Düsseldorf, 23 October 2014 – Renesas Electronics Europe, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced a new OFDM powerline modem, the second generation of its market leading and award winning family of powerline communication (PLC) modem solutions. The Renesas PLC device, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) solution designed for smart metering applications, maintains the flexible concept of the original Renesas PLC chip range. It offers broad-based support for multiple OFDM powerline standards such as G3 and PRIME.
The completely software-based implementation facilitates the design of a single meter platform ready to support multiple standards and multiple frequency bands like CENELEC A, FCC and ARIB as well as worldwide markets. This significantly reduces the design effort and cost. The future proof solution today fully supports global mainstream OFDM powerline communication standards, such as PRIME V1.3.6 and G3, and will be delivered with fully certified libraries. Moreover, it has been designed to support any evolution of the existing protocols and any future introduction of new OFDM based narrowband PLC standards. Renesas already supports the evolution of the PRIME V1.4 protocol and is working within the alliance framework to develop a solution that enables its use in the market.
The Renesas PLC platform is based on a highly integrated modem system-on-chip (uPD809508), integrating a MAC controller and a high performance DSP for the physical layer (PHY) implementation, combined with an embedded Analog Front End (AFE) including an adaptive gain amplifier. This ensures exceptional signal quality in highly dynamic and harsh network environments, such as those found in metering applications. As a result, the solution shows outstanding robustness and unique sensitivity characteristics. The very low power consumption level helps reduce the overall system power consumption, one of the main criteria for selection by power utilities. The small 48-pin QFP package saves PCB board space, reducing the BoM cost, and enables engineers to design small form factor PLC add-on modules. In combination with the wide range of Renesas pin, software compatible and scalable microcontrollers, the Renesas PLC device provides an open architecture that allows flexible system partitioning by selecting the best fit application microcontroller to contribute to further BoM cost reduction. This is not only valid for smart metering applications, but also for other smart grid applications, such as street lighting.
In line with the OFDM powerline modem release, Renesas is launching a new PLC evaluation tool (YCONNECT-IT-PLC-CPX2) belonging to the “Connect it!” series of solution kits. The PLC solution kit is a simple to use tool, facilitating both technology evaluation and solution development. Users can configure it to support multiple frequency bands by simply changing the relevant filter board. Dedicated filter modules for Cenelec A and FCC/ARIB frequency bands are included in the kit. The PC GUI allows flexible device configuration and powerline communication analysis. In combination with Renesas’ world wide support infrastructure and commitment to its customers, the kits contains everything users need to ensure an efficient and short development time for OFDM PLC applications.
The new YCONNECT-IT-PLC-CPX2 solution kit is part of a range of next generation solution kits due to be launched by Renesas at Electronica 2014 in November.
The official launch of the Renesas OFDM powerline modem will take place at the European Utility Week from November 4th to 6th in Amsterdam. Renesas will be presenting next-generation solutions for powerline communication, wireless M-bus connectivity and smart meter reference platforms on Stand F26 in Hall 4.
See more information: http://www.renesas.eu/powerline
About Renesas Electronics Europe
Renesas Electronics is the world’s number one supplier of microcontrollers and a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, including system-on-chip and a wide range of discrete analogue and power devices. Established in 2010, Renesas Electronics combines the collective semiconductor expertise of Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric and NEC Electronics, encapsulating more than 200 years’ experience.
Renesas’ products are the result of decades of research and investment into semiconductor technology and customer solutions. Today, they provide pioneering platforms for the advancement of the Smart Society, embedding intelligence, connectivity, safety and security in solutions for cars, homes, buildings and factories. In Europe, Renesas complements its cutting-edge technology with resources that foster customer proximity and span the entire product lifecycle. These include the European Technology Centre, which designs innovative solutions specifically for Europe, and the European Quality Centre in Düsseldorf, which provides technical support to customers throughout the region. Renesas also operates an effective ecosystem, comprising the industry’s largest local support network and an extensive network of over 800 hardware and software alliance partners.
Headquartered in Japan, Renesas Electronics has subsidiaries in 20 countries worldwide. More information is available atwww.renesas.eu
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