Renesas launches H8/38606F low-power controller

The H8/38606F provides 48Kbytes of on-chip flash memory in a small 32-pin QFN package together with Super Low Power technology.

The device incorporates a high-performance H8/300H CPU core, offering low power consumption and the flexibility of on-chip flash memory.

It is said to be ideal for many battery- and line-powered applications, as well as intelligent sensor applications.

The H8/38606F is said to offer a fast oscillator start-up feature, where the main oscillator can start up in around 20us using an external resonator.

This makes the device ideal for any application that spends most of its time asleep in the lowest power modes, and then wakes to take readings or to communicate.

The asynchronous timer on the H8/38606F also makes the device ideal for many battery-powered applications that count pulses and keep time, being able to count external pulses and use its internal real-time clock to achieve an average power consumption of around 0.5uA.

Combined with an on-chip high-resolution 10-bit A/D converter with a wide sampling range, Renesas said this makes the H8/38606F ideal for applications such as water and flow meters.

The H8/38606F Tiny SLP supports many methods of low-power communications, including a USART with built-in Irda interface that can be driven at up to 2,400 baud from a 32kHz oscillator.

A specially-designed 16-bit timer along with the two on-board analogue comparators also provide solutions for a variety of commonly used power and data over two-wire communications schemes.

This timer module can also be used for a number of other purposes, including driving a variety of motors, and is capable of generating up to 4 channels of PWM output.

These features make the H8/38606F ideal for many sensor applications, such as fire and smoke detectors, and PIRs.

An on-chip watchdog timer with built-in oscillator, along with power on reset and the on-chip oscillator also makes the H/38606F easy to design with in systems where reliability is an issue.

The H8/38606F is supported by Renesas' High Performance Embedded Workbench and the E8a low-cost on-chip debugger, providing all the tools needed to evaluate and develop applications with the device.

The H8/38606F is available in a 5 x 6mm2 QFN package.