Advanced single-chip MCU family for electronic energy metering

27 August 2003 Analogue, Mixed Signal, LSI Products & Solutions Commercial (Industry)

Texas Instruments has introduced an advanced system-on-chip microcontroller unit for electronic energy meters (e-meters). The new MSP430FE42x family of products combines an industry-standard ultra-low-power Flash MCU with an integrated high-performance analog front-end (AFE) on a single-chip. This mixed-signal integration reduces the total system chip count by 80%, improving performance and reliability, while also reducing cost.

This device family has fully programmable communication capabilities and is ideally suited for manufacturers developing electronic energy meters with sophisticated features such as automated meter reading (AMR), smart card prepayment and multiple rate billing.

Systems using the MSP430FE42x family do not require multiple crystals, an EEPROM, LCD driver, external realtime clock or 5 V power supplies. The reduced component count as well as the devices' inherent failsafe features increase overall reliability.

With precise phase matching between current and voltage channels, the embedded signal processor (ESP) performs the necessary calculations to supply accurate active energy, apparent energy, RMS voltage, current and waveform samples. The ESP provides a 0,1% accurate energy measurement over a dynamic current range of 1000 to 1. This more than surpasses the 1% accuracy common in typical mechanical meters. Having the ESP completely manage critical energy calculations enables the designer to use the freed-up central processor unit (CPU) functions for differentiated meter features such as display and AMR.

Supporting ultra-low power, the MSP430FE42x operates at 3 V with the CPU and ESP active at only 2,5 mA. In a power outage the device can operate in a standby mode with a typical current consumption of 1,1 µA with a realtime-clock function active.

The MSP430FE42x family offers 8, 16 or 32 KB on-chip Flash memory options and 256 bytes to 1 KB RAM. It is offered in a 64-pin quad flat pad (QFP) package.

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