Renesas Electronics Expands Touch-Based Application Possibilities for Home Appliance, Building, & Industrial Automation Appli...
November 24 2015 - 7:01PM
Business Wire
New 32-Bit MCUs Bolster Lineup of
High-Sensitivity Touch Key MCUs, Offering More Convenient
Development Environment for Cost-Sensitive Applications
Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier
of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced it is
expanding development support for touch-based home appliance,
building, industrial automation, and portable medical applications
with the new RX130 Group of 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs). The new
Group allows embedded developers to incorporate both user interface
(i.e., touch key) and system control capabilities in a single MCU.
Developers working with capacitive touch-based applications can
leverage Renesas’ state-of-the-art second-generation capacitive
touch technology, with self- and mutual-capacitance capability, in
an ultra-low power, low-cost 32-bit MCU fabric.
The new RX130 Group combines excellent sensitivity and noise
tolerance, making it possible to develop touch keys employing a
variety of cover materials, including thick acrylic, glass, wood,
fabric, or stone, for use in a broad array of new applications.
These include control panels for electric appliances used in
locations where they are likely to get wet, home equipment
employing recessed switches for a more attractive design, and
industrial machinery that must be operated with gloves on for
safety reasons.
The new RX130 Group complements the existing lineup of Renesas
MCUs supporting capacitive touch-based applications, including: the
RX231 Group for high-end electric home appliances and industrial
machinery, supporting DSP/FPU (Digital signal processor/floating
point unit) and enhanced security and communication functions; and
the RX113 Group for home equipment and healthcare devices, with LCD
display and USB communication functions. With the addition of the
new RX130 Group, Renesas’ lineup of touch key MCUs comprises 256
product versions in total, with flash memory capacities ranging
from 64 KB to 512 KB and number of pins ranging from 48- to
100-pins. Pin compatibility and software compatibility are
maintained between the RX231 and RX130, making it possible to reuse
existing software resources and providing coverage for devices from
mid- to low-end to high end.
Key features of the RX130 Group:
(1) Ability to detect up to 64 touch
keys for simplified board design
The RX130 MCUs can support complex user interface requirements
with support for up to 36 touch keys in self-capacitance mode and
up to 36 keys through matrix configuration. The RX130 Group also
offers mutual capacitance mode, which allows the number of touch
keys to be expanded up to 64, among the most supported anywhere.
This reduces the wiring complexity when adding a touch panel and
helps simplify the board design. The high-speed processing of the
32-bit CPU means that the load on the CPU is less than 10 percent
even during 64-key control. The RX130 Group allow the developer to
run very processor intensive applications, while still managing the
capacitive touch interface.
(2) Industrial-leading low touch key
standby current among the lowest in the world for reduced power
load
Using an on-chip oscillator operating at 15 kHz (kilohertz), a
low-power timer that consumes very little power wakes the CPU from
the idle state at regular intervals to detect contact with the
touch panel. This enables the RX130 Group to achieve an
industrial-leading low standby current of approximately 8μA (Note
1). The low standby current helps reduce the power consumption load
imposed when adding a touch key, which enables capacitive touch
capabilities for battery-operated and other portable devices with
low power consumption requirements.
(3) Improved support for touch key
adoption thanks to expanded selection of reference software and
documentation needed for development
Using the Workbench6 automatic calibration tool with Renesas
touch key MCUs makes it possible to use a graphical user interface
(GUI) to adjust the sensitivity and other settings easily,
something that was previously complicated by the effects of factors
such as the board layout and tracing pattern, the panel material,
etc. Future upgrades to Workbench6 will allow it to be used not
only as a development tool but, in conjunction with software and
information needed for development that is also being made
available, including application notes, user’s manuals, and
reference software, it will be possible to use Workbench6 with a
sample MCU and an evaluation board to confirm and evaluate system
operation immediately. An RX130 touch-based evaluation kit that
includes Workbench6 is scheduled to be available in February
2016.
Pricing and Availability
Samples of the RX130 Group are available now. Pricing depends on
memory capacity, number of pins and packaging. For example, the
R5F51303ADFM 64-pin QFP package with 64 KB memory is priced at
US$1.46 per unit in 10,000-unit quantities. Mass production is
scheduled to start in March 2016 and to reach a scale of 500,000
units per month by March 2017.
Refer to the separate sheet for main specifications of the RX130
Group.
(Note 1) Standby current for one touch panel channel with a
period of 100 ms.
(Note 2) An integrated development environment supporting
Renesas RX family MCUs (RX600, RX200, and RX100) that is based on
Eclipse, an open source integrated development environment in
widespread use worldwide, and CDT plugins that allow use of the
C/C++ language for development.
About Renesas Electronics Corporation
Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), the world’s number
one supplier of microcontrollers, is a premier supplier of advanced
semiconductor solutions including microcontrollers, SoC solutions
and a broad-range of analog and power devices. Business operations
began as Renesas Electronics in April 2010 through the integration
of NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723) and Renesas Technology
Corp., with operations spanning research, development, design and
manufacturing for a wide range of applications. Headquartered in
Japan, Renesas Electronics has subsidiaries in 20 countries
worldwide. More information can be found at www.renesas.com.
(Remarks) SuperFlash memory technology used in Renesas
Electronics' RX231 MCUs is licensed from Silicon Storage Technology
Inc. SuperFlash is a registered trademark of Silicon Storage
Technology in the U.S., Japan, and other countries. All registered
trademarks or trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.
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Voce Communications, a Porter Novelli CompanyJessica
Kerr, 408-731-7891jessica.kerr@porternovelli.com