MCU combines Bluetooth 5.0 with enhanced security

By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief

Renesas Electronics Corp. recently launched the RX23W  — a 32-bit microcontroller (MCU) with Bluetooth 5.0 for IoT endpoint devices such as home appliances and health-care equipment. The MCU also includes Renesas’s Trusted Secure IP, featured in its RX MCU family, to address Bluetooth security risks such as eavesdropping, tampering, and viruses.

The new RX23W is based on Renesas’s RXv2 core, which achieves the high performance of 4.33 Coremark/MHz, with improved floating-point unit (FPU) and DSP functions. The chip operates at a maximum clock frequency of 54 MHz. Optimized for system control and wireless communication, the RX23W provides full Bluetooth 5.0 Low Energy support including long-range and mesh networking functions and claims the industry’s lowest-level reception mode peak power consumption at 3 mA.

The RX23W also integrates a range of peripheral functions for IoT equipment, including security, touch key, USB, and CAN functions. These functions allow the RX23W to implement both system control and Bluetooth wireless functions for IoT endpoint equipment such as home appliances, health-care equipment, and sports and fitness equipment on a single chip, said Renesas. In addition, the Bluetooth mesh functions make it optimal for industrial IoT equipment collecting sensor data in a factory or a building.

Key features:

• Supports long-distance communication (long range: 400 m), 2-Mbits/s data throughput, and Bluetooth mesh networking, supporting the full functionality of Bluetooth 5.0 Low Energy
• 3-mA reception mode peak current and a reception sensitivity level of −105 dBm at 125 Kbits/s.
• Bluetooth 5.0 basic protocol stack package, as well as API functions that conform to all standard profiles, including a health thermometer profile (HTP), an environment sensing profile (ESP), and an automation I/O profile (AIOP).
• Smart Configurator, implemented in a GUI, that can generate all types of MCU peripheral function driver code and pin settings for the e²  Studio integrated development environment (IDE) to generate the Bluetooth driver code; a QE for BLE that can generate programs for custom profiles and embed them in user application programs; and a Bluetooth Trial Tool Suite that allows users to perform initial wireless characteristics evaluations and Bluetooth functional verification in a GUI. (The RX23W target board includes antennas and is certified under Radio Law. The recommended reference price of this board will be $55 per unit excluding tax).
• Integrates Renesas’s Trusted Secure IP (TSIP) as part of its built-in hardware security engine. The TSIP driver uses strong encryption key management with hardware accelerators to securely boot customers’ IoT devices and protect them from security threats. Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program (CVAP) certification is expected.
• Integrates a dedicated Bluetooth high-precision low-speed on-chip oscillator, eliminating the need for external matching circuits and external capacitors, reducing bill-of-materials costs and circuit board areas.

The RX23W is available now in 7 × 7-mm 56-pin QFN and 5.5 × 5.5-mm 85-pin BGA packages with 512 KB of on-chip flash memory. For example, the 56-pin QFN package with 512 KB on-chip flash memory will be priced at $3.83 in quantities of 10,000.