Connected devices (dubbed IoT in the industrial and telecom market segments) typically target applications such as utility meters, healthcare devices, and industrial sensors. And that is the reason why STMicroelectronics made the announcement for these STM32s in the month of Mobile World Congress and on the eve of another edition of Embedded World in Germany. But in fact, these two new ultra-low-power MCUs are solutions with large potential for new smart home and consumer use cases.
The new STM32U3 microcontrollers (MCUs) stand out for their cutting-edge power-saving innovations that ease deployment of smart connected technology. These latest MCUs are aimed at connected devices, which must typically operate for extended periods without maintenance and with limited energy from a coin cell or ambient solar or thermoelectric source. Think about thermostats and smoke detectors, but also consumer products such as smart watches, wearables, and hearables.
ST has set the pace in ultra-low-power (ULP) MCUs with previous STM32 variants and is now taking ULP performance to a new level with the new STM32U3 series. Leveraging advanced power-saving chip design, fine-tuned with AI-enhanced tools, and the latest Arm Cortex-M33 core running at up to 96MHz, the new MCUs achieve the market-leading Coremark-per-milliwatt score of 117. This is almost twice the efficiency of ST’s preceding STM32U5 series, and five times that of the STM32L4 series.
“The STM32U3 series builds on the heritage of ST-established ultra-low-power general-purpose microcontroller class as it is known today, which opened the door to widespread diffusion of smart technology in diverse environments,” comments Patrick Aidoune, General-Purpose MCU Division General Manager, STMicroelectronics. “Leveraging innovative techniques such as recent advancements in near-threshold design, the new devices cut dynamic power consumption to the bone, boosting efficiency by a factor of two compared to our previous generation, hence contributing to companies’ sustainability goals.”
In addition to its extreme energy efficiency, the STM32U3 series provides robust cyber protection using the latest hardware security techniques. The MCUs are designed to confine secret keys permanently in secure memory, eliminating vulnerable CPU fetches. In addition, attestation credentials for each device are provisioned by ST at manufacture before leaving the factory, which strengthens security and simplifies provisioning. All those security mechanisms, in addition to the SESIP3 and PSA Level3 certifiable security assets, such as cryptographic accelerators, TrustZone isolation, random generator, and product lifecycle, will contribute and enable manufacturers to reach compliance towards the upcoming RED and CRA regulations.
New Integrated STM32WBA6 Wireless Microcontrollers
Also new is the next generation of STMicroelectronics’ STM32 power-efficient short-range wireless microcontrollers (MCUs) that simplify connecting consumer and industrial devices. The new STM32WBA6 series is used in connected, smart devices such as wearable healthcare and wellness monitors, remote sensors, and more. Packing extra memory and digital system interfaces, while preserving energy efficiency, the new MCUs can handle richer functionality in emerging new product designs.
The STM32WBA6 MCUs also embed SESIP3 and PSA Level3 certifiable security assets, such as cryptographic accelerators, TrustZone isolation, random generator, and product lifecycle that will contribute and enable ST customers to reach compliance towards the upcoming RED and CRA regulations.
“Our new STM32WBA6 MCUs bring richer features and larger memory to address high-end applications in smart home, health, factory, and agriculture,” adds Patrick Aidoune. “Our customers can now increase the pace of development to meet demands from consumer and industrial markets for new products that deliver more features and increased capabilities within reduced size and power constraints.”
The wireless subsystem in the new STM32WBA6 microcontrollers supports Bluetooth, Zigbee, Thread, Matter, and other protocols operating in the 2.4GHz frequency band, and allows communication using multiple protocols concurrently. It’s how a system like a smart-home bridge can communicate with the homeowner’s mobile app over Bluetooth and simultaneously manage lights or thermostats through mesh networking such as Zigbee. The STM32WBA6 series also contains single-protocol variants for simpler and more cost-conscious applications.
By integrating the processing core, peripherals, and wireless subsystem, STM32WBA6 MCUs help product developers meet demands to simplify new designs, miniaturize assembly size, and save the electronic bill of materials. With up to double the Flash and RAM on-chip, compared to the previous STM32WBA5 series, the new MCUs provide generous storage for application code and data.
With up to 2MB of Flash and 512KB RAM on-chip, the new STM32WBA6 MCUs contain larger memory to support more sophisticated applications. The richer digital peripherals add USB High Speed as well as extra digital interfaces including three SPI ports, four I2C ports, three USARTs, and one LPUART.
Concurrent multiprotocol wireless makes the STM32WBA6 series ideal for applications that leverage Matter, which is designed to run on top of other protocols. The X-CUBE-MATTER software package, part of the extensive STM32Cube ecosystem, integrates the Matter SDK and comes with application examples to ease development. The wireless subsystem improves performance, with sensitivity increased to -100dBm for more reliable connectivity up to the maximum specified range.
Both the STM32U3 and STM32WBA6 MCUs are in production and available now.
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