19 Jul 2012

Texas Instruments analogue front ends target smart e-meters

Texas Instruments Incorporated has introduced a new line of analogue front ends (AFEs) for power monitoring and control of smart e-meters.

The new ADS131E08 family is available with 8, 6 or 4 channels and in 16- or 24-bit resolution.

The devices are said to offer high integration and performance, along with the industry’s lowest power consumption per channel and widest upgrade/downgrade path.   When combined with the AMC1100 isolation amplifier, quad-channel ISO7241C digital isolator and 32-bit C2000 TMS320F2812 high-performance microcontroller (MCU), the new AFEs provide a three-phase class 1.0 and 0.5 smart e-metering solution that minimises power consumption while providing high linearity for accurate power measurement.

The solution also delivers the high-voltage isolation required to meet industry standards for power and communications in high-end industrial meters and Smart Grid infrastructure.

TI promises highest all-round precision performance enabled by “best-in-class” signal-to-noise ratio of 107 dB, ENOB of up to 20.4 bits, input signal range of +/-2.4 V and common mode rejection ratio of -110 dB.

This level of performance allows the AFEs to exceed 0.1 e-metering performance with less than 0.1 percent error for 1 to 1,000 dynamic range.

Key features include:

• Low power consumption available at 2 mW per channel with an operating temperature range of -40 to 105 C.

• Widest upgrade/downgrade path, with options ranging from 4 to 8 channels and 16 to 24 bits of resolution, to support a variety of smart e-metering applications, from two-phase systems to three-phase with tamper detection.

• Reduces board space and overall solution size by integrating a delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (ADC), FET-input programmable gain amplifier (PGA) with multi-gain options, operational amplifier (op amp), internal reference, fault detection and alarm comparators.

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