Japanese electronics company Renesas has announced a microcontroller that is suitable for home appliances and industrial equipment exposed to high electromagnetic interference.

An addition to the RX 32bit MCU family, the RX660 microcontrollers (MCUs) support operating voltages of up to 5V. A built-in Can-FD controller enables fast data communications.

The high operating voltages of the MCUs eliminate the need for external noise-suppression components that are required for many 3V MCUs today. This allows users to reduce development time and component cost, improving system quality.

In recent years, the scale of software has grown as functional safety and security have become a critical part of electronic systems. As the number of product models has also increased, more products are equipped with real-time operating systems to simplify software maintenance. Additionally, products need to be designed to accommodate future functional enhancements using over-the-air (OTA) updates.

To meet these needs, Renesas developed the RX660 using its RXv3 core (6.00 CoreMark/MHz) with a maximum operating frequency of 120MHz. The devices have large-capacity ROM of up to 1Mbyte and RAM of up to 128kbyte and are available in package options from 48 to 144 pins.

In particular, the effective pin count for general-purpose IO pins is ten per cent higher than on the earlier RX210, which is also 5V compatible. For example, the 144-pin version of the RX660 has an effective pin count of 134, 11 more than on the RX210. With this increase in IO count, more sensors can be connected to an MCU for a given package, making it simpler to upgrade existing systems.

“Noise suppression is essential for home appliances and industrial products since ambient electromagnetic waves in the surrounding environment can cause system malfunctions or reduce performance,” said Sakae Ito, vice president of the IoT business at Renesas. “We introduced the new RX660 MCUs in response to strong demand from customers who need to design products with high power supply voltages. We are happy to assist our customers to make their product design process simpler.”

Eisuke Yamada from Daikin Industries added: “At Daikin, we have been using Renesas’ RX MCUs in our main air conditioner products for over ten years, and we welcome the new RX660 MCUs with superior noise tolerance. The RX MCUs offer excellent CPU performance, flash memory that boosts real-time operation and scalable development with pin-compatible devices. These advantages are everything we consider essential in MCU products.”

The Can bus is becoming widely popular in industrial equipment and robotics, but the increasing volume of data communication due to the use of many sensors is causing insufficient bandwidth and higher costs for requiring multiple buses. The RX660 is the first group in the RX family to integrate a Can-FD controller that supports fast, high-volume data transfer. Can-FD allows security signals in large volume to be transmitted in a single frame, making it possible to build stronger security into devices.

Two development boards are available for the RX660 group for prototyping and detailed evaluation. The target board for RX660 is an inexpensive prototyping board that enables users to transform their ideas into working hardware and software. The starter kit for RX660 is intended for detailed evaluation and allows users to make use of the full functionality of the RX660 when developing applications.

Renesas has combined the RX660 with various analogue and power management devices for power conversion systems to create an on-line uninterruptible power supply that efficiently integrates all the key power conversion components including inverters, buck regulators, battery boost regulators and PFC in a single chip, and offers the ability to monitor activities remotely via Bluetooth.

• Renesas has announced the RZ/A3UL microprocessor (MPU) that enables a high-definition human-machine interface (HMI) and quick start-up for applications that require high throughput and real-time capabilities.

The MPU allows users to achieve the full potential of a real-time operating system (RTOS) while leveraging the performance boost provided by the 64bit Arm Cortex-A55 CPU core with a maximum operating frequency of 1GHz. Using an RTOS allows systems to start up instantly, in less than a second after boot-up. This feature is suitable for applications that require a fast response time such as industrial equipment, home appliances and office automation equipment with LCDs or control panels, as well as audio equipment and PoS terminals.