Renesas Launches 5V RX660 32-Bit MCUs with Noise Tolerance for Home Appliances and Industrial Applications

August 02, 2022

News

Renesas Electronics announced a new addition to the RX 32-bit MCU Family, the RX660 group of microcontrollers (MCUs) that supports operating voltages of up to 5V, offering superior noise tolerance for home appliances and industrial equipment exposed to high electromagnetic interference.

The RX660 is the first in Renesas’ higher-end RX general-purpose MCU devices to support 5V and the first in the RX Family to feature a built-in CAN FD controller that enables fast data communication. The high operating voltages of the new RX660 MCUs are designed to eliminate the need for external noise-suppression components that are required for many 3V MCUs today.

Renesas developed the RX660 using its RXv3 core (6.00 CoreMark/MHz) with a maximum operating frequency of 120 MHz, offering high performance and power efficiency. The devices feature large-capacity ROM of up to 1 megabyte (MB) and RAM of up to 128 kilobytes (KB) and are available in many package options (48-pin to 144-pin). In particular, the effective pin count for general-purpose I/O pins is 10% higher than on the earlier RX210, which is also 5V compatible. For example, the 144-pin version of the RX660 has an effective pin count of 134, 11 more than on the RX210. With this increase in I/O count, more sensors can be connected to an MCU for a given package.

CAN is becoming widely popular in industrial equipment and robotics, but the increasing volume of data communication due to the use of many sensors is causing insufficient bandwidth and higher costs for requiring multiple buses. The RX660 is the first group in the RX Family to integrate a CAN FD controller that supports fast, high-volume data transfer. CAN FD allows security signals in large volume to be transmitted in a single frame, making it possible to build stronger security into devices.

Two development boards are available for the RX660 group for both prototyping and detailed evaluation. Target Board for RX660 is an inexpensive prototyping board that enables users to transform their ideas into working hardware and software. Renesas Starter Kit for RX660 is intended for detailed evaluation and allows users to make use of the full functionality of the RX660 when developing applications. 

Renesas has combined the RX660 with a variety of analog and power management devices for power conversion systems to create the “On-line Type UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) Winning Combination.” The solution efficiently integrates all the key power conversion components including inverters, buck regulators, battery boost regulators, and PFC in a single chip, and offers the ability to remotely monitor activities via Bluetooth.

The RX660 MCUs and development boards are available now.

For more information, visit: https://www.renesas.com/rx660.