Renesas' new RX13T 32-Bit MCU enables inverter control in on-off switching motors

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, has launched the RX13T Group of 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) to enable highly efficient inverter control of compact motors — such as fans or pumps in consumer and industrial applications that previously controlled motor operation through on-off switching.

This includes factory equipment where energy efficiency is a priority, including:

Water discharge
Supply pumps
Cooling fans for data sensor servers
Cordless, battery-powered household products where longer operating periods are demanded, such as electric power tools and vacuum cleaners.

The new RX13T Group offers higher efficiency and lower bill-of-materials (BOM) cost by incorporating functions optimized for single-motor inverter control, reducing the number of required peripheral components, and including low-pin-count packages in its lineup.

The RX13T MCUs are the first MCUs operating at 32 MHz to incorporate a floating point unit (FPU) ^{(Note 1)}. The RX13T also provides functions with a proven track record on RX Family MCUs, such as inverter control timer (MTU3), 12-bit A/D converter, programmable gain amplifier (PGA), and data flash memory, making it possible to implement brushless DC motor control on a single chip.

“The 32-bit RX Family has a rich lineup of MCUs dedicated for motor control application since its market introduction ten years ago,” said Sakae Ito, VP of the IoT Platform Business Division at Renesas.“The RX13T demonstrates Renesas’ continuous pursuit to help our customers realize energy and cost efficiency in every type of motor control solutions across the globe. As we celebrate the 10^th anniversary of RX, we are committed to deliver constant product innovation to serve our customers and partners who make great solutions based on the RX Family of MCUs.”

The RX13T Group is the first in the RX Family to be available in a compact 32-pin LQFP package and a 48-pin LFQFP package. Renesas also plans to offer even smaller 32-pin 5 mm square and 48-pin 7 mm square QFN package versions. High compatibility with existing products such as the RX23T and RX24T in aspects such as timers and pin configurations makes it easy for customers to reuse existing hardware and software design assets.

As part of the development environment, Renesas offers a RX13T CPU card that supports the 24 V Motor Control Evaluation Kit (with motor). It includes emulator functionality, eliminating the need for an on-chip debugging emulator and allowing users to begin evaluation by simply connecting the CPU card to a PC with a USB cable. Motor control sample code for sensor-less vector control is also available, and supports the Renesas Motor Workbench 2.0 motor control development support tool.

With this toolbox, developers have everything they need to jump-start evaluation of motor control applications.

Features

RXv1 CPU core with operating frequency of 32 MHz and performance of 98.56 CoreMark ^{(Note 2)}
On-chip FPU eliminates need for overflow processing when performing fixed-point arithmetic operations and contributes to more readable software code
Support for a wide range of power supply voltages from 2.7 to 5.5V. Offering 5V support provides a high level of noise tolerance
Incorporates MTU3 timer module for inverter control. The timer counter clock operates on a high-speed clock frequency equal to the CPU’s operating frequency, making it easy to generate complementary PWM output with dead time that is required for inverter control
Channel-dedicated sample and hold function (for three channels) enables simultaneous sampling of three phase current values, eliminating the need for error correction and lightening the software load
Includes 128 kilobytes (KB) or 64 KB of on-chip code flash memory and 12 KB of on-chip SRAM, There is also 4 KB of on-chip data flash memory, eliminating the need for external EEPROM.
On-chip peripheral functions such as three-channel PGA, three-channel comparator, and high-speed on-chip oscillator (HOCO, accuracy of ±1.0%) reduce the need for peripheral components
Models are available with support for an operating temperature range of -40° to 85° C or -40° to 105° C. This meets the increasing need in both the industrial and consumer fields for products capable of operating in high-temperature environments

The RX13T is available now. Pricing varies depending on package, memory capacity, and number of pins. For example, the 32-pin QFP package with 64 KB of ROM is priced at $0.99 USD (excluding tax) per unit in 10,000-unit quantities (pricing and availability are subject to change without notice).