Low power microcontrollers reduce BoM for industrial IoT sensor projects
Renesas Electronics has expanded its Synergy S1 microcontroller (MCU) series with the introduction of the S1JA MCU group. The low power S1JA MCUs feature the 48MHz Arm Cortex-M23 core and integrate programmable analogue and security functions for sensor signal acquisition and conditioning. The S1JA MCUs target cost- sensitive and low power industrial internet of things (IIoT) sensor applications, such as multi-sensor systems, headless medical monitors and instrumentation systems, flow control meters and single-phase electricity meters.
There are five MCUs in the group, with up to 256kbytes of flash memory, up to 32kbytes SRAM and a wide operating voltage range of 1.6 to 5.5V. Each MCU integrates a sensor-biasing unit that supplies power to the external sensor, and a configurable analogue fabric that processes complex algorithms to maximise signal conditioning and precise analogue measurements. On-chip analogue components include a 16-bit ADC, 24-bit sigma-delta ADC, fast response 12-bit DAC, rail-to-rail low-offset operational amplifiers, and high-speed/low-power comparators. According to Renesas, the S1JA MCUs enable advanced analogue configurations from basic functions to more complex analogue blocks, so embedded designers can reduce BoM cost and PCB size by eliminating several external analogue components. Access to capacitive touch enable pins allows designers to develop touch button HMIs, while the S1JA’s memory mirror function enables over the air updates with little software overhead.
Low power operation allows the S1JA MCUs to extend battery life for battery-operated portable and battery back-up applications. The software standby mode consumes just 500nA to enable 20-year battery-operated applications that spend extended periods in sleep mode.
The integrated AES cryptography accelerator, True Random Number Generator (TRNG) and memory protection provide the fundamental blocks to develop a secure system that connects to the cloud. The Renesas Synergy Software Package (SSP) supports the S1JA MCUs with HAL drivers, application frameworks and RTOS. The SSP also includes six new modules designed to simplify interconnecting the configurable internal analogue blocks. Embedded system designers can use either the e² studio or IAR Embedded Workbench environments to build and customise designs.
The S1JA Group MCUs can be combined with the low noise ISL21090B25 precision voltage reference and ISL32485E 5V differential RS-485/RS-422 transceiver to create ruggedised industrial sensor applications.
The Renesas Synergy S1JA MCU Group and TB-S1JA Target Board Kit are available now.
