STMicro Announces STM32U5 "Extreme Low-Power" Microcontroller Range, IoT Discovery Kit Board
New ultra-low-power Arm Cortex-M33-based microcontroller chosen for Microsoft's Azure Certified Device program.
STMicroelectronics has announced a new entry in its STM32 microcontroller family, with the STM32U5 offering "extreme low-power" operation with a clock speed up to 160MHz.
“ST has almost doubled its share of global microcontroller sales in the last five years, shipping more than two billion ultra-low-power STM32 devices to date. With our low-power expertise and focus, we are particularly strong in the ultra-low-power category with about 25 percent of that market," says STMicro's Ricardo de Sa Earp of the launch. "We expect our STM32U5 microcontrollers to be even more popular, enabling our customers to create new smart consumer and industrial products that deliver superior energy rating, performance, and cyberprotection."
Designed as a follow-up to the STM32L5, and brought to our attention by CNX Software, the STM32U5 is built on the Arm Cortex-M33 core with digital signal processor (DSP) and floating-point unit (FPU) and offers clock speeds up to 160MHz, 1,024kB to 2,048kB of flash depending on model, 768kB of ARM, and STMicro's own ART and Chrom-ART Accelerators.
The key focus of the new chip is "extreme low-power" operation, with STMicro claiming that the chip can go as low as 1.7μA in its "Stop 3" mode while retaining the contents of 16kB of RAM, or 110nA in shutdown mode with wake-up triggered by up to 24 pins. In fully active mode, meanwhile, the part is rated at 19.5μA per megahertz.
The STM32U5 is being launched alongside an IoT Discovery Kit bundle, which adds a Wi-Fi module, Bluetooth module, microphones, accelerometer with gyroscope, magnetometer, pressure sensor, temperature sensor, humidity sensor, gesture sensor, and Time of Flight (ToF) sensor — and the design has been selected as a reference board in Microsoft's Azure Certified Device program.
"The STM32U5 provides an excellent platform for delivering Azure IoT services via Azure RTOS," Microsoft's Sam George claims, "leveraging the advanced features of STM32U5 microcontroller."
The microcontrollers themselves are sampling now with availability in September 2021 with pricing starting at $3.60; the ST32U5 IoT Discovery Kit bundle will arrive "later in the year," price as-yet unannounced. More information is available on the product page.