Apr. 11, 2023 /SemiMedia/ -- Renesas Electronics Corporation recently announced that it has produced its first microcontroller (MCU) based on advanced 22-nm process technology. By employing state-of-the-art process technology, Renesas can provide customers with superior performance at lower power consumption driven by reduced core voltages. The advanced process technology also offers the ability to integrate a rich feature set including functions such as RF. Additionally, the advanced process node uses a smaller die area for the same functionality, resulting in smaller chips with higher integration of peripherals and memory.

The first chip produced on the new 22-nm process is an extension to Renesas’ popular RA family of 32-bit Arm® Cortex®-M microcontrollers. This new wireless MCU delivers Bluetooth® 5.3 Low Energy (LE) with the integration of a software-defined radio (SDR). It offers a future-proof solution for customers building products targeting a long lifetime. Whether during development or after deployment, the devices can be upgraded either with new application software or new Bluetooth capabilities to assure compliance to the latest specification versions.

End product manufacturers can leverage the full feature set of previous Bluetooth LE specification releases. Whether designing devices for direction-finding applications utilizing the Bluetooth 5.1 Angle of Arrival (AoA) / Angle of Departure (AoD) features, or adding low power stereo audio transmission to products by employing Bluetooth 5.2 isochronous channels, developers now only need one device to support all of these features.

“Renesas’ MCU leadership is based on a wide array of products and manufacturing process technologies,” said Roger Wendelken, Senior Vice President in Renesas’ IoT and Infrastructure Business Unit. “We are pleased to announce the first 22-nm product development in the RA MCU family which will pave the way for next generation devices that will help customers to future proof their design while ensuring long term availability. We are committed to providing the best performance, ease-of-use, and the latest features on the market. This advancement is only the beginning.”

Renesas is sampling the new device to select customers now, with full market launch expected in 4Q 2023. More information about the Bluetooth 5.3 LE Specification is available in a Renesas blog post found here https://www.renesas.com/blogs/what-s-new-bluetooth-53-low-energy.