[January 22, 2015]

Renesas Electronics' New Microcontroller Solution Brings Analog Integration and the Industry's Lowest Power Operation to Home and Industrial Sensing Systems

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the availability of the RL78/I1D group of microcontrollers (MCUs). The RL78/I1D group realizes the industry's lowest power consumption and integrates a wealth of analog functions usable in various sensing applications. More specifically, the RL78/I1D functions are optimized for detectors that sense small signals from various sensors used to monitor for smoke, gas, and the motion or vibrations.

"The demand for compact, low-power and battery-operated detectors used for emergencies or security systems is growing in both commercial and residential buildings as our society becomes more concerned about disaster prevention and security," said Ritesh Tyagi, vice president marketing, Renesas Electronics America. "Providing solutions that do more while consuming less power requires constant innovation. The new RL78/I1D Group cuts power dramatically while adding all the analog functions required to create reliable emergency and security devices on a single chip."

The ability to use functions such as the data transfer controller (DTC), event link controller (ELC), and data operation circuit (DOC) helps to further reduce power consumption during intermittent system operation by approximately 30 percent. This will enable increased performance of data processing and transfer, and implement long-interval timers, without the need for CPU intervention. In the low-power operation mode, the RL78/I1D group has an operating current level much lower than that of competing products, and it wakes up from the stop-mode state very quickly. The MCU alone can make a substantial contribution to the overall power efficiency of the system.

To help reduce system cost and allow for greater compactness, the new RL78/I1D group integrates general-purpose differential input operational amplifiers, a 12-bit A/D converter, and comparator. This brings together on a single chip all the analog peripheral functions required to interface sensors.

Key Features of the RL78/I1D Group of MCUs:

(1) Innovative snooze mode functions enabling data processing and transfer without CPU intervention

The data transfer controller (DTC) or event link controller (ELC) can be used to activate sensors, activate operational amplifiers to amplify sensor signals, and transfer A/D conversion results. The data operation circuit (DOC) compares the transferred A/D conversion results and threshold values, to determine whether the CPU needs to be activated. These innovative snooze mode functions operate without CPU intervention in standby mode and reduce power consumption by approximately 30 percent in products such as fire detectors, gas detectors, broken glass detectors, and security systems (human sensors).

(2) Dynamic switching of the operation mode to match the system status

The RL78/I1D group allows dynamic switching between low-power operation mode and high-speed operation mode to match the system status. In low-power operation mode with a power supply voltage of 1.8 V = VDD = 3.6 V and an operating frequency of 1 MHz, the operating current is only 124 µA (typ.), far lower than competing products. In addition, wake-up from the stop-mode state occurs in just 4 µs (max.) when the middle-speed on-chip oscillator clock (4 MHz) is used as the main system clock. This cuts power consumption during wake-up and enables the microcontroller on its own to contribute to the overall power efficiency of the system.

(3) On-chip analog peripheral functions necessary for detecting small sensor signals

Depending on the package, there are four differential input operational amplifiers, each with two input pins and one output pin, up to seventeen channels for the A/D converter and two analog comparators. By bringing together on a single chip the analog functions required by applications such as fire detectors, gas detectors, broken glass detectors, and security systems, the RL78/I1D group greatly contributes to lower system cost and greater compactness.

Availability

The RL78/I1D group comprises 13 product versions with package pin counts ranging from 20 to 48 pins and on-chip flash memory capacities of 8, 16, and 32 kilobytes (KB). Mass production has already begun and is expected to reach a combined volume of 400,000 units per month by December 2015. (Availability is subject to change without notice.)

(Remarks)
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About Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), the world's number one supplier of microcontrollers, is a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions including microcontrollers, SoC solutions and a broad-range of analog and power devices. Business operations began as Renesas Electronics in April 2010 through the integration of NEC (News - Alert) Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723) and Renesas Technology Corp., with operations spanning research, development, design and manufacturing for a wide range of applications. Headquartered in Japan, Renesas Electronics has subsidiaries in 20 countries worldwide. More information can be found at www.renesas.com.

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