Renesas Electronics Corporation announced that it is developing new microcontrollers (MCUs) that will support the recently released Bluetooth 5.3 Low Energy Specification (LE).
The new devices will be part of the 32-bit Renesas Advanced (RA) family. hand Cortex-M microcontrollers that join the RA4W1 Bluetooth 5.0 LE device introduced last year. Renesas expects to have the first samples of the new MCUs in the first quarter of 2022.
The new Bluetooth 5.3 specification was released on July 13, 2021. It includes important new features, such as allowing recipients to filter messages without including a host stack to improve receiver lifecycle. It also allows peripherals to provide preferred channels to a central device to improve throughput and reliability.
In addition, it adds sub-rated connections, which improve the switching time between low-load and high-load connections for applications that sometimes need to switch to packet traffic. In addition to these features, the directional functionality introduced in Bluetooth 5.1, as well as the isochronous channels added in Bluetooth 5.2 for stereo audio transmission, will be supported in the new Renesas MCUs. The inclusion of software-defined radio (SDR) capabilities will allow customers to later migrate to new versions of the specifications.
Renesas has a long history in Bluetooth development and deep experience in designing Bluetooth LE devices. The new products will be supported by the flexible software package (FSP) of the RA family for easy application development and the Renesas QE add-on for Bluetooth LE, a special Bluetooth profile and application development support tool. The high level of security and safety mechanisms of the RA family, including support for TrustZone, is also part of these new products.
“We are committed to providing the best performance, ease of use and latest features on the market,” said Roger Wendelken, Senior Vice President, Renesas IoT and Business Infrastructure. “By offering early, stable support for the Bluetooth 5.3 LE specification, we will allow our RA customers to be the first on the market with their next-generation products.
Renesas is gearing up to offer a number of winning combinations, including the new Bluetooth 5.3 LE MCU, along with additional analog, power and sync devices. Profitable combinations provide an easy-to-use architecture, simplifying the design process and significantly reducing design risk for customers in a wide variety of applications.
Availability
The new MCUs are developed using an advanced manufacturing process that will enable high performance, low power consumption and options for small packages. Samples are expected to be available in the first quarter of 2022.