CATEGORIES

Power Line Transceivers

Since the early 90s, ST is committed to supporting advances in narrow-band power-line communication (PLC) technologies that are now largely adopted by Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) and Automatic Meter Infrastructures (AMI) solutions at the heart of the Smart Grid concept.

power-line communicationOur large and expanding offer ranges from analog FSK transceivers with an integrated power-line driver to multi-core, multi-protocol, system-on-chip platforms with integrated power-line driver, analog front-end and AES encryption that support B-FSK, B-PSK, Q-PSK, 8-PSK and OFDM modulations.

The fully programmable, multi-core STCOMET integrates a programmable modem, the AFE, the power-line driver and the application micro-processor together with a fully-integrated smart meter SoC that embeds high-performance metrology functions.

To cope with the Smart Grid networks of the future, which will be multi-layered and multi-dimensional to manage the complexity of smart energy systems with bidirectional communication and power exchange between suppliers and consumers, the new ST8500 multi-standard, programmable and ultra-low power powerline communication platform, along with the STLD1 companion line driver, provides the highest performing, lowest power solution and flexibility for modular communication architectures.

To further reduce encourage sustainable technology in Smart Homes and Buildings, ST also offers STKNX, a tiny transceiver certified to work on the KNX international building control standard that enables the integration and programming of sensors or actuators in home and building automation networks.

Evaluation boards and software, together with certified protocol stacks, provide designers with a comprehensive development environment enabling easy integration into new and existing designs and shorter time to market.

CENELEC B-certified Turnkey PLC chipset for smart-energy infrastructure

ST’s new powerline communication (PLC) platform consists of the ST8500 system-on-chip that includes a powerline modem, higher layer communication stack, PLC analog front end and other peripherals along with the STLD1 companion chip that provides the line driver (power amplifier) function.

Key features and benefits:

  • Fully programmable real-time 400 MHz DSP and 200 MHz ARM® 32-bit Cortex®-M4F core, to meet today’s and the future’s smart grid requirements
  • Ultra-low power-supply consumption <100 mW in Receive mode for the highest energy efficiency operations
  • Embedded AES cryptography engine, supporting up to 256-bit security key and multi-security modes to satisfy the most stringent requirements in terms of data security
  • Full 500 kHz bandwidth support for the best exploitation of worldwide bandwidth (CENELEC, ARIB, FCC)
  • Operating temperature range up 105 °C suitable for critical applications