STMicroelectronics Boosts Entry-Level MCU Performance with STM32C5

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STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, has announced a new generation of entry-level microcontrollers (MCUs) to boost the performance of billions of tiny smart devices throughout factories, homes, cities, and infrastructures while meeting extreme cost, size, and power limitations.

The new STM32C5 series is aimed at consumer and professional devices like smart thermostats, electronic door locks, industrial smart sensors, robotic actuators, wearable electronics, and computer peripherals.

“The new STM32C5 elevates the precision, speed and reliability of competitively priced MCUs to realise the potential in these opportunities. It builds on two decades of STM32 heritage and is part of our ambition to deliver the broadest, most scalable and secure portfolio from entry-level devices to advanced MCUs that redefine the application reach of embedded systems,” said Patrick Aidoune, Group Vice President and General Purpose and Automotive Microcontrollers Division General Manager, STMicroelectronics.

Thanks to an improved design based on ST’s proprietary 40nm manufacturing process, the STM32C5 MCUs can run tasks noticeably faster than many entry-level chips used today. This gives products more room to include modern features such as improved sensing, smoother control, and enhanced user experiences—all while keeping dynamic power consumption low.

The STM32C5 MCUs integrate built-in protections that help safeguard products against tampering and cyber risks. These security features support safer connected devices, a growing priority across consumer and industrial markets.

Users of the new STM32C5 series can enjoy upgraded STM32Cube ecosystem support, now with size-optimised, production-grade drivers to leverage the many hardware features. The ecosystem also introduces enhanced code generation and development tools as well as extended production-ready software examples. Benefiting from continuous updates, the STM32Cube environment accelerates development time and helps users maximise the end-product capabilities.

“By moving our family of digital circuit breakers to ST’s new STM32C5, we gained Cortex M33 performance at an entry-level MCU cost point, helping us stay competitive in a challenging market. Flexible features like the dual-bank Flash, and updated comprehensive ecosystem, simplified updates and trimmed code size so we could add features and ship on schedule,” said Fernando Senger, Vice President Engineering, Power Products & Final Distribution NAM, Schneider Electric.

“The STM32C5 provides the performance and feature set enabling us to develop a cost-efficient next generation AC charger for both public and private use, fully aligned with latest security, encryption, and interface requirements for metering and EV charging solutions. Throughout the project, ST provided the flexibility and comprehensive ecosystem support we needed to reduce development time and solve key functional and cost challenges to bring our product faster to the market,” said Enrique Osorio, R&D Director, Circontrol (Grupo Circutor).

STM32C5 MCUs are entering production now, targeting packages from 3mm x 3mm UFQFPN20 to 20mm x 20mm LQFP144. STM32 Nucleo evaluation boards, and a display extension board from Riverdi with TouchGFX development software for building entry-level graphical user interfaces, are ready to assist development.