Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi/BLE Combo MCUs Bring Integration to IoT, Smart-Home Apps
The Overview: IoT Connectivity Integration
With its RA6W1 dual-band Wi-Fi 6 wireless microcontroller (MCU) and RA6W2 MCU, which offers both Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) technologies, Renesas Electronics brings a boost in integration to ultra-low-power IoT devices. These MCUs support connectivity applications in smart-home, industrial, medical, and consumer use cases.
The company also launched fully integrated modules that accelerate development with built-in antennas, wireless protocol stacks, and pre-validated RF connectivity.
Who Needs It & Why: Facilitating Always-Connected, Low-Power Systems
For IoT devices to make the most of their usability and response time, it’s imperative that they establish and maintain constant connectivity. And they need to do so while minimizing power consumption to lengthen battery life or to meet regulatory demands.
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 like environmental sensors, smart locks, thermostats, surveillance cameras, and medical monitors, where real-time control, remote diagnosticsm and over-the-air (OTA) updates are critical.
Both MCU groups are optimized for ultra-low-power consumption, consuming as little as 200 nA to 4 µA in sleep mode and under 50 µA when sending a Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM). With the “sleepy connected” Wi-Fi functionality, these devices stay connected with minimal power draw, meeting the growing requirements of modern energy-efficiency standards.
Under the Hood: Scalable Architecture, Tight Security, and Matter 1.4 Certification
Built on the Arm Cortex-M33 CPU core running at 160 MHz with 704 kB of SRAM, the MCUs underpin cost-effective, standalone IoT applications using integrated communication interfaces and analog peripherals, without the need for an external MCU. Optionally, users can employ a host MCU selected from Renesas’ broad RA MCU offerings and attach the RA6W1 and RA6W2 as connectivity and networking add-ons.
Both the 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 the 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.
Both 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 unauthorized access. The RA6W1 is Radio Equipment Directive (RED)-certified, 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.
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 includes 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.
Learn more about wireless MCUs
About the Author
David Maliniak
Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF
I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.
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About me:
In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.