Renesas Introduced Best-in-Class Analog Front End MCU RX23E-B with Built-in ΔΣA/D Converter for Industrial Sensors

Predictive maintenance and automation using sensing data are the latest trends in the manufacturing industry and infrastructure. With these market trends, the sensor devices that output sensing data are also evolving to provide accurate measurements and add value to the system through miniaturization, intelligence, and distributed processing.

The RENESAS RX Family has shipped more than 1.3 billion products in the past 13 years. Among these shipments, the RX-E MCU series is equipped with a 24-bit ΔΣA/D converter which is optimized for industrial sensing equipment（Industrial Sensor）. The first RX23E-A MCU has an equivalent to or better performance than a discrete ΔΣA/D converter's performance, resulting in a wide implementation of RX23E-A in measuring blocks of temperature controllers, weight scales, pressure gauges, etc. The selection of an A/D converter varies depending on the application needs. Hence, Renesas expands the RX-E portfolio and launches the RX23E-B MCU with the best-in-class performance*¹ ΔΣA/D converter.

*¹ Achieved the best performance among MCUs with built-in ΔΣA/D converter

Figure 1: RX23E-B Block Diagram

The major differences between RX23E-A and RX23E-B are the data rate and the noise performance of the built-in 24-bit ΔΣA/D converter. RX23E-A is strong for low-speed applications, and it has been widely implemented in many applications such as temperature measurement (thermocouple and RTD), strain measurement (weight, force, pressure), and gas analysis. On the other hand, RX23E-B delivers enhanced high-speed performance and noise performance increasing to mid to high-speed range, and supports applications with such speed. The maximum data rate is 125kSPS, which is categorized as high-speed for ΔΣA/D converters, achieving eight times faster speed than RX23E-A. RMS noise of RX23E-B is also reduced to around one third of RX23E-A. In addition to speed and noise, the RX23E-B is also equipped with 16-bit D/A converter and +/-10V analog input.

Figure 2: Comparison of 24-bitΔ-ΣA/D converter

Among the targeted mid to high-speed range applications, there are different categories such as data acquisition (DAQ), force sensor, and so on. These applications are required to support up to 10usec (equivalent to 100kSPS) measurement and demand high-speed and low-noise performance. RX23E-B can fully meet the standard specifications required by these applications.

Figure 3: Comparison Between Standard Specifications and RX23E-B

RX23E-B offers an expanded product portfolio with wider options for users to select the most suitable product according to their required specifications. The data rate of the ΔΣA/D converters are available from 125kSPS to 31.25kSP. Users can select from 40-pin to 100-pin packages, including 5.5 x 5.5 mm 100-pin BGA for compact applications.

Figure 4: RX-E Series Lineup

Despite the technical differentiations between RX23E-A and RX23E-B, both devices have essentially the same concept of providing new added values such as miniaturization and distributed processing.

The Renesas Solution Starter Kit (RSSK) for RX23E-B includes a GUI-based tool, QE for AFE, making it possible to start evaluating the AFE immediately without software development, and can be used for application evaluation as well.