ATM90E26 extends smart energy roadmap

Atmel has introduced the ATM90E26, a low-cost metering Analog Front End (AFE) IC. According to an Atmel engineering rep, the ATM90E26 is specifically designed for smart grid communications, electricity metering systems and energy measurement applications.

“The Atmel Smart Energy platform includes several System-on-Chip (SoC) devices built around a unique dual-core ARM Cortex M4-based architecture. The platform includes the SAM4C with advanced security, in addition to metrology-enabled versions for single- and poly-phase metering (SAM4CMx) and Power-Line Communications (PLC) enabled solution (SAM4CPx),” the Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces.

“The new ATM90E26 is pin-to-pin compatible with the IDT 90E22/23/24/25 devices, featuring UART support and improved power measurement resolution. By providing the discrete metrology AFE ATM90E26 as well as various MCU/MPU and PLC/wireless solutions, our Smart Energy Platform offers designers multiple options and various levels of integration to address their smart metering designs. For example, the ATM90E26 can be bundled with the SAM4CPx for a complete smart metering architecture.”

Key ATM90E26 features include:

• Dynamic range of 5000:1 with 0.1% kWh accuracy and 0.2% kvarh accuracy.
• Temperature co-efficient of reference voltage 15ppm/ºC (typ.).
• Single-point calibration for active energy.
• Up to 24x PGA to support shunt sensing in L line current channel.
• Programmable startup and no-load power threshold.
• Measures Vrms, Irms, P(Q/S), frequency, power factor and phase angle. Enhanced resolution for RMS and mean power.
• Measurement accuracy better than 0.5%.
• Configurable high-pass filter (HPF) in each ADC channel.
• On-chip parameter diagnosis function and programmable interrupt output to reduce complexity and increase robustness of the meter.
• Standard four-wire, simplified three-wire SPI interface, or a UART interface.
• Dedicated voltage zero-crossing output pin (ZX); voltage sag detection.
• Software reset available.
• 3.3V single power supply; 5V compatible for digital input.

It should also be noted that Atmel’s ATM90E2x single-phase energy metering demo board can be used to evaluate and test ATM90E2x chips. More specifically, the board is capable of sampling single-phase voltage/current, meter active/reactive energy, output active/reactive energy pulses, as well as measure parameters such as voltage, current and power.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s smart energy platform? You can check out our detailed deep dive here.

A closer look at Atmel’s smart energy platform (Part 1)

Driven by evolving environmental concerns and regulations, the market for energy, water and gas metering systems is rapidly changing. To be sure, traditional standalone meters are currently being replaced by complex networked systems that utilize a variety of communication methods.

To meet the needs of an evolving smart grid, engineers require solutions capable of providing advanced connectivity options, iron-clad security, precise metrology, versatility and a high-level of integration.

Atmel addresses the needs of the evolving smart energy market with application-specific, as well as standard microcontroller (MCU), microprocessor (MPU), security, memory, wireless and power-line connectivity devices. Simply put, our portfolio offers developers a wide range of best-in-class feature sets and performance for smart grid equipment.

“Today’s smart meter architect demands various levels of integration depending on system architecture partitioning, project timelines, and the level of flexibility needed to address various utility and geographical requirements,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces.

“The Atmel platform provides a unique multi-level architecture built around the same multi-core architecture as outlined below. Various devices integrate the building blocks of the smart meter, namely, metrology sensing (ADC), metrology DSP, application, communication, and security processing, as well as connectivity to home area and neighborhood area networks.”

Key Atmel differentiators include:

• Leading-edge connectivity
• Low power 802.15.4/4g wireless devices
• Field proven, low power PLC (PRIME)
• Integration & flexibility
• Flexible (SW or HW) metrology
• Multi-standard wireless and PLC solutions
• Advanced cryptography
• Best-in-class metrology
• Dynamic range of up to 6000:1
• 25M units shipped since 90’s
• Broad MCU portfolio
• Large array of SAMD, SAM4 and SAM5 solutions
• Best-in-class tools from Atmel, IAR and Keil

At the core of Atmel’s smart energy platform is the SAM4C series of products, starting with the SAM4C16 and SAM4C8 system-on-chip solutions for smart energy applications built around two high performance 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 RISC processors. These devices operate at a maximum speed of 100 MHz and feature up to 2Mbyte of embedded Flash, 304 Kbytes of SRAM and on-chip cache for each core.

The dual ARM Cortex -M4 architecture facilitates the integration of various layers, including application, communications and metrology functions in a single device. It also offers options for integrated software metrology or external hardware metrology AFE (analog front end), as well as an integrated or an external power-line carrier (PLC) physical layer solution. Essentially, this is a modular approach that is sure to meet various design needs.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s new comprehensive smart energy platform? Be sure to check out our official product page here and part two of our deep dive here.