Renesas launches new 32-bit RA family of microcontrollers

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, has announced the expansion of its 32-bit RA Family of microcontrollers (MCUs) with a new Group based on the latest Arm Cortex-M33 core.

The new 100-MHz RA4E1 Group has best-in-class power consumption balanced with high performance and optimized feature integration. It enables fast design cycles and easy upgrades to other RA Family devices.

Renesas’ RA Family now boasts over 150 parts ranging from 48 to 200MHz. The RA Family MCUs offer advanced power-consumption specifications, a wide range of communications options, and best-in-class security options, including Arm TrustZonetechnology.

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.

“Our RA Family continues to exceed expectations by delivering market-leading performance, features, ease-of-design and value,” said Roger Wendelken, senior VP in the IoT and Infrastructure Business Unit at Renesas. “The new RA4E1 Group was developed to meet the requests of our customers to extend the already-wide RA product family with an Entry-line option. We’re confident that these parts will hit the sweet spot for a wide range of applications, and that many designers will find that the RA family meets their needs for current and future developments.”

The RA4E1 MCU group
The RA4E1 MCUs are the first Entry-Line Group in the 100-MHz RA4 Series. The group includes four different parts, spanning from 48-pin to 64-pin packages, and from 256 to 512kB of flash memory along with 128kB of SRAM.

The RA4E1 devices offer the lowest active power consumption in their class, using only 60µA / MHz, while executing from Flash at 100MHz. They deliver an optimized combination of innovative peripherals, connectivity options, and system cost-saving features.

The RA4E1 Group is ideal for cost-sensitive applications and other systems requiring an optimal combination of performance and low-power consumption.

Features

A 100-MHz Arm Cortex-M33 CPU core
Integrated flash memory options from 256 to 512KB — and 128KB RAM
Support for a wide temperature range: Ta = -40/85° C
Package options from 48- to 64-pin
Low-power operation: 60µA / MHz in active mode while executing at 100MHz; 81µA / MHz executing the CoreMark algorithm from Flash
Integrated USB 2.0 full-speed device, serial communication, as well as CAN and QSPI
System costs reduction with on-chip high precision (±0.25%) internal oscillator using FLL, abundant GPIO, advanced analog, low-voltage detection, and internal reset function