Renesas RA6W1/RA6W2 Cortex-M33 wireless MCUs offer dual-band Wi-Fi 6, BLE, Matter, 15-year availability

Renesas has added the RA6W1 (Wi-Fi 6) and the RA6W2 (Wi-Fi 6 + BLE) MCUs to its high-performance RA6 family, adding dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth LE, as well as Matter connectivity to the series.

Both models feature a 160 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 core, dual-band Wi-Fi 6 with WPA3 security, on-chip PA/LNA/RF switch, and a full TCP/IP stack for fast connectivity. They integrate up to 704 KB SRAM, 256 KB ROM, and support eMMC/SD, O-QSPI, and QSPI for external flash and/or PSRAM. The series also includes generic peripherals like SPI, I²C, I²S/PDM, SDIO, 12-bit ADCs, PWM timers, and up to 28 GPIOs. Offered in compact QFN/WLCSP packages, the RA6W1/2 MCUs target smart home, wearables, industrial, and consumer IoT markets where long battery life and wireless connectivity are essential.

Renesas RA6W1 specifications:

• MCU core – Arm Cortex-M33 @ up to 160 MHz, Armv8-M architecture with MPU and SysTick
• Memory & Storage
  • 704 KB SRAM
  • 64 KB retention RAM
  • 256 KB ROM
  • 2 KB OTP
  • SDIO Host/Slave, eMMC/SD Host
  • O-QSPI with encrypted XIP for external flash
  • QSPI for PSRAM
• Wireless Connectivity
  • Dual-band (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11a/b/g/n/ax), 1×1, 20 MHz channels
  • Station, Soft-AP, 802.11s Mesh modes
  • On-chip PA, LNA, RF switch
  • WPS PIN/PBC Wi-Fi provisioning
  • WPA/WPA2/WPA3, OWE Wi-Fi security
  • Coexistence interface for Bluetooth LE / Zigbee
  • Integrated TCP/IP stack, connection manager for autonomous Wi-Fi
• Communication interfaces
  • Up to 28x multiplexed GPIOs
  • PI Master/Slave, I²C Master/Slave
  • 3x UART
  • 4-channel 12-bit ADC
  • 8x 32-bit PWM timers
• Audio – I²S, PDM/Digital Mic
• Clocks
  • 40 MHz crystal input
  • 32.768 kHz crystal for RTC
  • Integrated 32 kHz RC oscillator
• Security
  • Secure Crypto Engine with AES, DES/3DES, ChaCha, SHA1/224/256, RSA, ECC, DH
  • TRNG, secure boot, secure debug, secure asset storage
  • TLS/DTLS hardware acceleration
•  Misc
  • On-chip RTC
  • Ultra-low-power sleep modes with fast wake-up
• Supply Voltage
  • 1.8 V to 3.6 V (3.3 V typical), with brownout and blackout detection
  • Integrated DCDC + LDOs
• Operating Temperature – –40°C to +85°C
• Packages
  • 66-pin FCQFN (5.6 × 6.4 mm, 0.4 mm pitch)
  • 70-pin WLCSP (3.47 × 4.06 mm, 0.424 mm pitch)

At the time of writing, the company only shared the full datasheet and specs for the RA6W1, but the RA6W2 should basically be the same thing, just with a built-in Bluetooth LE radio instead of the external coexistence interface.

The company also mentions that the RA6W1 is fully certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, covering Wi-Fi CERTIFIED b/g/n for legacy compatibility, along with Wi-Fi 6 features, and WPA, WPA2, and WPA3 Enterprise/Personal security profiles for modern encrypted networking. It also supports Wi-Fi Enhanced Open for secure public-network access, WMM and WMM Power Save for optimized multimedia performance, and Wi-Fi Protected Setup for simplified device provisioning.

Like other Renesas MCUs, the RA6W1/RA6W2 are supported by the RAFW Flexible Software Package, the e² studio IDE, and the Renesas Flash Programmer for flashing and debugging. Developers also get access to the Connectivity Production Line Tool for high-volume testing and programming of connectivity devices, plus the standard SmartBond development tools for wireless stacks and profiles. On the applications section of the product page, there are some “Winning Combinations” which are just pre-tested system designs that combine the MCU with other Renesas components for faster and lower-risk product development.

Renesas also offers the EK-RA6W1 Wi-Fi 6 MCU evaluation kit and software development kit, built around the RA6W1 Arm Cortex-M33 MCU, giving developers an easy platform to prototype connected IoT applications. It integrates dual-band Wi-Fi 6, 8MB QSPI flash, 8MB PSRAM, and a built-in power profiler, with expansion options such as Arduino UNO, Pmod, and mikroBUS to simplify adding sensors, displays, or custom peripherals.

The company also introduced two new pre-certified wireless modules, based on the RRQ61001 and RRQ61051, which are designed to accelerate product development. And this is where my head started hurting. The more I dig into it, the more confusing it gets.

Both modules share the same features and come in a 20 x 15  mm, 53-pin package rated for −40°C to +85°C operation. The only difference is that the RRQ61051 adds Bluetooth LE (and Arm Cortex-M0+ core)  alongside Wi-Fi 6. I was like, it’s not built around the RA6W2, right? So they must have added a separate BLE chip with coexistence, but that’s not the case. The block diagram shows a Cortex-M0 core handling the BLE functions directly inside the chip. This is confusing because the RA6W1’s own block diagram does not include a Cortex-M0+, yet the RRQ61051 module based on RA6W1 suddenly includes one to support BLE…

So I checked out the datasheet for the RRQ61001 and RRQ61051, and sure enough, my hunch was right: there is a separate chip (U102) in the RRQ61051 module, which is not present in the RRQ61001, that must be the BLE chip. So in the end, it’s most likely that the block diagram for RRQ61051 is the diagram for the upcoming RA6W2 chip, and they published it by mistake.

We’ve looked at plenty of other Wi-Fi 6 MCUs for IoT applications before, like the ESP32-C6, which uses a RISC-V core and supports 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth LE, and Thread/Zigbee, Silicon Labs’ SiWx917 series, which focuses on low-power Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth LE  and uses Cortex-M4 cores, designed for battery-powered IoT devices, and the NXP’s RW612, which adds Wi-Fi 6, BLE 5.4, and Thread/Zigbee on a Cortex-M33 for smart home and industrial products. Compared to these, the new RA6W1 and RA6W2 add dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) and low-power operation, which in a way feels an important gap for always-connected IoT devices that need 5 GHz support and might be more efficient than Espressif’s ESP32-C5 dual-band Wi-Fi 6 chip.

The RA6W1 series includes a total of six SKUs, out of which I could only find the R7SA6W1CEDZNR on DigiKey, which costs around $5.69000 for a single unit, and at the time of writng its out of stock with an 8-week lead time. The EK-RA6W1 development board is available through various distributors like Digikey, Mouser, Fernel, and others. I could not find anything regarding the modules. More information is available in the press release.

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