Renesas introduces RA6T2 MCUs for next-generation motor control

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, has launched the RA6T2 Group MCUs, which feature a rich set of peripheral functions and hardware accelerator designed specifically for motor control.

The new RA6T2 Group MCUs deliver a combination of performance, features, and cost-efficiency for motor control designs in home appliances, smart home, industrial and building automation, as well as inverter control.

Based on the 240-MHz Arm Cortex-M33 core, the new RA6T2 32-bit MCUs feature peripherals optimized for high performance and precision motor control to reduce bill-0of-material costs while boosting performance.

For example, two independent ADC units offer high-speed conversion with a maximum speed of 0.16 µsec and include a simultaneous sample and hold function for three channels to detect the three-phase current of a motor. In addition, amplifiers that can set the gain according to the input voltage range are built in and analog components that were previously external are incorporated — including comparators that detect abnormal voltage input and over current.

Additionally, the adjustable PWM timer makes it easy to port existing algorithms. It also provides, in cooperation with other analog functions, a PWM output cutoff safety function in the event of an abnormality. With these features, a single RA6T2 MCU can simultaneously control up to two brushless DC (BLDC) motors.

The embedded hardware accelerator includes both a Trigonometric Function Unit (TFU) and an Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filter. The TFU performs high speed calculations without the need for lookup tables, enabling effective use of ROM. The IIR filter offers coefficient setting methods that ease porting from existing algorithms.

“Our motor control customers are looking to differentiate their products in very competitive markets,” said Roger Wendelken, senior VP in the IoT and Infrastructure Business Unit at Renesas. “The RA6T2 Group delivers a unique combination of performance and features that enable cost-effective, powerful designs for a wide variety of applications.”

Features

240 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 Core; 512 KB Flash ROM; 64KB SRAM; 16KB Data Flash
Operating temperature range of Ta = -40º C to 105 ºC
Operating voltage of 2.7 to 3.6V
Five package options: 100-pin LQFP, 64-pin LQFP, 48-pin LQFP, 64-pin QFN, 48-pin QFN
Trustzone security features
Supported by Renesas Flexible Software Package for easy porting of designs from other Renesas MCUs
Integrated hardware acceleration with both TFU and IIR filter offers increased performance and reduced CPU load enabling parallel tasks, such as communication
Integrated analog functions including two 12-bit ADCs, a 12-bit DAC, a comparator and a programmable gain amplifier
PWM timer supports seven types of complementary PWM modes for carrier generation and realizes various control algorithms
Integrated 10-channel general-purpose timer (GPT), 2-channel asynchronous timer and a watchdog timer
Integrated communications interfaces: CAN FD; 2x I²C; 6x SCI; 2x SPI
DMA control; clock generator; on-chip oscillator; interrupt controller
Safety features include a PWM output monitor that shuts off the PWM output when an abnormality is detected
Memory Protection Unit; ECC in SRAM, ADC self-test