Smart meters set off revolution, Meixin integrates SoC

Electronic enthusiasts news: In recent years, people have paid more and more attention to energy, energy saving has become the focus of everyone. With the advancement of technology and the support of national policies, smart grids have rapidly become a hot topic in the past few years. As a key terminal of the smart grid, smart meters play an important role. More and more semiconductor manufacturers have entered this industry to provide smart meter products, solutions and various components with their own advantages, in order to take a slice of this huge market.

The reason why smart meters can be called "smart" is not only because it can save electricity, but also that it can not only accurately record the power usage, but also feed back relevant information records to the grid company's server center. Modes such as pre-charge fees and automatic deductions provide convenience for management. So, how to effectively guarantee the high accuracy, power saving and safety of smart meters? Why do highly integrated SOC chip solutions win the favor of smart meter manufacturers? With various problems to be solved urgently in the industry, the editor of the electronic enthusiast network interviewed David Andeen, the strategic market application manager of Meixin.

David Andeen, Strategic Marketing Application Manager, Maxim
David Andeen, Strategic Marketing Application Manager, Maxim

Simulation integration is a big trend

Founded in 1983, Meixin is a global leader in the design, development, and manufacturing of analog, mixed-signal, high-frequency, and digital circuits, providing convenient and practical solutions for manufacturers around the world. In September 2012, Meixin carried out a major change, which not only changed the layout of the LOGO and official website, but even changed the brand of Meixin from the previous "Maxim" to "Maxim Integrated". This shows a strong signal to everyone that this leader has once again been at the forefront and started to be at the forefront of "integration". Smart meters, as the focus of development in recent years, are no exception. When it comes to the SOC program of the electric meter, David specifically pointed out that at present Meixin not only focuses on analog integration, but also launched the corresponding electric meter SOC, which integrates several related functions and simplifies the development process.

According to David, Meixin recently not only released the MAX71020 analog front end for electric meters, but also continued to develop SOCs for smart electric meters to increase user design flexibility. At present, Maxim has launched a highly integrated smart meter SOC covering security and communication functions.

When referring to Meixin Zeus, David said: "This is a real smart meter SoC." David said that Zeus not only integrates metering, security protection and communication functions, for user development, not only can adopt Zeus design For platform systems, if customers want to convert and develop a different meter for different markets, they can still use Zeus devices, but only need to replace some of the currently used communication devices, which makes Zeus the design basis for other smart meter platforms.

The importance of safety and precision

The importance of high accuracy and safety in the design of smart meters is beyond doubt. When talking about the safety and precision advantages of Smart Meter, David said: "This is a good concern. The safety and accuracy of smart meters are really the key elements of smart meter systems." "The safety of smart meters is thought to be It can protect information and the power grid itself from attacks, and Meixin's smart meter system not only integrates security devices and related security protection functions, and protects it throughout the entire cycle of manufacturing, installation and operation. At the same time, the product also has certification, Features such as encryption (symmetric and asymmetric), secure boot procedures and tamper protection. "David emphasized.

For the performance in terms of accuracy, David revealed that Maxim's smart meters have the highest accuracy in the industry. In the next generation of products, Maxim will further improve the accuracy in the range of 5000: 1. With so many years of technology accumulation in the semiconductor industry, I believe that Meixin will certainly set a benchmark for the industry in this regard.

Why choose G3-PLC communication standard?

The "smart" of smart meters is mainly reflected in the ability to feed back relevant information to the power company's data center, which not only allows users to "smart electricity", but also helps power companies "smart meter reading". When talking about the choice of smart meter communication standard of Meixin, David said that there are many kinds of smart meter communication methods, and one of the most integrated products in Meixin has a built-in high-reliability communication processor that allows users to Multiple communication protocols. Meixin chose G3-PLC, the best standard for power lines worldwide.

Why choose this standard? David pointed out that G3-PLC can achieve the highest rate of OFDM communication, and has a variety of low-speed modes, so that you can take into account the reliability of communication. Because G3-PLC uses adaptive frequency mapping and two error correction modes, it can ensure that the information data transmitted with this standard reaches the destination safely. David emphasized that a major feature of the power grid is the requirement for high reliability. The choice of G3-PLC can meet the most basic reliability requirements and can be well integrated with high-speed communication. In this way, it means that the electricity meter that complies with the third-generation power line communication standard will be more reliable than any existing electricity meter on the market, and also have the fastest communication rate and can support the realization of various future functions of the power grid. In short, Meixin chose this communication standard because of its safety, speed, and compliance with development trends.

How to balance the design of the entire meter?

In the previous sections, we talked about the integration of devices, the guarantee of safety and accuracy, and the choice of communication methods. The purpose is only one. How to design an efficient, safe, and high-precision smart meter, which requires us to When designing smart meters, how to balance the design of the entire meter to avoid losing sight of each other.

Faced with the question of the editor of the electronic enthusiast website, David continued to tell us the design ideas of Meixin.

David emphasized that in the design of a smart meter, the design of the main components is certainly important, and the design of other peripheral components cannot be ignored. In order to balance the entire design, Maxim has achieved the highest standards in all components. For example, in order to guarantee the reliability of timing, Maxim provides RTC DS3231M with high precision based on MEMS. Because this series of RTC meets the relevant Chinese standards, it is very important for the electric meters that should be used in the Chinese market.

On the other hand, the power supply of smart meters. David said that Meixin has provided a highly integrated smart meter power management IC (PMIC) MAX17497. The chip not only has an efficient flyback converter and a 3.3V buck converter, it can provide all the power for the smart meter, and its use has nothing to do with the communication protocol. David said that MAX17497 is one of a series of products for flexible power supply applications of electric meters.

Relying on thorough consideration in all aspects and with the deep technical foundation before, Meixin has provided us with a smart meter solution with excellent performance, and further integrated in the entire plan, which greatly facilitates the user's design.

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