Arm Cortex-M23 MCU delivers 87.5 µA/MHz active mode

Renesas Electronics Corporation introduced the RA2L2 microcontroller (MCU) group with ultra-low power consumption and the industry’s first support for the new UCB-C Revision 2.4 standard. Based on a 48-MHz Arm Cortex M23 processor, the new MCUs offer a rich feature set that makes them ideal for portable devices and PC peripherals such as gaming mice and keyboards.

The new USB Type-C Cable and Connector Specification Release 2.4 has reduced voltage detection thresholds (0.613V for 1.5A source, and 1.165V for 3.0A source). The RA2L2 MCUs are the industry’s first MCUs to support these new levels.

The RA2L2 MCUs employ proprietary low-power technology that delivers 87.5 µA/MHz active mode and software standby current of just 250nA. They also offer an independent operating clock for the low-power UART, which can be used to wake up the system when receiving data from WiFi and/or Bluetooth LE modules. Along with the USB-C support, this combination of features makes the RA2L2 the premier solution available for portable devices such as USB data loggers, charge cases, barcode readers, and other products.

In addition to USB-C with CC detection up to 15W (5V/3A) and USB FS support, the new MCUs offer LP UART, I3C, and CAN interfaces, giving designers the ability to reduce component count, saving cost, board space, and power consumption.

The RA2L2 MCUs are supported by Renesas’ Flexible Software Package (FSP). The FSP enables faster application development by providing all the infrastructure software needed, including multiple RTOS, BSP, peripheral drivers, middleware, connectivity, and networking, as well as reference software to build complex AI, motor control, and cloud solutions. It allows customers to integrate their own legacy code and choice of RTOS with FSP, thus providing full flexibility in application development. The FSP eases migration of existing IP to and from other RA devices.