Date: 05/04/2011

Programmable metrology devices for low-cost AFE

Texas Instruments Incorporated has announced the MSP430AFE2xx series of metrology analog front end (AFE) ultra-low-power 16-bit microcontrollers for smart grid applications. MSP430AFE series microcontroller chips enable system partitioning in metering applications, such as electricity meters, home automation, sub-metering and energy saving systems, which allows flexible, stand-alone, high-quality measurement.

The MSP430AFE series is based on a 16-bit RISC architecture with a system frequency of 12MHz, offering 3X the system speed over competing parts to drive increased functionality. The microcontroller achieves less than 0.1 percent error in energy accuracy over a wide dynamic range of 2400:1, enabled by three independent 24-bit sigma-delta converters supporting anti-tamper.


Key features and benefits of the MSP430AFE2xx Series:
Single-phase metrology analog front end supporting class 0.1 percent accuracy over a 2400:1 dynamic range
Three 24-bit sigma-delta analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) with simultaneous sampling for single-phase measurement and anti-tampering, and a small 24-pin TSSOP package for optimal space saving
Programmable MSP430AFE devices offer flexibility in system design and performance
Comprehensive TI libraries for measuring energy, power, voltage, current and several other key metering criteria provide quick and robust single-phase metrology implementation
Up to 16KB Flash and 512B RAM provides design flexibility with programmable memory via SPI and UART interfaces
Integrated peripherals, including 16-bit timer, watchdog and hardware multiplier allow for customer controlled tasks and math intensive computations in ultra-low power modes
Fast ramp to production supported by multiple development tools, EVMs and demos and free, downloadable software debuggers and compilers, including Code Composer Studio IDE and IAR Embedded Workbench

Pricing and availability: The MSP430AFE2xx microcontrollers are priced from $0.80 for 1K units and are immediately available. The MSP-TS430PW24 stand alone target board is priced at $75.