DSP, Micros & Memory


MCUs for low-power industrial and IoT applications

31 March 2021 DSP, Micros & Memory

Renesas Electronics has expanded its RA4 Series microcontrollers (MCUs) with 12 new RA4M2 Group parts. The new devices deliver an exceptional combination of very low power consumption, high performance and enhanced security features that positions them as ideal solutions for industrial and IoT applications.


The highly power-efficient RA4M2 Group offers a market-leading operating current of only 80 µA/MHz in active mode, and low standby current of 0,7 mA. Even with these leading specifications, the new devices have an extremely fast wakeup time from standby of 30 µs. With operating frequencies up to 100 MHz, the RA4M2 MCUs are ideal for performance-hungry, low-power applications such as industrial and IoT edge devices.

The RA4M2 MCUs employ the Arm Cortex-M33 core based on Armv8-M architecture. They feature Arm TrustZone technology and Renesas’ Secure Crypto Engine. The Secure Crypto Engine incorporates multiple symmetric and asymmetric cryptography accelerators, advanced key management, security lifecycle management, power analysis resistance, and tamper detection. This combination enables customers to realise secure element functionality, enabling safety and security in IoT edge devices for low-power applications.

Key features of the RA4M2 Group are:

• Very low power consumption of 80 A/MHz in active mode; 30 µs wakeup time.

• Scalable from 48- to 100-pin LQFP packages; also available in 48-pin QFNs.

• Integrated Flash memory of 512 KB, 384 KB or 256 KB; 128 KB SRAM.

• Capacitive touch sensing unit.

• USB 2.0 Full Speed, QuadSPI and SDHI.

• Advanced analog with one ADC (analog-to-digital converter) unit.

The RA4M2 Group is supported by the easy-to-use Flexible Software Package (FSP), which includes a best-in-class HAL driver. The FSP uses a GUI to simplify and dramatically accelerate the development process, while also making it easy for customers to transition from an original 8/16-bit MCU design. Designers using the RA4M2 MCUs also have access to the extensive Arm partner ecosystem, offering a wide range of tools that help speed time-to-market.


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