MCUs drive smart appliance control
Joining the Renesas RL78 MCU family is the RL78/G21, an ultra-low-power 16-bit microcontroller optimized for smart appliance system control. It has an operating current of 34.4 µA/MHz, which Renesas says is half that of the leading RL78/G13 MCUs. The new MCU’s low-power design helps reduce energy consumption in system-control applications such as air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, and microwave ovens.
The RL78/G21’s ±4-kV HBM ESD tolerance contributes to reliability during manufacturing, assembly, and end-product operation, according to Renesas. The MCU adds a UARTA communication interface for flexible system expansion and is pin- and function-compatible with the existing RL78/G13 and RL78/G23 MCUs, allowing upgrades with minimal redesign. Memory options include 128 KB or 256 KB of code flash and 4 KB of data flash. It also has a high-speed on-chip oscillator with ±1.0% accuracy.
Renesas additionally expanded its RL78/G23 lineup with new devices featuring additional capacitive-touch channels for HMIs. Compared with the existing RL78/G23 (R7F100G), the new R7F104G MCUs increase the channel count to 24 in the 44-pin version and 25 in the 48-pin version.
The new RL78/G21 and RL78/G23 MCUs are now available, with prices starting at $0.56 and $0.77, respectively.
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