Renesas Electronics Corporation, a provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced that it has produced its first microcontroller (MCU) based on advanced 22nm process technology.
By employing state-of-the-art process technology, Renesas can provide customers with superior performance with lower power consumption driven by reduced core voltages. Advanced process technology also offers the ability to integrate a rich set of features, including functions such as RF.
Additionally, the advanced process node utilizes a smaller die area for the same functionality, resulting in smaller chips with greater peripheral and memory integration.
The first chip produced on the new 22nm process is an extension of Renesas' popular RA family of 32-bit Arm Cortex-M microcontrollers. This new wireless MCU offers Bluetooth 5.3 Low Energy (LE) with the integration of a software-defined radio (SDR). It offers a future-proof solution for customers who build products that aim for a long service life. Whether during development or after deployment, devices can be updated with new application software or new Bluetooth capabilities to ensure compliance with the latest specification versions.
End-product manufacturers can leverage the full feature set of previous versions of the Bluetooth LE specification. Whether designing devices for direction finding applications using Bluetooth 5.1 Angle of Arrival (AoA) / Angle of Departure (AoD) capabilities or adding low-power stereo audio transmission to products employing Bluetooth 5.2 isochronous channels, developers now only need one device to support all these features.
“Renesas’ leadership in MCU is based on a broad range of products and manufacturing process technologies,” said Roger Wendelken, senior vice president of Renesas’ Infrastructure and IoT Business Unit. “We are pleased to announce the development of the first 22nm product in the RA MCU family, which will pave the way for next-generation devices that will help customers future-proof their designs while ensuring long-term availability. We are committed to providing the best performance, ease of use and latest features on the market. This advancement is just the beginning.”