Renesas offering IEC 61508 SIL3i certified self-test software

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced the availability of functional safety solutions that meet the IEC61508 standard for its RA and RX Families of microcontrollers.

Renesas now offers IEC 61508 SIL3 certified self-test software for both the ARM Cortex-M23 and -M33-based MCUs. The company also announced the IEC 61508 SIL3 certified PROFIsafe Application Software for RX MCUs. Renesas is the industry’s first semiconductor supplier to offer these hardware-software solutions.

Functional safety is a critical consideration across most industrial automation equipment. It is also becoming increasingly important in numerous other applications, including service robotics, medical, and building automation. These requirements are often complex and place additional burden on overall development. In addition, many customers have limited experience with functional safety standards.

With its broad and deep penetration across industrial applications, Renesas has taken a leadership position in functional safety solutions. Its experts help customers get to market faster by providing end-to-end support across the broad range of 32-bit MCU families, from concept to commercialization.

“Companies of all sizes and in all geographies are seeking help in navigating functional safety requirements,” said Roger Wendelken, senior VP in Renesas’ IoT and Infrastructure Business Unit. “We are proud to lead the industry in providing certified software solutions that complement our MCUs and assist our customers in getting to market faster.”

Renesas offers comprehensive training and facilitates easy, complimentary evaluation of software solutions. During development, its certified solutions help accelerate customers time to market and reduce total cost of ownership. Commercial licensing is available for certified software solutions and technical support is provided throughout the entire product development process.

“The diagnostic software added to the Renesas solution, issued by TÜV Rheinland for functional safety certification, is based on the ARM core, which is increasingly being adopted in industrial automation,” added Masataka Nakao, GM, responsible for Functional Safety in Business Stream Industrial Services and Cybersecurity at TÜV Rheinland Japan. “Verifying diagnostic software takes time, and we are confident that certified Renesas diagnostic software can increase the efficiency of customers’ functional safety product development, which will contribute to the expansion of the functional safety market.”

Certified self-test software
When building a safety critical system using an MCU, it is required to provide device-level diagnostics. With Renesas’ SIL3 certified Self-Test Software solutions, customers can leverage IEC61508 certifications for the MCU’s CPU, ROM, and RAM when certifying the overall system. Renesas Self-test Software kit currently supports ARM Cortex-M23 and -M33-based RA2, RA4, and RA6 series MCUs.

PROFIsafe application software
Safe network communication is a critical functional safety consideration for applications that use industrial Ethernet. Renesas addresses this need with the new PROFIsafe Application Software, strengthening its safety network offerings.

The new SIL3-certified PROFIsafe Application Software Kit realizes PROFIsafe functionalities on PROFINET slave devices and eliminates the certification step for network communications. The solution works together with Renesas’ industry proven certified SIL3 System Software kit for RX MCUs. The PROFIsafe Application Software supports RX200, RX600, and RX700 series MCUs. Self-test Software is already available for RX MCUs.

Both the Self-test Software for the RA Family and the PROFIsafe Application Software for the RX Family have been certified by TÜV Rheinland, a global, functional safety certification body.