Japanese electronics firm Renesas has integrated Wifi 6 and Bluetooth LE into microcontrollers for always-connected, low-power IoT devices across smart home, industrial, medical and consumer applications.

The RA6W1 dual-band Wifi 6 wireless microcontroller (MCU), along with the RA6W2 MCU that integrates Wifi 6 and Bluetooth LE technologies, devices address this growing demand. Renesas has also launched integrated modules that accelerate development with built-in antennas, wireless protocol stacks and pre-validated RF connectivity.

Today’s IoT devices must stay always connected to improve application usability and response time, while maintaining low power consumption to extend battery life or meet eco-friendly regulations. These MCUs offer features such as target wake time (TWT), which enables extended sleep times without compromising cloud connectivity and power consumption. This is critical for applications such as environmental sensors, smart locks, thermostats, surveillance cameras and medical monitors, where real-time control, remote diagnostics and over-the-air (OTA) updates are critical.

Additionally, both MCU groups are optimised for low power consumption, consuming as little as 200nA to 4µA in sleep mode and under 50µA in DTIM10 delivery traffic indication message mode. With the sleepy connected wifi functionality, these devices stay connected with low power draw, meeting the growing requirements of modern energy efficiency standards.

Built on the Arm Cortex-M33 CPU core running at 160MHz with 704kbyte of SRAM, the MCUs can help engineers develop cost-effective, standalone IoT applications using integrated communication interfaces and analogue peripherals, without the need for an external MCU. Users also have the option to design with a host MCU that can be selected from Renesas’ RA MCU offerings and attach the RA6W1 and RA6W2 as connectivity and networking add-ons.

Both RA6W1 and RA6W2 are designed to work with Renesas’ FSP flexible software package and e² Studio integrated development environment. As the first wifi MCUs in the RA portfolio, they offer a scalable platform that supports seamless software reuse across the RA family.

With support for 2.4 and 5GHz bands, both MCUs deliver better throughput, low latency and reduced power consumption. The dual-band capability dynamically selects the most suitable band based on real-time conditions, ensuring a stable and high-speed connection even in environments with many connected devices. Features such as OFDMA and TWT boost performance and energy efficiency, making them suitable for dense urban environments and battery-powered devices.

The devices offer built-in security including AES-256 encryption, secure boot, key storage, TRNG and XiP with on-the-fly decryption to keep data safe from unauthorised access. The RA6W1 is RED (Radio Equipment Directive) certified, which makes it easier for developers to future-proof their design. Additionally, the device is Matter ready and certified with Matter 1.4, and is compatible across smart-home platforms. Renesas supports both MCUs and modules through its product longevity programme, offering 15-year support for MCUs and ten years for modules.

“We’re offering our customers the flexibility to design with a standalone wifi device, a wifi-Bluetooth LE combo, or fully integrated modules depending on their needs,” said Chandana Pairla, vice president at Renesas. “These wireless products save power, simplify system design and lower BoM cost. With hosted or hostless implementation options, customers can confidently begin their wireless onboarding journey and seamlessly integrate into next-generation connected systems.”

Two types of modules, Wifi 6 (RRQ61001) and wifi-Bluetooth LE combo (RRQ61051) simplify design by integrating certified RF components and wireless connectivity stacks that comply with global network standards. Supported RF certification standards include the USA (FCC), Canada (IC), Brazil (Anatel), Europe (CE/RED), UK (UKCA), Japan (Telec), South Korea (KCC), China (SRRC) and Taiwan (NCC). By integrating connectivity at the system level, the modules reduce design effort and accelerate time to market.

The RA6W1 MCU (www.renesas.com/en/products/ra6w1) is available in FCQFN and WLCSP packages, along with the RRQ61001 (www.renesas.com/en/products/rrq61001) and RRQ61051 (www.renesas.com/en/products/rrq61051) modules. The RA6W2 MCU (BGA package) will be available early next year. The devices are supported by the FSP, e² Studio, evaluation kit and software development kit (www.renesas.com/en/design-resources/boards-kits/ek-ra6w1) that include flash memory, PCB trace antennas, connectors and embedded power profiler for power consumption analysis. Renesas (renesas.com) also offers software tools to aid system application development, as well as the PLT production line tool for production testing of wireless MCUs.