Innovation
Products and Solutions that Contribute to a Sustainable Society
As the world's leading semiconductor company, Renesas aims to build a future in which sustainable products and solutions using cutting-edge technologies make people's lives easier and create a better world.
With the spread and expansion of high-speed and large-capacity communications, everything around us has become intelligent, and in the world of interconnection, high-speed computing performance is also required. In order to realize an environmentally friendly and sustainable society that is driven by technological innovation, it is essential that Renesas' products and solutions, as well as the systems of customers equipped with our products, are highly energy-efficient, secure and safe. Renesas will continue to provide low-power, safe and secure products and solutions to achieve those goals.
Provision of Low-Power Products and Solutions
Renesas believes that by further enhancing energy efficiency and robust safety and security, our products and customers' systems will become sustainable. Renesas is committed to developing solutions, products, and technologies in the seven areas shown in the figure and to reducing environmental impact. This concept is expected to contribute to the global environment, and details are available through the Green Bond Framework.
Contribution to Energy Consumption in Customers' Systems
Renesas contributes to the energy conservation of the entire system by reducing the power consumption of our products while further improving the efficiency of our customers' systems through our solutions.
Improving Data Center Energy Efficiency
The role of the data center has become even more vital as digitization continues to advance and data volumes continue to grow. In addition, large customers and businesses requiring large amounts of data storage are also contributing to the growth in data center demand. Renesas provides key solutions for the transition to a new generation of energy-efficient data centers that help reduce energy consumption and promote a sustainable environment.
Power Semiconductor Solutions for Data Centers Supporting 800V DC Power Architecture
Renesas has announced power semiconductor solutions for data centers that support an 800V DC power architecture, addressing the rapidly growing electricity demand driven by the surge in AI processing. By leveraging wide bandgap semiconductors such as GaN, these solutions achieve highly efficient power conversion and low-loss power distribution, contributing to the simplification of power distribution infrastructure and higher power density. The DC/DC converters achieve up to 98% efficiency while maintaining compatibility with existing 48V systems. These solutions help realize highly efficient and scalable power infrastructure required for AI data centers.
Renewable Energy Solutions that Contribute to Energy Efficiency
Unlike fossil fuels, renewable energy does not emit CO2 during power generation, and thus contributes significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gases through fossil fuel substitution. Wind and solar power generation are strongly required to minimize installation and maintenance costs while maximizing power generation efficiency. Our products contribute to the adoption of renewable energy by meeting this need.
Click here to learn more information on Renesas' renewable energy.
100V Withstand Voltage MOSFETs Featuring a New Process Architecture
Renesas has released 100V withstand voltage N-channel MOSFETs that adopts its newly developed split-gate process, “REXFET-1.” Compared to conventional products, this device reduces on-resistance by 30% and gate-drain charge by 40%, significantly lowering power loss. In addition, the package size has been reduced by 50%. These features enable reduced power loss in high current load applications such as switching power supplies, motor control inverters, and battery management systems, thereby supporting electrification applications including EVs and charging equipment.
Air Quality Management Solutions for Building Automation
According to the IEA, building and other building-related CO2 emissions account for approximately 30% of global CO2 emissions, and in 2019, building-related energy efficiency investments totaled more than $150 billion. Our solution enables high performance CO2 sensing and fine air conditioning control to reduce power consumption.
Click here to read our blog post on "Air Quality Management Solutions."
Products and Solutions for Achieving Advanced Vision AI with High Power Efficiency
In implementing edge AI, including vision AI, achieving both high-performance AI capabilities and low power consumption remains a major challenge. In addition, the need for cooling fans to address heat generation imposes constraints on installation space and overall system cost. Therefore, to utilize AI at the edge, there is a strong demand for highly power-efficient products that can overcome these limitations.
AI MPU Enabling Advanced Vision AI with High Power Efficiency
Renesas has announced its mid-range AI MPU, the “RZ/V2N”, which integrates a DRP-AI accelerator. It delivers both high power efficiency and AI performance of up to 15 TOPS, while suppressing heat generation to eliminate the need for a cooling fan, contributing to system miniaturization and cost reduction. The MPU supports the connection of two cameras, enhancing spatial recognition compared to a single-camera setup, and can be applied to a wide range of use cases such as AI cameras, visual inspection, and driver monitoring. In addition, its development environment and reference solutions help reduce development workload and accelerate time to market.
Products and Solutions Optimized for Always-On Applications
As IoT devices become more widespread, the demand for low power consumption continues to grow, requiring devices to operate continuously and support long-term battery operation. Technologies such as Wi-Fi 6 and TWT (Target Wake Time), which enable communication only when necessary, help reduce power consumption while maintaining cloud connectivity, making it essential to achieve both always-on connectivity and low power usage. In addition, to reduce design complexity and development effort, there is a growing demand for integrated wireless functionality and module-based solutions.
RA MCUs Supporting Wi‑Fi 6 Dual Band and Bluetooth LE
Renesas has expanded its RA MCU lineup with the introduction of the RA6W1, which supports Wi‑Fi 6 dual band, and the RA6W2, which supports both Wi‑Fi 6 and Bluetooth® LE, along with module products compatible with these MCUs. These devices enable always‑on connectivity with low power consumption, making them well suited for IoT applications such as smart home appliances, industrial equipment, and medical devices. With Wi‑Fi 6 dual band and TWT (Target Wake Time), they achieve both highly efficient communication and reduced power consumption. In addition, they feature security and Matter support, while development environments and module offerings help simplify design and accelerate time to market.
Solutions for Improving Customer Development Efficiency
In recent embedded system development, challenges have emerged such as fragmented workflows, manual component searches, and the difficulty of making design decisions from a system-level perspective. As a result, development efficiency has declined and time to market has been extended, creating a growing need for solutions that address these issues.
Renesas 365: An Innovative Platform for Software-Defined Product Development
Renesas, in collaboration with Altium, has announced “Renesas 365, Powered by Altium,” a cloud-based integrated platform designed to streamline electronics development. By unifying hardware, software, and lifecycle data within a single digital environment, the platform improves development efficiency, shortens time to market, and ensures digital traceability. Renesas has integrated more than 550 devices from its “RA family” of 32-bit microcontrollers, based on Arm® cores, into Renesas 365 along with comprehensive software and development tools. This enables customers to develop, scale, and operate next-generation software-defined products more quickly, at lower cost, and with long-term sustainability.
Green and Super Green Devices
One of the pillars of Renesas' environmental activities is its eco-product activities. This is an activity to create environmentally friendly semiconductors, or eco-products, at all stages of the product life cycle, including product development, procurement, manufacturing, use, and disposal.
To create eco-products, we evaluate and index the environmental impact of our products in eight categories, including product safety and energy conservation, and compare them with our existing products. As a result of this product environmental assessment, developed products that have been certified as having superior environmental performance compared to our conventional products have been registered as Renesas Green Devices, while superior products have been registered as Super Green Devices, and are reported internally and externally.
Click here to learn more about Renesas' eco-product initiatives and Super Green devices.
Providing Safe and Secure Products and Solutions
In order to make people's lives easier and realize a safe, secure, and sustainable society, Renesas has continuously delivered sustainable products in mission-critical fields, such as automotive, medical care, and industrial infrastructure. In addition, by providing our customers with solutions based on the industry's highest standards of reliability as well as safety and security technology, we help their systems to meet strict international standards such as ISO and IEC.
Support for Security Certification Frameworks
With the widespread adoption of IoT devices and connected systems, strengthening cybersecurity and complying with various regional regulations have become critical challenges. In this context, there is an increasing need to reduce the burden of ensuring security and regulatory compliance during product development, while facilitating alignment with global security standards.
To achieve this, in addition to implementing advanced security features, having microcontrollers that are already certified makes a significant contribution to improving development efficiency.
Three RA MCUs Achieve PSA Certified Level 1 Security Certification
Renesas has announced that three microcontrollers from its RA family—“RA8E1,” “RA8E2,” and “RA4L1”—have obtained PSA Certified Level 1 security certification from Applus+ Laboratories. This certification includes new regulatory requirements such as the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), which is expected to be implemented in Europe, and contributes to enhancing the security of IoT devices.
Each device features TrustZone support, high-performance cores, and low-power design, enabling them to support a wide range of applications, including industrial, IoT, and vision systems.
More Security for Mission-Critical Applications
According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.35 million people worldwide have died in traffic accidents, and traffic accidents are one of the world's 10 leading causes of death. More than half of traffic fatalities occur among vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcycles, tricycles and other passengers), and the development of safe vehicles has always been a global concern. The reduction of traffic accidents is one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the installation of the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) is becoming mandatory in each country including Japan.
Looking at IoT devices, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing our daily lives. Implementing AI requires real-time, high-volume information gathering and superior computing power to handle it, and IoT devices need to work together with the cloud more than ever before. Without robust cybersecurity measures in the IoT devices of the endpoints, the AI system itself could be cyber-attacked, with consequences for society at large.
Click here to learn more about Renesas' safety and security technology for robust protection of mission-critical applications.
Functional Safety and Security Solutions to Achieve Zero Traffic Accidents
Autonomous Driving (AD) and ADAS are expected to dramatically change the automotive market. Renesas contributes to the development of vehicles that are designed to achieve zero traffic accidents, and provides solutions for AD and ADAS that help protect drivers from potential accidents and improve safety.
Click here to learn more about our AD/ADAS solutions for demanding automotive functional safety standards.
RH850/UC2: Automotive Microcontroller with Advanced Safety and Security Features
Renesas has announced the “RH850/U2C”, a 32-bit automotive microcontroller manufactured using a 28 nm process. As a new addition to the RH850 family, it is suitable for a wide range of applications including body control, chassis, safety systems, and battery management systems (BMS).
It integrates up to four RH850 cores operating at up to 320 MHz and supports up to 8 MB of flash memory, along with a comprehensive set of communication interfaces compatible with the latest E/E architectures. The device supports functional safety up to ISO 26262 ASIL D and has been designed and developed in accordance with the latest ISO/SAE 21434 standard. It also complies with security standards aligned with regional regulatory requirements worldwide.
Development Platform Enabling Both Functional Integration and Security
As automotive systems become increasingly advanced, there is a growing need to integrate multiple functions into a single platform. At the same time, addressing interference between functions and mitigating security risks have become key challenges.
R-Car Gen5 ensures independence between domains through hardware-based secure partitioning mechanisms, while achieving both functional integration and high reliability. This supports the transition to next-generation E/E architectures.
Launch of RoX Whitebox Software Suite for R-Car X5H
Renesas has expanded its “R-Car Open Access (RoX) Platform” for fifth-generation R-Car SoCs to accelerate the development of software-defined vehicles (SDVs). The company now offers the R-Car X5H evaluation board along with the “RoX Whitebox” software suite, enabling rapid development through integration with a wide range of operating systems and partner software, including Linux, Android, and AUTOSAR.
This solution supports a broad range of applications such as ADAS, autonomous driving, and AI cockpits, contributing to improved end-to-end development efficiency and reduced time to market.