K-micro initiates development of IEEE 1901 compliant PLC LSI

SAN JOSE, USA: K-micro (Kawasaki Microelectronics America Inc.), a leader in advanced ASICs, announced that it is developing a PLC (power line communication) LSI that is compliant with the recently approved IEEE1901 standard.

K-micro, a member of the HD-PLC Alliance, has licensed the HD-PLC technology used as the basis for the chip from Panasonic Co., Ltd. and Panasonic System Networks Co., Ltd. The K-micro HD-PLC LSI, will feature:
PHY rate: 240Mbps (15% higher than the current LSI).
Wavelet OFDM methodology for low power (550mW in full operation).
IEEE1901 compliance (with ISP support for coexistence).
Backward compatibility with existing HD-PLC LSI products.

The PLC technology jointly proposed by Panasonic Co. Ltd and Panasonic System Networks Co. Ltd was approved by the IEEE Standard Association as a base technology in the IEEE1901 standard.

The PLC technology is Wavelet OFDM, which is used in products that adopt Panasonic's HD-PLC high-speed power line communication technology. This technology features the environmentally friendly capability to realize lower power consumption and lower costs through highly efficient data transmission.

"K-micro is developing products for comprehensive offerings of power line communications devices for various applications," said Koichi Akeyama, president of K-micro. "These new chips will enable low power consumption and high performance for multimedia home networking, smart grid systems and solar panels. The HD-PLC LSI chip will expand our current HD-PLC product line."

At the present time, K-micro is providing an Analog Front End (AFE) IC "KHN11121" for HD-PLC applications. "When the PLC LSI is combined with the KHN11121, the chip set will provide high performance and low power solutions," added Akeyama. "The high performance is needed to support multimedia home networking, video distribution, IPTV set-top boxes and home gateways. Samples of the chipset will be available in Q2 2011, and volume production will begin Q3 2011."

In addition, K-micro has plans to release an HD-PLC LSI targeted for smart grid applications in 2012. This new chip will operate at significantly lower power and at data rates consistent with smart grid requirements.

The lower speed devices are targeted at the smart grid system applications such as energy management, solar panels systems, etc. K-micro is developing solutions to enable power line communications to be used for a wide range of applications.