Renesas Electronics Corporation introduced a new Group within its 32-bit RA Family of microcontrollers (MCUs). The RA2E2 Group, based on the latest Arm Cortex-M23 core, offers a unique combination of extremely low power consumption, a set of excellent peripherals targeted at IoT endpoint applications, and space-saving packaging options including a tiny 16-pin WLCSP (Wafer Level Chip Scale Package) device measuring only 1.87 x 1.84 mm. The new 48-MHz RA2E2 Group enables fast design cycles and easy upgrades to other RA Family devices.
The RA2E2 Group MCUs are designed to address the needs of demanding IoT endpoint applications, including wearables, medical devices, appliances, and industrial automation. They offer the industry’s lowest operating power in their class, consuming only 81uA/MHz in active mode with a software standby current of only 200nA with fast wakeup. The new devices also support an extremely wide temperature range of Ta = -40/+125°C for harsh IoT operating environments. The RA2E2 Group supports an I3C bus interface and integrates cost-saving peripheral functions, including an on-chip oscillator with the precision of +/-1%, power-on reset and low voltage detector, EEPROM, and a temperature sensor.
The Renesas RA Family includes over 160 parts ranging from 48MHz to 200MHz. The RA Family MCUs offer industry-leading power consumption specifications, a very wide range of communications options, and best-in-class security options, including Arm TrustZone technology. All RA devices are supported by the Renesas Flexible Software Program (FSP) that includes highly efficient drivers and middleware to ease the implementation of communications and security. The FSP’s GUI simplifies and accelerates the development process. It enables flexible use of legacy code as well as easy compatibility and scalability with other RA Family devices. Designers using FSP also have access to the extensive Arm ecosystem, offering a wide range of tools that help speed time-to-market, as well as Renesas’ extensive partner network.
The RA2E2 Group includes nine different devices, spanning from 16-pin to 24-pin packages, and from 16KB to 64KB of flash memory along with 8KB of SRAM. The devices also include 2KB of data flash memory, a feature that other low-pin count devices don’t provide. They are also the only MCUs in their class to offer an I3C bus interface, delivering high-speed communications of 4.6 Mbps while significantly reducing power consumption. The RA2E2 Group delivers leading security features as well, including a cryptography accelerator (AES256/128), a True Random Number Generator (TRNG), and memory protection units.
Key Features of the RA2E2 Group include: 48 MHz Arm Cortex-M23 CPU core; Integrated flash memory options from 16KB to 64KB; 8KB RAM, and 2K data flash; Package options from a tiny 16-WLCSP to 20- and 24-pin QFN; Low power operation: 81uA/MHz in active mode with a software standby current of only 200nA with fast wakeup; I3C bus interface for higher communication speed; Support for wide temperature range: Ta = -40/+125°C for harsh IoT operating environments; Security features including cryptography accelerator, TRNG, and memory protection units; Wide operating voltage range of 1.6V to 5.5V; System costs reduction features; High precision (+/- 1.0%), high-speed on-chip oscillator; Power-on reset and Low Voltage detector;
EEPROM; High current drive port and 5V tolerant I/O; Temperature sensor;
Renesas has combined the RA2E2 MCUs and other RA MCUs with complementary analog and power offerings that work together seamlessly to create Winning Combinations that speed design cycles and reduce customer risk for a variety of applications. Examples of Winning Combinations featuring the RA2E2 devices include the DDR5 Gaming DIMM Solution for addressable LED control, among others. Renesas offers more than 250 Winning Combinations with compatible devices for a wide range of applications and end products. They can be found at renesas.com/win.
The RA2E2 Group is available today. To help engineers get started, Renesas is offering the EK-RA2E2 Evaluation Kit.
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