Renesas debuts new Group in popular RA0 Series
Renesas Electronics has introduced the RA0E2 microcontroller (MCU) Group based on the Arm® Cortex®-M23 processor. The new, cost-competitive devices offer extremely low power consumption, extended temperature range, and a wide variety of peripheral functions and safety features.
Renesas introduced the RA0 MCU series in 2024 and it has quickly become very popular with a wide range of customers due to its affordability and low power consumption. RA0E1 devices have already been adopted in consumer electronics, appliance and white goods, power tools, industrial monitoring and other applications.
RA0E2 MCUs are fully compatible with RA0E1 devices, offering pin-expansion while maintaining the same peripherals and ultra-low power. This compatibility lets customers re-use existing software assets. The new devices deliver industry-leading power consumption of only 2.8mA current in active mode, and 0.89 mA in sleep mode. In addition, an integrated High-speed On-Chip Oscillator (HOCO) enables the fastest wake-up time for this class of microcontroller. The fast wake-up enables the RA0 MCUs to stay in Software Standby mode more of the time, where power consumption drops to a minuscule 0.25 µA.
Renesas’ RA0E1 and RA0E2 ultra-low power MCUs deliver an ideal solution for battery-operated consumer electronics devices, small appliances, industrial system control and building automation application.
Feature Set Optimized for Low Cost
The RA0E2 devices have a feature set optimized for cost-sensitive applications. They offer a wide operating voltage range of 1.6V to 5.5V so customers don’t need a level shifter/regulator in 5V systems. The RA0 MCUs also integrate timers, serial communications, analog functions, safety functions and security functionality to reduce customer BOM cost. A wide range of packaging options is also available, including a tiny 5mm x 5mm 32-lead QFN.
In addition, the new MCU’s high-precision (±1.0%) HOCO improves baud rate accuracy and enables designers to forego a standalone oscillator. Unlike other HOCOs in the industry, it maintains this precision in environments from -40°C to 125°C. This wide temperature range enables customers to avoid costly and time-consuming “trimming,” even after the reflow process.
“The market reception for our RA0 Series has exceeded even our own high expectations,” said Daryl Khoo, Vice President of the Embedded Processing Marketing Division at Renesas. “The RA0E2 Group MCUs deliver the same ultra-low power and price point that have been so popular with our customers. The addition of extended temperature range and more memory opens up even more applications and use cases. We plan to further expand the RA0 product lineup, delivering optimal solutions for 8-16 bit MCU users transitioning to 32-bit MCUs.”
Key Features of the RA0E2 Group MCUs
• Core: 32MHz Arm Cortex-M23
• Memory: Up to 128KB integrated Code Flash memory and 16KB SRAM
• Extended Temperature Range: Ta -40°C to 125°C
• Timers: Timer array unit (16b x 8 channels), 32-bit interval timer (8b x 4 channels), RTC
• Communications Peripherals: 3 UARTs, 2 Async UART, 6 Simplified SPIs, 2 I2C, 6 Simplified I2Cs
• Analog Peripherals: 12-bit ADC, temperature sensor, internal reference voltage
• Safety: SRAM parity check, invalid memory access detection, frequency detection, A/D test, output level detection, CRC calculator, register write protection
• Security: Unique ID, TRNG, AES libraries, Flash read protection
• Packages: 32- and 48-lead QFNs, 32-, 48-, and 64-pin LQFP
The new RA0E2 Group MCUs are supported by Renesas’ Flexible Software Package (FSP). The FSP enables faster application development by providing all the infrastructure software needed, including multiple RTOS, BSP, peripheral drivers, middleware, connectivity, networking, and security stacks as well as reference software to build complex AI, motor control and cloud solutions. It allows customers to integrate their own legacy code and choice of RTOS with FSP, thus providing full flexibility in application development. Using the FSP will ease migration of RA0E1 designs to larger RA0E2 devices if customers wish to do so.
