Renesas Expands Market-Leading Motor Control Embedded Processing Portfolio with Over 35 New MCUs

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today debuted three new MCU groups targeting motor control applications. Renesas is introducing over 35 new products, including devices from both the RX and RA families. The new MCUs add to the industry’s leading motor control portfolio, including multiple MCU and MPU families, analog and power solutions, sensors, communications devices, signal conditioners and more.

Renesas is introducing two new MCU groups from its RA Family of Arm® Cortex®-M devices. The RA4T1 Group delivers 100 MHz performance with up to 256KB of flash and 40KB SRAM. The new RA6T3 Group offers 200 MHz operating frequency and provides 256KB of flash and 40KB SRAM. Both new groups offer an impressive array of features and functions specifically for motor control applications, including trigonometric function units (TFUs) for acceleration, advanced ADC with integrated PGA, as well as a wide choice of communication interfaces including CAN FD. The new parts are supported by the Renesas Flexible Software Package (FSP) for easy porting of designs from other RA family devices.

Renesas is also delivering new RX26T Group MCUs from the RX family operating at 120 MHz with up to 512KB of flash memory and 64KB SRAM. They support 5V power supplies, delivering high noise immunity and control accuracy. They also provide TFUs, on-chip timing, and interrupt control. Customers of the popular RX24T MCUs can easily scale designs to the new RX26T products to take advantage of existing design software while realizing performance and control efficiency improvements.

Renesas Leadership in Embedded Processing for Motor Control

Renesas introduced MCUs designed specifically for motor control over 10 years ago. The company has now shipped over 1.1 billion motor control-specific embedded processors to thousands of customers worldwide. In addition to the RX and RA Families, Renesas offers 16-bit RL78 MCUs and 64-bit RZ MPUs optimized for motor applications. In 2022, Renesas introduced the industry’s first RISC-V-based ASSP designed for motor control.

“For many years, the world’s leading providers of home appliances, industrial equipment, and building and office automation have turned to Renesas for motor control processing,” said Roger Wendelken, Senior Vice President, and Head of the MCU Business at Renesas. “We offer the industry’s broadest product lineup and most comprehensive technology portfolio, along with an unmatched ability to deliver complete solutions encompassing a wide array of critical functions. In addition, Renesas’ legendary quality is particularly important in motor control applications.”

“The industrial motor market is expected to grow strongly, as industrialization and machine automation technology continue to advance in emerging nations. The market will also benefit from the industry-wide development of new manufacturing facilities in response to growing geopolitical risks,” said Takanobu Yamanishi, Senior Researcher at Fuji Keizai. “In particular, there is significant market potential in robotics, electronic component manufacturing equipment, and power tools, all of which extensively use MCUs. We expect that with its broad range of motor control MCUs that address diverse customer requirements, Renesas can help the industry accelerate its growth.”

All of the new MCUs are supported by Renesas’ Flexible Motor Control development kit that enables easy evaluation of motor control using permanent magnet synchronous motors (brushless DC motors), and the Renesas Motor Workbench development tool. By improving motor control efficiency, Renesas’ MCUs can save energy in end systems.

Key Features of the RA4T1 Group MCUs

• 100 MHz Arm^® Cortex^®-M33 CPU core with TrustZone^®
• Integrated flash memory options from 128KB to 256KB and 40KB SRAM
• Package options from 32- to 64-pin
• Integrated Trigonometric Function Unit as hardware accelerator
• Integrated advanced analog functions including 12-bit ADC, Programmable gain amplifier, Comparator, and 12-bit DAC

Key Features of the RA6T3 Group MCUs

• 200 MHz Arm^® Cortex^®-M33 CPU core with TrustZone^®
• Integrated flash memory of 256KB and 40KB SRAM
• Package options from 32- to 64-pin
• Integrated advanced analog functions including 12-bit ADC, Programmable gain amplifier, Comparator, and 12-bit DAC
• Integrated communications options including USB 2.0 Full-Speed Device, CAN FD, I3C, SCI, and SPI

Key Features of the RX26T Group MCUs

• Industry-leading real-time performance: 120 MHz with no-wait flash memory access
• 5V power supply support: High noise immunity and dynamic range of analog inputs
• Dual motor support with FOC and PFC control on a single chip: 120 MHz PWM (2 channels of three-phase complementary + 2 channels of single-phase complementary), three 12-bit ADCs
• Board miniaturization/BOM reduction: built-in high-speed on-chip oscillator, small QFN packages (48-HWQFN: 7x7mm, 64-HWQFN: 9x9mm)
• Highly secure: dual-bank flash memory enables rewriting without halting the system; Trusted Secure IP-Lite reduces risk of information leakage
• High-speed communication: next generation CAN FD and I3C basic support

Winning Combinations

Renesas has designed multiple Winning Combinations for the new MCUs. The High Power, Compact BLDC Motor Control design features the RA4T1 MCU with the RAA227063 smart gate driver IC to control 3-phase sensorless BLDC motors. Digital Power Conversion with Totem Pole Interleaved PFC includes the RX26T MCU with RAA223011 700V AC/DC regulator and other Renesas components. The E-bike System Solution combines the RA6T3 MCU with power and BMS devices to provide a complete solution for any kind of E-bike. Renesas’ Winning Combinations are technically vetted system architectures from mutually compatible devices that work together seamlessly to bring an optimized low-risk design for a faster time to market. Renesas offers more than 400 Winning Combinations with a wide range of products from the Renesas portfolio to enable customers to speed up the design process and bring their products to market more quickly. They can be found at renesas.com/win.

Availability

The new MCU Groups and associated development kits are available today from Renesas and its authorized distributors. More information is available at renesas.com/RA4T1, renesas.com/RA6T3, and renesas.com/RX26T, respectively.

Credit: Renesas