Renesas introduce RA8 Series MCUs for motor control applications

The RA8T1 group is the third in Renesas' RA8 Series, all of which deliver breakthrough performance of 6.39 CoreMark/MHz1. All RA8 MCUs take advantage of the high performance of the Arm Cortex-M85 processor and Arm's Heliumtechnology that provides up to a 4X performance boost for digital signal processor (DSP) and machine learning (ML) implementations over the Cortex-M7 core. This added performance in RA8T1 devices can be used for AI functions that can predict maintenance requirements for motors, reducing costly downtime.

Feature set optimised for motor control

The new RA8T1 devices include advanced PWM timing features such as 3-phase complementary output, 0% and 100% duty output capability, a double-buffer compare match register, and five phase counting modes. Analogue capabilities of the new MCUs include 12-bit ADCs, 12-bit DACs and high-speed comparators used in voltage and current measurement and over-current protection. RA8T1 MCUs also offer multiple communications functions, including SCI, SPI, I2C/I3C, CAN/CAN-FD, Ethernet, and USB-FS. The new group also provides port output shutdown capability when an anomaly is detected, an important safety feature in motor control. These capabilities combined with the advanced timers and Renesas' power management expertise, enable customers to build comprehensive, low-power motor control solutions.

Renesas in embedded processing for motor control

Renesas has shipped motor-control specific MCUs for over 10 years ago. The company ships over 230 million motor control embedded processors per year to thousands of customers worldwide. In addition to multiple RA MCU groups, Renesas offers motor-control specific devices in its 32-bit RX Family, its 16-bit RL78 MCUs and its 64-bit RZ MPUs. Renesas also introduced the industry's first RISC-V-based ASSP designed for motor control.

"Renesas is already the market leader in motor control with the widest MCU portfolio for smart home, building and factory automation systems," said Daryl Khoo, Vice President of the Embedded Processing 1st Division at Renesas. "The performance of these MCUs is critical in high-speed electric motor control that requires sophisticated algorithms and application software to run in a reliable, safe and secure manner. The RA8T1 MCUs bring unprecedented CPU horsepower to the portfolio along with Helium technology that allows our customers the additional flexibility to deliver smart (AI/ML) solutions without the need for additional hardware."

All RA8 devices also offer advanced security including Arm TrustZone technology, Renesas Security IP (RSIP-E51A), Secure Boot with first stage bootloader in immutable storage, and Pointer Authentication and Branch Target Identification (PACBTI) security extension.