The RL78/G1C's battery charging function conforms to the USB BC 1.2 standard, enabling high-speed charging up to 1.5A. Furthermore, by adopting the RL78 core, which boasts the lowest power consumption in its class in the industry, power consumption during USB operation is reduced by approximately 60% [Note 1].
The USB interface is not only used between PCs and PC peripherals, but also as a convenient general-purpose interface for consumer and industrial equipment in a wide range of areas, such as smartphone accessories, portable healthcare devices, audio and video accessories, gaming equipment, and industrial equipment. Recently, the need for charging via USB has been increasing. However, USB ports as defined by the previous USB 2.0 standard could not handle currents greater than 500 mA and, as a result, could not support high-speed charging. Therefore, compatibility with the USB BC 1.2 standard allows the use of currents up to 1.5 A.
The first series within the RL78/G1C MCU Group will feature 32- to 48-pin devices in packages up to 5 x 5 mm, with up to 32 KB of flash memory and 5.5 KB of onboard RAM. The RL78/G1C also integrates a high-speed oscillator with 1% accuracy.
Key Features of the RL78/G1C MCU Group:
1) Industry-first USB BC 1.2 compatibility enables high-speed charging and power delivery control while USB communication is in progress.
These MCUs include USB ports that comply with the USB 1.2 BC standard, allowing currents of up to 1.5 A to be used during charging [Note 2]. This enables high-speed USB communication and charging simultaneously.
2) Extremely low power consumption achieved by the RL78 family.
By adopting the RL78 core, which achieves low power consumption and high performance, the RL78/G1C MCUs achieve 71 µA/MHz under full operation and only 0.23 µA in Stop mode (RAM retained).
3) Adding USB functionality enables support for a wide range of applications.
These new MCUs support both USB host and function, supporting low- and high-speed USB communication. This allows them to support systems that utilize not only USB memory but also a wide variety of available peripherals, such as keyboards and mice.
The RL78/G1C MCU group is ideal for a broad range of applications, including industrial equipment such as data loggers, consumer equipment such as smartphone accessories, portable healthcare devices, USB chargers, and AV accessories.
4) Members of the extensive RL78 family with USB capability:
These new products are the first RL78 MCUs to include USB host functionality and can be easily implemented in existing systems using other products in the RL78 family.
Note 1
When compared to the current consumption of the current Renesas R8C/3xU and 78K0R/KC3-L family, in the state where the peripheral's USB communication is taking place.
Note 2:
When charging the battery via a USB connector, the current USB VBUS pin is used. The USB BC 1.2 standard defines a mechanism that detects whether the connected device's port supports high-power charging, allowing the portable device to control the charging current. This permits a maximum of 1.5 A to be used during charging.
Availability:
Samples of the RL78/G1C MCU group are available. Mass production of the RL78/G1C devices is scheduled to begin in March 2013.
Remarks
The new RL78/G1C MCU group incorporates SuperFlash® technology licensed from Silicon Storage Technology, Inc.
