The influx of information generated by big data, combined with improvements in automation and sensor capabilities, is opening up new opportunities to enhance business operations and ultimately contribute to a better quality of life. This has been true in many areas, particularly in the industrial, healthcare, and agricultural sectors.
In the industrial sector, there are hopes of improving the efficiency of refrigeration and air conditioning by monitoring the operating environments of computers and key communication equipment in data centers, and by predicting failures through the collection and analysis of operational data. In the healthcare sector, recording and analyzing data such as blood pressure, pulse rate, and other vital signs using wearable devices could support daily health maintenance and lead to the early detection of diseases. In agriculture, monitoring the environment and growing conditions of crops with environmental sensors could lead to cost savings in fertilizers, heating, and lighting, as well as improvements in overall crop quality.
There is also a trend towards rapid prototyping and shortening development time by using, for example, 3D printing and other technologies, and efforts are also required in MCU development environments to easily support prototyping and rapid development.
The RL78/G11 MCU was developed with these needs in mind, addressing not only miniaturization, lower power consumption, and battery life in sensor core and sensor application systems, but also the need to reduce user prototyping and development times. Renesas will also provide a comprehensive development environment, including evaluation boards, development tools, and software, to contribute to both energy-saving electronic devices and the achievement of an environmentally friendly society.
The main features of the RL78 / G11:
1) Support for up to 13 sensors in a 24-pin package
The RL78/G11 MCU group supports the largest number of sensors in a 24-pin MCU. The 24- and 25-pin versions of these new MCUs support 11 analog input channels and six serial communication channels. Even in the compact 24-pin package, the RL78/G11 MCU can handle signal inputs from up to 13 sensors. Processing of sensor signal inputs, along with built-in analog functions and serial communication (receive) functions that operate even in standby mode, enables low-power control, even in systems with multiple sensors.
The RL78/G11 MCU group offers enhanced features, such as high-speed wake-up, which accelerates CPU transitions from standby to active operation in 4 microseconds (four millionths of a second), and flash-mode operation, both of which optimize CPU performance and contribute to energy savings. These MCUs also support battery voltage measurement and sensing referenced to an internal fixed voltage, operating from a 1.8V power supply. Leveraging these features reduces power consumption during intermittent operation, contributing to greater energy savings and extended battery life in sensor hubs and sensor application systems.
The RL78/G11 MCUs are designed in small 20- to 25-pin packages with a small 16KB flash memory and a wealth of analog peripherals, such as A/D converters, D/A converters, comparators, and PGAs. These are configurable, including configurations like PGA + ADC + VBGR, PGA + CMP, CMP + DAC/VBGT, or PGA + CMP + DAC/VBGR. They also support very low power operation (100 µA @ 1 MHz) and a high-speed alerting rate of 4 µs. Available in small WFLGA 3 x 3 mm², HWQFN 4 x 4 mm², and standard 20-pin LSSOP packages, this group of MCUs is well-suited for sensor, lighting/power supply, and small appliance applications.
Availability:
Samples of the RL78/G11 will be available from October 2016 onwards. Mass production is scheduled to begin in December 2016 and is expected to reach a volume of 50,000 units per month in 2018.
