Renesas Electronics
Motor Control MCUs
Renesas Electronics introduced the RA8T2 MCU group for high-end motor control. The new RA8T2 devices address the needs of high-end factory automation and robotics.
Based on a 1 GHz Cortex-M85 processor with an optional 250 MHz Cortex-M33 processor, the RA8T2 devices from Renesas deliver a high level of performance to address real-time control of high-end motors in industrial equipment, robots, and other systems where high-speed precision operation is required. The optional Cortex-M33 processor enables customers to combine real-time control with communication functions and non-real-time operations on a single chip, saving cost, power and board space.
The RA8T2 MCUs take advantage of the high performance of the Cortex-M85 processor and Helium technology to offer a significant performance boost for digital signal processor (DSP) and machine learning (ML) implementations. This added performance enables AI functions that can predict maintenance requirements for motors, reducing costly downtime.
In addition to their processing power, the RA8T2 MCUs provide high-speed networking support through multiple communications interfaces, including two Gigabit Ethernet MACs with DMA, a two-port EtherCAT slave, and many others. High-speed communication is critical in factory automation, where each device is linked to a network within the factory, and is constantly synchronized with other machines to send and receive commands and data.
RA8T2 devices are equipped with up to 1MB of high-speed MRAM with 100 MHz access. MRAM offers faster write speeds along with higher endurance and retention compared with Flash. In addition, RA8T2 is equipped with a TCM (Tightly Coupled Memory) with 256KB for Cortex-M85 and 128KB for Cortex-M33. TCM provides users with high-precision real-time performance with less jitter and can provide stable performance in motor control processing with many interrupts and branches.
Feature Set Optimized for Motor Control
The new RA8T2 devices include a timer function that supports PWM functionality up to 300 MHz and enables easy handling by control software and efficient waveform generation for driving inverters. The complementary PWM function of the GPT timer, optimized for inverter drive, makes it easy to implement control algorithms, such as the output of complementary PWM for multiple phases (including single-phase and three-phase), automatic insertion of dead time, generation of asymmetric PWM, and linkage with AD and comparators. The timer is also equipped with a phase-counting function, making it possible to control AC servos that require axis position information using a two-phase pulse encoder. The RA8T2’s ADC has 16-bit resolution and a channel-specific sample and hold function (three channels), enabling high-precision simultaneous sampling of three-phase current values. This eliminates the need for correction processing, reducing the software load and contributing to improved control precision. Equipped with two units, it is possible to simultaneously sample three-channel currents of two motors. The Port Output Enable (POEG) and high-speed comparator function allows the PWM output to be quickly shut off when an overcurrent is detected. The shutoff state can be selected (Hi-z, Hi, Low) according to the inverter specifications.
Key Features of the RA8T2 Group MCUs
- Core: 1 GHz Arm Cortex-M85 with Helium and TrustZone; Optional 250 MHz Arm Cortex-M33
- Memory: Integrated 1MB high-speed MRAM and 2MB SRAM (including 256KB TCM for the Cortex-M85 and 128KB TCM for the M33)
- Analog Peripherals: Two 16-bit ADC with 30 analog channels, two 3-channel S/H, 2-channel 12-bit DAC, 4-channel high-speed comparators
- Communications Peripherals: Dual Gigabit Ethernet MAC with DMA, EtherCAT slave, USB2.0 FS Host/Device/OTG, CAN2.0 (1Mbps)/CAN FD (8Mbps), I3C(12.5Mbps), I2C(1Mbps), SPI, SCI, Octal serial peripheral I/F
- Advanced Security: RSIP-E50D Cryptographic engine, immutable storage for FSBL, secure debug, secure factory programming, DLM support, tamper protection, DPA/SPA protection
- Timers: 14-ch PWM timers, 4-ch high-resolution, 4-ch low-power timer (16-bit x2ch and 32-bit x2ch)
- Packages: 176-HLQFP, 224- and 289, and 303-BGA
The new RA8T2 Group MCUs are supported by Renesas’ Flexible Software Package (FSP). The FSP enables faster application development by providing all the infrastructure software needed, including multiple RTOS, BSP, peripheral drivers, middleware, connectivity, networking, and security stacks as well as reference software to build complex AI, motor control and cloud solutions. It allows customers to integrate their own legacy code and choice of RTOS with FSP, thus providing full flexibility in application development. Using the FSP will ease migration of existing designs to the new RA8 Series devices.
Winning Combinations
Renesas has combined the new RA8T2 Group MCUs with numerous compatible devices from its portfolio to offer a wide array of Winning Combinations, including the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).
Availability
The RA8T2 Group MCUs are available now, along with the FSP software. The new MCUs are supported in Renesas’ Flexible Motor Control development kit that enables easy evaluation of motor control using permanent magnet synchronous motors (brushless DC motors), and the Renesas Motor Workbench development tool. This development kit offers a common design platform with numerous Renesas motor control MCUs from the RA and RX families, enabling migration of IP across numerous devices.
