Freescale to Demonstrate End-to-End Connected Solutions for Smart Metering at DistribuTECH

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL) plans to demonstrate a broad set of solutions for the smart grid market at the DistribuTECH Conference & Exhibition in San Diego, Calif., taking place Jan. 29-31. At the Freescale booth (#1145), attendees will see Freescale technology supporting the “last mile” of smart grid ecosystem, including Internet of Things-accessible devices.

Freescale will demonstrate an electricity smart meter built using Freescale technology for metrology and wireless connectivity between a ZigBee^® home area network (HAN) and an IPv6-based neighborhood area network (NAN). Freescale will showcase this connectivity via a tablet connected to the cloud over a Wi-Fi network.

Demonstration features:

Smart meter: Full demonstration platform for two-phase ANSI C12.20 Class 0.2 smart electricity meter includes:

• Kinetis KM34 metrology microcontroller (MCU) based on the 32-bit ARM^® Cortex™-M0+ core with a precision analog front end (AFE)
• Kinetis K21 MCU based on the 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 core for communication coordination
• MC13242 high-performance ZigBee RF transceiver for HAN SE 2.0 connectivity
• Nivis™ IEEE^® 802.5.4/g radio module for IPv6-based last mile NAN connectivity, containing a Kinetis K60 MCU and MC12311 sub-GHz smart radio
• Xtrinsic MMA8491Q accelerometer and MAG3110 magnetometer for tamper detection

The AFE in the Kinetis KM34 MCU enables power calculations from the CPU to achieve 0.1 percent accuracy. The AFE is configurable to adapt to many world regions and is composed of four 24-bit Sigma-Delta analog-to-digital (ADC) converters, two low-noise programmable gain amplifiers to enable a dynamic range of 2000 to 1, a precision voltage reference with low drift over temperature range and a phase shift compensator to simplify accurate power computation. The AFE requires a single point of calibration – enabling OEMs to reduce manufacturing test costs. See www.freescale.com/KM3x for details.

Home area network: This home energy gateway (HEG) based on an i.MX applications processor is the central wireless connection point for the smart meter over ZigBee SE 2.0, smart plugs over ZigBee SE 1.1, smart thermostat over Wi-Fi SE 2.0 and ultimately to a Wi-Fi broadband router enabling cloud service for control and monitoring of the connected HAN elements.

Neighborhood area network: A P1025-based data concentrator ties together the smart meter and two other RF smart objects, emulating a last-mile Internet of Things connection using an IPv6/ 6LoWPAN-compliant meshed protocol over an IEEE 802.15.4e/g time slotted channel hopping (TSCH) sub-GHz RF link, capable of meshing dozens of hop levels deep. The concentrator is also connected to the broadband router, enabling cloud service for control and monitoring of the NAN elements. A Tower System development kit with the data concentrator and two RF smart objects from Nivis can be purchased from Freescale for turnkey evaluation of this IEEE 802.15.4e/g network, and the kit can be expanded to up to 25 RF smart objects for immediate field trials. See www.freescale.com/TWR-METRO-KIT for details.

Fast dual-network functionality for ZigBee networks

As the deployment of IEEE 802.15.4 ZigBee networks continues to expand, multiple ZigBee networks (including ZigBee Home Automation, ZigBee RF4CE and ZigBee Smart Energy versions 1.x and 2.0) may exist simultaneously in a home or building. The dual-PAN (personal area network) capability in Freescale’s Kinetis KW20 wireless MCU allows a single device to seamlessly connect and actively participate in two separate RF networks under hardware control, switching between the networks in as little as 64 nanoseconds. This results in a 5x performance improvement over software implementations and significantly reduces network traffic and latency while lowering overall power consumption. See www.freescale.com/KW20 for details.

Supporting resources

Freescale blog post: One Meter, Three MCUs. Why?

Tweet this: @Freescale to demonstrate end-to-end connected solutions for smart metering at DistribuTECH

About Freescale Semiconductor

Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL) is a global leader in embedded processing solutions, providing industry-leading products that are advancing the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets. From microprocessors and microcontrollers to sensors, analog integrated circuits and connectivity – our technologies are the foundation for the innovations that make our world greener, safer, healthier and more connected. Some of our key applications and end-markets include automotive safety, hybrid and all-electric vehicles, next generation wireless infrastructure, smart energy management, portable medical devices, consumer appliances and smart mobile devices. The company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing and sales operations around the world. www.freescale.com

Freescale, the Freescale logo, Xtrinsic and Kinetis are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. ARM is the registered trademark of ARM Limited. Cortex is the trademark of ARM Limited. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © 2013 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.