TI expands portfolio of fully integrated SoCs for polyphase smart meters

USA: A leading innovator of energy management, communication and control solutions for the smart grid, Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has announced 60 new fully integrated metering SoCs to be demonstrated at DistribuTECH 2013.

The MSP430F677x SoCs can achieve electricity measurement accuracy that meets or exceeds global regulatory requirements for smart polyphase e-meters including IEC 62053-22 and ANSI C12.20 Class 0.2 standards. In addition, the large integrated memory on MSP430F677x SoCs enables more sophisticated metering features; while advanced anti-tampering protection helps electric utilities prevent power theft and meter manipulation.

To achieve the highest level of meter accuracy, an enhanced analog front end (AFE) with up to seven 24-bit sigma-delta data converters on the MSP430F677x SoCs provides class-leading accuracy across a full 2000:1 input current range throughout -40°C to +85°C.

Combined with up to 512KB Flash and 32KB SRAM memory integrated on-chip, developers can incorporate more sophisticated metering features like dynamic pricing tables for time of use, large buffer for interval data, DLMS/COSEM for meter data formatting, and communication stacks for both wired and wireless protocols.

To protect electric utilities from energy theft and meter manipulation, the MSP430F677x SoCs include several advanced anti-tamper protection features. For example, dedicated pins associated with the on-chip real-time clock (RTC) detect and time-stamp meter tampering so utilities can easily track, reduce and prevent additional meter corruption.

In addition, a 128-bit hardware-accelerated Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) module speeds encryption time compared to a traditional software implementation, improving meter security, performance and reducing energy consumption.

The new MSP430F677x SoCs, along with accompanying software support, make development quicker and more affordable. The free MSP430 Energy Library code performs all of the polyphase meter calculations for energy and power that are required for ANSI/IEC qualified meters and provides an easy starting point for customers developing utility meter products.