Thing

8. ATMEGA32U4

Atmega32u4 is a low-power microchip 8-bit AVR® RISC microcontroller with 32 KB self-programming flash memory, 2.5 KB SRAM, 1 KB EEPROM, USB 2.0 full-speed/low-speed device, 12-channel 10-bit A/D converter, and a JTAG interface for on-chip debugging. The device is capable of executing powerful instructions in a single clock cycle, enabling it to achieve a throughput of up to 16MIPS at a frequency of 16MHz. It’s easier for designers to optimize power consumption and processing speed.

Development board based on Atmega32u4:

• Teensy 2.0
• Arduino Beetle
• Arduino Pro Micro
• Arduino Leonardo
• Qwicc Pro
• Arduino Leonardo Clones

9. STM8S103F3

The STM8 series of microcontrollers offers a high-performance 8-bit core and an advanced set of peripherals in a form factor similar to the ATtiny series of microcontrollers. It consists of four series, STM8S, STM8L, STM8AF and STM8AL. Among all these products, the STM8S series is considered as the mainstream MCU, and the STM8S103F3 is considered as one of the most popular MCUs in this series.

STM8S103F3 provides 8K bytes of flash program memory, integrates real data EEPROM, advanced core and peripherals, 16MHz clock frequency, powerful I/O, independent watchdog with independent clock source, and clock safety system, All of these ensure its high performance and overall system stability.

Development board based on STM8S103F3:

There are a lot of breakout boards based on the STM8S103F3 microcontroller, which are not mature enough to be classified as a development board. Some notable STM8S103F3-based boards include:

• Sduino/STM8Blue and similar clone boards
• STM8S103F3 P6 development board

10. NXP LPC1768

LPC1768, created by NXP, is a Cortex®-M3 microcontroller designed for embedded applications with low power. It features high integration and low power consumption with a frequency up to 100 MHz.

The LPC1768 is a high-performance microcontroller with up to 512 kB flash memory and 64 kB data memory, and peripherals such as Ethernet MAC, USB device/host/OTG interface, 8-channel DMA controller and 4 UARTs.

Top-tier development boards based on the NXP LPC1768 include:

• Arm Mbed LPC1768 Development Board
• Keil LPC1769 evaluation board
• LPCXpresso Development Board for LPC1769

Currently there are as many as a thousand types of microcontrollers. In addition to the above 10 types of MCUs, there are many high-quality MCUs.