Renesas Electronics R7F0E embedded controller

Renesas Electronics has announced an energy-harvesting embedded controller that can eliminate the need to use or replace batteries in IoT devices. Developed based on the company’s SOTB (silicon-on-thin-buried-oxide) process technology, the product achieves reduction in both active and standby current consumption.

The R7F0E is a 32-bit, Arm Cortex-based embedded controller capable of operating up to 64 MHz for rapid local processing of sensor data and execution of complex analysis and control functions. Consuming just 20 μA/MHz active current and 150 nA deep standby current, the product is suitable for low-power and energy harvesting applications.

The low current levels of the embedded controller enable system manufacturers to eliminate the need for batteries in some of their products through harvesting ambient energy sources such as light, vibration and flow. This makes it useful for industrial, business, residential, agricultural, healthcare and public infrastructure IoT applications, as well as health and fitness apparel, shoes, wearables, smartwatches and drones.

The Energy Harvest Controller (EHC) function is included to increase robustness and minimise external components. The EHC enables direct connection to many different types of ambient energy sources, such as solar, vibration or piezoelectric, while protecting against harmful inrush current at start-up. It also manages the charging of external power storage devices such as supercapacitors or optional rechargeable batteries.