Renesas Electronics expands its RA MCU product family with the introduction of the RA6T1 MCU

     Renesas Electronics, a global provider of semiconductor solutions, announced the expansion of its microcontroller (MCU) product line for motor control applications in smart home, industrial automation and building automation. Featuring extensive peripherals and AI-based fault detection, the four new RA6T1 MCU products are the latest members of Renesas' fast-growing Arm® architecture RA product family and the first RA MCUS designed for the unique needs of motor control in home appliances, HVAC, solar inverters and AC drives.

     Roger Wendelken, senior vice president of Renesas Electronics' iot and Infrastructure Business group, said: "As appliances, buildings and industrial automation equipment become smarter and more complex, manufacturers are struggling to contain rising BOM costs to meet increasing motor performance demands. The RA6T1 MCU will combine the superior performance and flexibility of the Arm architecture RA product family with Renesas' long-standing motor control expertise. In addition, there is a growing demand for AI in devices, and Renesas is excited to complement the Google TensorFlow Lite platform with RA6T1 motor control and predictive maintenance solutions."

     Google Product Manager Ian Nappier said: "As the industry moves towards' Maintenance 4.0 ', AI and machine learning are taking predictive maintenance to a whole new level. "We are excited to partner with Renesas to accelerate the adoption of smart home and industrial iot applications by integrating our open source TensorFlow AI framework with Renesas' powerful RA6T1 MCUS to help drive breakthroughs in motor control devices."

     The new RA6T1 32-bit MCU is based on the Arm Cortex®-M4 core and operates at 120MHz with a wealth of peripherals optimized for high performance and high precision motor control. The integrated peripheral function of high-speed simulation technology significantly reduces BOM costs while improving motor control performance. For example, a single RA6T1 MCU can control up to two brushless direct current (BLDC) motors simultaneously. In addition, the Google TensorFlow™ Lite Micro framework for TinyML applications adds enhanced fault detection to the RA6T1 MCU, giving users a smart, easy-to-use, and cost-effective sensorless motor system for predictive maintenance. The TensorFlow AI framework enables earlier and more accurate detection of potentially undesirable anomalies in motor systems to help users improve predictive maintenance processes and reduce maintenance costs.

     Renesas also offers the new Renesas Solutions Starter Kit (RSSK) for developers developing motor control solutions using the RA6T1 MCU. RSSK enables simple motor control commissioning and allows users to immediately start evaluating their motor control designs, performing real-time analysis and adjustments to accelerate development. This easy-to-use motor solution includes a RA6T1 CPU card and a 48V compatible inverter board, a GUI tool for the motor workbench, and a three-stream sensorless vector control sample program for the Flexible Configuration Package (FSP). With RA FSP, users can easily port the sample code to their own programs.