Smart Cities

Renesas Electronics has introduced the RA6W1 dual-band Wi-Fi 6 wireless microcontroller (MCU), along with the RA6W2 MCU that integrates both Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) technologies. These connectivity devices address the growing demand for always-connected, ultra-low-power IoT devices across smart home, industrial, medical and consumer applications. Renesas also launched fully integrated modules that accelerate development with built-in antennas, wireless protocol stacks, and pre-validated RF connectivity.

Today’s IoT devices must stay always connected to improve application usability and response time, while maintaining the lowest possible power consumption to extend battery life or to meet eco-friendly regulations. Renesas’ Wi-Fi 6 MCUs offer features such as Target Wake Time (TWT), which enables extended sleep times without compromising cloud connectivity and power consumption. This is critical for applications such as environmental sensors, smart locks, thermostats, surveillance cameras, and medical monitors, where real-time control, remote diagnostics and over-the-air (OTA) updates are critical.

Additionally, both MCU groups are optimised for ultra-low power consumption, consuming as little as 200nA to 4µA in sleep mode and under 50µA in Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM10). With the “sleepy connected” Wi-Fi functionality, these devices stay connected with minimal power draw, meeting the growing requirements of modern energy efficiency standards.

Built on the Arm Cortex-M33 CPU core running at 160 MHz with 704 KB of SRAM, the MCUs enable engineers to develop cost-effective, standalone IoT applications using integrated communication interfaces and analog peripherals, without the need for an external MCU. Customers also have the option to design with a host MCU that can be selected from Renesas’ broad RA MCU offerings and attach the RA6W1 and RA6W2 as connectivity and networking add-ons. Both RA6W1 and RA6W2 are designed to work with Renesas’ Flexible Software Package (FSP) and e² studio integrated development environment. As the first Wi-Fi MCUs in the RA portfolio, they offer a scalable platform that supports seamless software reuse across the RA family.

With support for both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, both MCUs deliver superior throughput, low latency, and reduced power consumption. The dual-band capability dynamically selects the most suitable band based on real-time conditions, ensuring a stable and high-speed connection even in environments with many connected devices. Advanced features such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and TWT boost performance and energy efficiency, making these solutions well suited for dense urban environments and battery-powered devices.

The RA6W1 and RA6W2 devices offer advanced built-in security including AES-256 encryption, secure boot, key storage, TRNG, and XiP with on-the-fly decryption to keep data safe from unauthorised access. The RA6W1 is RED certified (Radio Equipment Directive), which makes it easier for developers to future-proof their design. Additionally, the device is Matter ready and certified with Matter 1.4, and is compatible across smart home platforms. Renesas supports both MCUs and modules through the Renesas Product Longevity Program, offering 15-year support for MCUs and 10 years for modules.

Two types of modules, Wi-Fi 6 (RRQ61001) and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth LE combo (RRQ61051) simplify design by integrating certified RF components and wireless connectivity stacks that comply with global network standards. Supported RF certification standards include the U.S. (FCC), Canada (IC), Brazil (ANATEL), Europe (CE/RED), UK (UKCA), Japan (TELEC), South Korea (KCC), China (SRRC) and Taiwan (NCC). By integrating connectivity at the system level, the modules significantly reduce design effort and accelerate time to market.

The RA6W1 MCU is now available in FCQFN and WLCSP packages, along with the RRQ61001 and RRQ61051 modules. The RA6W2 MCU (BGA package) will be available in Q1/2026. The devices are supported by the FSP, e² studio, evaluation kit and software development kit (SDK) that include flash memory, PCB trace antennas, connectors and embedded power profiler for power consumption analysis. Renesas also offers comprehensive software tools to aid system application development, as well as the Production Line Tool (PLT) for production testing of wireless MCUs.

https://www.renesas.com/