Overview

Air cleaners or air purifiers remove dust, pollen, and other fine particles that are floating in the air, and eliminate odors due to pets, cigarettes, or cooking. The use of air cleaners is spreading widely due to increasing interest in countering hay fever, and health concerns. Furthermore, due to trends in novel influenza, air cleaners equipped with functions that can disinfect influenza viruses and bacteria have become popular.

In recent years, the functionality of air cleaners has diversified and there are models that have for example in addition to the traditional filter and fan various ion generating functions that emit ions that decompose mold and viruses, or electrostatic precipitation functions that use static electricity to adsorb particles. There are also products that use a gas (odor) sensor to detect impurities in the air and automatically switch to the appropriate operating mode.

Air cleaners with humidifying and dehumidifying functions as added functions can also be seen in the market. In recent years, humidified air cleaners in particular have become a major trend.

Renesas offers the R8C/3x Series and the RL78/G1x Series, products with built-in A/D converter for sensor input as control MCUs for air cleaners and air purifiers.

Renesas also has a lineup of TRIACs and MOSFETs for controlling ion generators, fan motors, and so on, to meet a variety of needs.