Renesas Technology announces a new 32bit RX MCU with enhanced timer and analog functions for motor and inverter control systems

Furthermore, these microcontrollers help to reduce system costs and power consumption in various applications, such as air conditioners, washing machines, solar inverter solutions, lighting control and PFCs. These typically require increasing levels of functionality and environmental friendliness.

The RX62T microcontrollers include a multifunction timer pulse unit 3 (MTU3), which can drive up to two 3-phase motors. They also integrate a newly-developed 16-bit general-purpose PWM timer (GPT) that can drive a single three-phase motor. As a result, the RX62T products can drive up to three 3-phase motors at the same time with a single chip. The timer uses the same clock at 100 MHz, which is the CPU’s maximum operating frequency. This enables it to achieve a wide range of width measurements for PWM output waveforms with a 10 ns resolution.

Improved analog functions for system cost reductions and improved ease of use in motor vector control applications have also been implemented in the new RX62T family. It features two 12-bit A/D converter units and one 10-bit A/D converter unit, and can capture analog input values from up to 20 channels at a minimum conversion time of 1 s.

The two 12-bit A/D converters can easily be used for sensorless vector control methods, like three-shunt or single-shunt current detection. As each of the A/D units can be triggered by timer units and sample three phases in parallel, an independent motor control for two separate motors can be applied.

“To complete the effectiveness of the RX62T, each 12-bit A/D includes three programmable gain amplifiers and three window comparators. This eliminates external current operational amplifiers and comparators used for overcurrent and overvoltage protection as typically used for vector control applications”, said Bernd Westhoff, Product Manager at the Renesas Technology Europe CID Business Unit. “This is another step by Renesas towards a system solution approach. It contributes to both system miniaturization and reduced system costs with state of the art technology.”

As fractional calculations are required in vector control algorithms, the RX62T supports a single precision floating point unit (FPU). This simplifies decimal point calculation, boosting the overall processing performance.

The devices in the RX62T Group provide a scalable memory solution from 64k Flash to 256kB Flash with up to 16kB RAM embedded. They also include an additional independent 8 KB of data flash memory with a background operation (BGO) function that enables data to be written at the same time a program is executing. The embedded flash memory is based on the renowned Renesas MONOS (Metal Oxide Nitride Oxide Silicon) technology that can be accessed at 100MHz without wait state insertion. This enables a maximum performance level of 1.65 DMIPS/MHz at any CPU frequency up to 100MHz, without any limitation from flash technology. These products also offer a wide range of packaging variations spanning 64pin, 80pin, 100pin and 112pin LQFP. The RX62T products achieve very low power consumption of 0.5 mA/MHz in full active mode, even though they include a wide range of peripherals.

To help customers shorten the development cycles of new embedded systems, Renesas, third-party suppliers and their alliance partner network support the RX with a variety of hardware and software tools.

The RX600 series comes with a JTAG debugger interface. This enables customers to connect a Renesas E1 or E20 on-chip debugger or enable access to similar JTAG third party systems.