Renesas launches RL78/L23 MCUs for Smart Home Appliances with Ultra-Low Power and HMI Features

Renesas Electronics introduced the RL78/L23 microcontroller (MCU) group, expanding its 16-bit RL78 family. Operating at 32MHz, these MCUs are designed for smart home appliances, consumer electronics, IoT, and metering systems, featuring segment LCD control, capacitive touch functionality, and dual-bank flash memory for human-machine interface (HMI) applications.

The RL78/L23 MCUs achieve an active current of 109μA/MHz and a standby current of 0.365μA, with a 1μs wake-up time to minimize CPU activity in battery-powered devices. The LCD controller’s VL4 reference mode reduces operating current by approximately 30% compared to the RL78/L1X group. The SNOOZE Mode Sequencer (SMS) enables dynamic LCD segment display without CPU intervention, reducing wake-ups and enhancing power efficiency. The MCUs operate across a 1.6V to 5.5V voltage range, supporting direct 5V power supply operation, and integrate components like capacitive touch sensing, a temperature sensor, and an internal oscillator to reduce bill of materials (BOM) costs and PCB size.

The RL78/L23 includes up to 512KB of dual-bank flash memory for firmware-over-the-air (FOTA) updates, allowing continuous operation during updates, and up to 32KB SRAM and 8KB data flash. The IH Timer (KB40) supports up to th...