Renesas rolls out MCUs, tools, and dev kit for motor control

Renesas Electronics Corp. has introduced the RA6T2 Group microcontrollers (MCUs) with peripheral functions and a hardware accelerator designed specifically for motor control. The new RA6T2 Group MCUs target motor control in home appliances, smart home, industrial and building automation, as well as inverter control.

Click for a larger image. (Source: Renesas Electronics)

Based on the 240-MHz Arm Cortex-M33 core, the RA6T2 32-bit MCUs feature peripherals optimized for high performance and precision motor control. These include two independent ADC units that offer high-speed conversion with a maximum speed of 0.16 µsec and a simultaneous sample and hold function for three channels to detect the three-phase current of a motor, built-in amplifiers that can set the gain according to the input voltage range, and integrated analog components that were previously external including comparators which detect abnormal voltage input and over current. 

In addition, the adjustable PWM timer makes it easy to port existing algorithms, said Renesas. It also provides, together with other analog functions, a PWM output cutoff safety function in the event of an abnormality. With these features, a single RA6T2 MCU can simultaneously control up to two brushless DC (BLDC) motors, according to Renesas.

The embedded hardware accelerator includes both a trigonometric function unit (TFU) and an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter. The TFU performs high-speed calculations without the need for lookup tables, enabling effective use of ROM, said the company, and the IIR filter offers coefficient setting methods that ease porting from existing algorithms.

Block diagram of the MCU superset. Some individual devices within the group have a subset of the features. Click for a larger image. (Source: Renesas Electronics)

The RA6T2 MCUs provide an operating voltage of 2.7 V to 3.6 V, 512 KB flash ROM, 64 KB SRAM, and 16 KB data flash. Other features include integrated communications interfaces (CAN FD, 2x I²C, 6x SCI, and 2x SPI), integrated timing devices (10-channel general-purpose timer (GPT), 2-channel asynchronous timer and a watchdog timer), and integrated analog functions (two 12-bit ADCs, a 12-bit DAC, a programmable gain amplifier (PGA), and a comparator). They also include Trustzone security features and safety features including a memory protection unit, ECC in SRAM, and ADC self-test, in addition to the PWM output monitor.

The company has released 20 new RA6T2 MCUs that are available today in five package options (100-pin LQFP, 64-pin LQFP, 48-pin LQFP, 64-pin QFN, and 48-pin QFN). The company also offers a range of design tools, including the RTK0EMA270S00020BJ motor control kit, a CPU board, an inverter board, and a Motor Work Bench GUI tool with real-time debugging and digital oscilloscope functionality.

In addition, Renesas has combined the RA6T2 with complementary components that work together to create Winning Combinations for motor control. An example is the BLDC Traction Motor Control design that also includes Renesas’ new RAA227063 smart gate driver optimized for motor control.