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Low Power Cortex-M23 MCUs Unveiled at Embedded World

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April 09, 2024

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Renesas has recently announced the launch of its new Arm Cortex-M23 based RA0 series, claiming to have the "industry’s lowest overall power consumption for general purpose 32-bit MCUs." The power consumption for these MCUs is reported to be 84.3μA/MHz. Additionally, the company offers a 'software stand-by' mode that further reduces power consumption by 99% to just 0.2 µA. According to Renesas, the wake-up time from this mode is as quick as 4.6μs when using the internal 32MHz oscillator.

One of the key features of the internal oscillator in the RA0 series is its ability to maintain precision in a wide range of environments, from -40 to 105°C. Renesas highlights that unlike other on-chip oscillators, there is no need for trimming even after the re-flow process. The data sheet specifies a precision rating of ±1.0% over the full operating range of -40 to +105°C and 1.6 to 5.5V.

The initial offering in the RA0 series is the RA0E1, which comes with up to 64kbyte flash, 12kbyte RAM, and 1kByte of data flash capable of enduring 100,000 program-erase cycles. The peripherals included in this series are a 16-bit general PWM timer, 32-bit interval timers, real-time clock, 12-bit ADC, temperature sensor, UART, I2C, and a versatile serial peripheral that supports UART, simplified SPI, or simplified I2C.

Renesas emphasizes that the RA0E1 MCUs are equipped with diagnostic safety functions and an IEC60730 self-test library. Moreover, they offer advanced security features such as a true random number generator and AES libraries tailored for IoT applications, including encryption. For enhanced safety and security, features like SRAM parity check, invalid memory access detection, immutable storage, and more have been integrated into the MCUs.

According to Akihiro Kuroda, Renesas' Vice President of Embedded Processing, "The RA0E1 Group MCUs deliver ultra-low power without compromising on safety and data security." The package options for these MCUs include 16, 24, and 32-pad QFNs, 20-pad LSSOP, and 32-pad LQFP. Renesas also provides extensive support in the form of multiple RTOS, peripheral drivers, middleware, and stacks for connectivity, networking, and security, along with software examples for AI and motor control.

If you are interested in experiencing the capabilities of Renesas' RA0 MCUs firsthand, you can visit their demonstrations at Embedded World 2024 in hall 1 on stand 234. For more information about the RA0E1 product, you can visit the product page here.

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