Four RA6T1 MCUs addresses motor control and AI predictive maintenance
Designed for motor control applications targeting smart homes, industrial automation, and building automation, the RA6T1 group of MCUs are the latest members of Renesas’ rapidly expanding Arm-based RA Family.
They feature a rich set of peripheral functions and AI-based failure detection, and are the first RA MCUs designed for the needs of motor control in home appliances, HVAC, solar inverters, and AC drives, claims Renesas.
They combine the performance and flexibility of the Arm-based RA family and Renesas’ motor control expertise and complement Google’s TensorFlow Lite supported platforms with the RA6T1 motor control and predictive maintenance.
“AI and machine learning are taking predictive maintenance to the next level as the industry advances toward Maintenance 4.0. We are excited to join forces with Renesas and accelerate the adoption of smart home and industrial IoT applications,” said Ian Nappier, product manager at Google. “Integrating our open-source TensorFlow AI framework with Renesas’ powerful RA6T1 MCUs brings breakthrough intelligence to motor control equipment.”
The RA6T1 32-bit MCUs operate at 120MHz and have a collection of peripherals optimised for high performance and precision motor control. The integrated peripheral functions with high-speed analogue significantly reduce bill of materials (BoM) cost while boosting motor control performance, says Renesas. For example, a single RA6T1 MCU can simultaneously control up to two brushless DC (BLDC) motors. In addition, the Google TensorFlow Lite Micro framework for TinyML applications adds enhanced failure detection to the RA6T1 MCUs, for cost-effective sensorless motor system for predictive maintenance. The TensorFlow AI framework detects potentially detrimental anomalies in motor systems early to help customers improve their predictive maintenance processes and reduce maintenance costs.
The RA6T1 group is characterised by a 120MHz Arm Cortex-M4 with floating point unit and are available in 64-pin to 100-pin LQFP packages. They feature 64kbyte RAM and scalable from 256 to 512kbyte flash memory.
It also has a 32-bit PWM timer with advanced functions, including support for seven types of complementary PWM modes for the carrier generation and 250 micro second sampling period when used with the motor control solution bundle.
The high-speed 12-bit ADC has a maximum speed of 0.4 micro seconds and a sample/hold function that allows simultaneous acquisition of three shunt currents.
The RA6TI supports IEC 60730 standard for functional safety in home appliances.
There is also a Renesas Solution Starter Kit (RSSK) for developers working on a motor control solution using the RA6T1 MCUs. The kit offers easy motor control debugging and allows customers to immediately begin evaluating their motor control design, executing real-time analysis and tuning to accelerate development.
