Renesas Enhances Scalability of RX MCU Family for High-Performance Motor Control
Renesas Electronics Corporation has expanded its lineup of the RX63T Group of microcontrollers (MCUs). The new RX63T MCUs have higher pin counts and larger memory versions and also expand the functions that they feature, such as USB 2.0, 10-bit D/A converter, and faster ADC with a minimum conversion time of 0.5 microseconds (µs), and increase the number of channels of timers and serial I/Fs. The new RX63T also inherits the features of the RX62T and existing RX63T.
The new MCUs help to reduce system costs and power consumption in applications like industrial motor control, air conditioners, washing machines and solar inverter solutions. With the new RX63T products, Renesas can offer the best fit solution for advanced motor control from 1 to 3-motors, i.e. existing small pin-count RX63T for 1-motor, RX62T for 2-motors and this new RX63T with high pin-count for 3-motors.
The RX63T platform is built around the high-performance 32-bit RX CPU core featuring 100 MHz operating frequency with zero-wait-state flash to achieve an outstanding 165 Dhrystone MIPS (DMIPS) performance and 312 CoreMark® score. All RX63T and RX62T MCUs include a built-in floating point unit (FPU) and DSP functionality that make them ideal for the intense computation required to implement sensorless vector control and advanced motor control algorithms.
The new RX63T Group adds 48 individual products, result in 54 individual products for the RX63T Group in total. As an expansion of the RX62T and RX63T small pin-counts lineup, the new RX63T products underline Renesas' contribution to industrial motor and high-end consumer electronics. The new RX63T maintains a close compatibility with RX62T and RX63T small pin-counts products, allowing current customers to migrate to higher versions of their RX62T and RX63T designs easily with the new RX63T.
As part of the RX Family of products, the RX63T comes with comprehensive support, tools and a software ecosystem aimed at facilitating hardware design and software development. Key features of the new devices include:
New RX63T MCUs include multi-function timer pulse unit 3 (MTU3) specialized for motor control, that can drive up to two 3-phase motors and a 16-bit general-purpose PWM timer (GPT) capable of driving a 3-phase motor. The GPT can independently control four channels of single phase inverter. The timer uses the same clock as the CPU at 100 megahertz (MHz). This enables it to achieve a wide range of width measurements for PWM output waveforms with resolutions as small as 10 nanoseconds (ns).
The new RX63T MCUs reduce the cost and increase usability of motor vector control applications. It features two 12-bit A/D converter units that can capture analog input values with a minimum conversion time of one microsecond (µs).
The 12-bit A/D converters can easily be used for sensorless vector control methods, such as three-shunt or single-shunt current detection, as simultaneous sampling of three input channels is possible. Continuous A/D conversion is supported by the double data registers installed in the 12-bit A/D module.
The 12-bit A/D includes three programmable gain amplifiers and three window comparators. This eliminates external operational amplifiers and comparators used for overcurrent and overvoltage protection. Elimination of these external components reduces system cost and simplifies PCB layout. The new RX63T have also a 10-bit A/D converter unit that can capture analog input values with a minimum conversion time of 0.5 µs.
The RX63T Group of MCUs also incorporates many safety features which help to meet safety standards e.g. IEC60730, such as an independent watchdog with its own on-chip clock source (IWDT) and so on. The new RX63T also supports USB 2.0 host/device/OTG, CAN connectivity and a single-precision floating-point unit (FPU).
The devices in the new RX63T Group provide a scalable memory solution from 256 KB flash to 512 KB flash with up to 48 KB of embedded SRAM. They also include an additional independent 32 KB of data flash memory with a background operation (BGO) function that enables data to be written while a program is executing. The embedded flash memory is based on Renesas' proven MONOS (metal oxide nitride oxide silicon) technology that can be accessed without wait state insertion. This enables a maximum performance level of 1.65 DMIPS/MHz at any CPU frequency, without any limitation from flash technology. These products will be offered in 100-pin, 112-pin, 120-pin and 144-pin LQFP packages.
Samples of the RX63T Group of MCUs are available from the end of November 2012, priced at US$4.10 per unit in 10K unit quantities (This price is an example of an RX63T MCU with 256K/24K, LQFP100, 3V, no CAN). Mass production of the RX63T devices is scheduled to begin in the end of May 2013 and is expected to reach a scale of 400K units per month in March 2014.
