STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor supplier serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, has expanded its STM32 family of advanced microcontrollers (MCUs) with extra STM32U5 devices that increase performance while reducing power consumption for longer run times and efficiency energy.
The STM32U5 has also received embedded random number entropy source certification from NIST – the first in the industry to receive this endorsement.
The new MCUs expand the range of code and data storage to 128 Kbyte Flash for cost-sensitive applications, while adding high-density versions for complex applications and sophisticated smartphone-like user interfaces.
Among them, the STM32U59x/5Ax with 4Mbyte Flash and 2.5Mbyte SRAM has the largest on-chip memory of any STM32 MCU to date.
With their increased capabilities, the new MCUs enhance deeply integrated applications such as environmental sensors, industrial actuators, building automation, smart appliances, wearable devices, electric mobility controls and others, especially in remote and hard-to-reach locations. As billions of such devices are being deployed around the world for smart living and working, ST's new MCUs accelerate progress by increasing performance, improving energy efficiency and strengthening cybersecurity.
All STM32 MCUs are based on industry-standard Arm Cortex-M embedded CPU cores and benefit from the powerful and easy-to-use STM32Cube and STM32Cube.AI development ecosystem. This ecosystem consolidates tools and software to support customers' projects from start to finish, including creating cutting-edge AI/ML solutions by converting pre-trained neural networks into optimized code.
The STM32U5 series leverages the latest generation, Cortex-M33, which incorporates advancements that increase performance, energy efficiency and resistance to online and hardware attacks. Around this core, ST has added its ultra-low power MCU expertise and implemented an architecture that leverages Arm's established principles for superior cybersecurity. Some devices in the series provide a 2.5D graphics accelerator.
The result is an innovative MCU series that offers a large selection of pin-to-pin and software-compatible products ready to handle next-generation applications.
“As many applications require extra functionality, richer graphics and faster performance while running longer, using a smaller battery or employing energy harvesting, we developed the STM32U5 and are expanding the series today,” said Ricardo De Sa Earp, executive Vice -president, general purpose microcontroller subgroup, STMicroelectronics. “This MCU combines the latest Arm core, our exclusive ultra-low power technologies, generous on-chip memory and the option of our NeoChrom graphics engine to elevate the user's visual experience.”
Among ST's top customers for the STM32U5 series, Ajax Systems is already designing future generations of its advanced wireless and smart home security solutions using the new MCUs.
“Working with STMicroelectronics, a global giant in the semiconductor market, helps us evolve and strengthen Ajax products,” said Max Melnyk, director of R&D in the Devices Department at Ajax. “The STM32U5 series significantly reduces power consumption while maintaining the same performance we achieve using other MCUs that contain DSP and floating point coprocessors. And we can reuse 90% of our existing code. An additional big plus for us is the large integrated SRAM, which is enough to handle a double frame buffer for fast and fluid graphics performance. There's also a generous flash for loading resources. I am sure this will drive the development of the next generations of Ajax products.”
More technical information
The STM32U5 series' proprietary power-saving features include standalone peripherals and ST's Low Power Background Standalone Mode (LPBAM). LPBAM allows the application to maintain critical functionality while the core and other unused blocks are powered down in any of the MCU's flexible power-saving modes. From this state, the MCU can quickly wake up the core to process a batch of data efficiently and then return to low-power mode.
On the other hand, the STM32U5 MCUs provide up to 4Mbytes of flash storage for code and data, as well as up to 2.5Mbytes of SRAM, to handle sophisticated applications. Large on-chip memory saves additional discrete memory chips that would otherwise increase power consumption, bill of materials (BOM) cost, and PCB size.
The STM32U5 series also breaks graphics performance constraints that typically apply to ultra-low-power MCUs. Variants with ST's advanced NeoChrom graphics processing unit (GPU) on the chip can run a sophisticated graphical user interface (GUI) previously possible only with an expensive microprocessor-based system.
A small embedded processor can now host smartphone-like user experiences, and GUI development can leverage ST's TouchGFX framework, which now supports SVG and rich graphics capabilities.
Additionally, unlike the processors typically required to support such sophisticated capabilities, the STM32U5 MCUs come in a cost-effective LQFP100 package that allows for simplified PCB construction with minimal layer counts. Developers can accelerate their projects using resources including the STM32CubeU5 software suite, the new NUCLEO-U545RE and NUCLEO-U5A5ZJ development boards, and the STM32U5A9J-DK Discovery kit for graphics.
The STM32U5 series also improves cybersecurity by leveraging the Cortex-M33 with its memory protection unit and Arm's TrustZone architecture with hardware isolation. The MCUs also integrate cryptographic accelerators for advanced AES algorithms, support for public key architecture (PKA), and resistance to physical attacks. Additionally, error correcting code (ECC) support in flash and SRAM prevents corruption, thereby improving cybersecurity and protection.
Additionally, the STM32U5 is the first group of general-purpose MCUs to receive NIST (US National Institute of Standards and Technology) embedded random number entropy source certification. As the certification is reusable by customers, it simplifies and speeds up certification for applications that require final SP800-90B certification.