OREANDA-NEWS. Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the availability of the RL78/I1D Group of microcontrollers (MCUs). The RL78/I1D Group realizes the industry’s lowest power consumption and integrates a wealth of analog functions usable in various sensing applications. More specifically, the RL78/I1D functions are optimized for detectors that sense minute variations in the output of sensors used to monitor for smoke, gas, and motion or vibrations.

The ability to use functions such as the data transfer controller (DTC), event link controller (ELC), and data operation circuit (DOC) to perform data processing and transfer, and implement long-interval timers, all without the need for CPU intervention, helps to further reduce power consumption during intermittent system operation by approximately 30 percent. In the low-power operation mode, the RL78/I1D Group has an operating current level much lower than that of competing products, and it wakes up from the stop-mode state very quickly. The MCU alone can make a substantial contribution to the overall power efficiency of the system.

To help reduce system cost and allow for greater compactness, the new RL78/I1D Group integrates general-purpose differential input operational amplifiers, a 12-bit A/D converter, and a comparator. This brings together on a single chip all the analog peripheral functions required to interface with sensors.

Key Features of the RL78/I1D Group of MCUs:

  • (1) Innovative snooze mode functions enabling data processing and transfer without CPU intervention

    The data transfer controller (DTC) or event link controller (ELC) can be used to activate sensors, activate operational amplifiers to amplify sensor signals, and transfer A/D conversion results. The data operation circuit (DOC) compares the transferred A/D conversion results and threshold values to determine whether the CPU needs to be activated. These innovative snooze mode functions operate without CPU intervention in standby mode and reduce power consumption by approximately 30 percent in products such as fire detectors, gas detectors, broken glass detectors, and security systems (human sensors).

  • (2) Dynamic switching of the operation mode to match the system status

    The RL78/I1D Group allows dynamic switching between low-power operation mode and high-speed operation mode to match the system status. In low-power operation mode with a power supply voltage of 1.8 V ? VDD ? 3.6 V and an operating frequency of 1 MHz, the operating current is only 124 ?A (typ.), far lower than competing products. In addition, wake-up from the stop-mode state occurs in just 4 ?s (max.) when the medium-speed on-chip oscillator clock (4 MHz) is used as the main system clock. This cuts power consumption during wake-up and enables the microcontroller on its own to contribute to the overall power efficiency of the system.

  • (3) On-chip analog peripheral functions necessary for detecting minute sensor signals

    Depending on the package, there are four differential input operational amplifiers, each with two input pins and one output pin, up to seventeen channels for the A/D converter and two analog comparators. By bringing together on a single chip the analog functions required by applications such as fire detectors, gas detectors, broken glass detectors, and security systems, the RL78/I1D Group greatly contributes to lower system cost and greater compactness.