Atmel Corp. has introduced the ATM90E26, a low-cost metering Analog Front End (AFE) IC, extending its smart energy roadmap with additional capabilities. The ATM90E26 is specifically designed for smart grid communications, electricity metering systems and energy measurement applications. The Atmel Smart Energy platform includes several System-on-Chip (SoC) devices built around a unique dual-core ARM Cortex M4-based architecture. The platform includes the SAM4C with advanced security, in addition to metrology-enabled versions for single- and poly-phase metering (SAM4CMx) and Power-Line Communications (PLC) enabled solution (SAM4CPx).
The new ATM90E26 is pin-to-pin compatible with the IDT 90E22/23/24/25 devices, featuring UART support and improved power measurement resolution. By providing the discrete metrology AFE ATM90E26 as well as various MCU/MPU and PLC/wireless solutions, our Smart Energy Platform offers designers multiple options and various levels of integration to address their smart metering designs. For example, the ATM90E26 can be bundled with the SAM4CPx for a complete smart metering architecture.
Key ATM90E26 features include: Dynamic range of 5000:1 with 0.1% kWh accuracy and 0.2% kvarh accuracy. Temperature co-efficient of reference voltage 15ppm / degree C (typ.). Single-point calibration for active energy. Up to 24x PGA to support shunt sensing in L line current channel. Programmable startup and no-load power threshold. Measures Vrms, Irms, P(Q/S), frequency, power factor and phase angle. Enhanced resolution for RMS and mean power. Measurement accuracy better than 0.5%. Configurable high-pass filter (HPF) in each ADC channel. On-chip parameter diagnosis function and programmable interrupt output to reduce complexity and increase robustness of the meter. Standard four-wire, simplified three-wire SPI interface, or a UART interface. Dedicated voltage zero-crossing output pin (ZX); voltage sag detection. Software reset available. And 3.3V single power supply; 5V compatible for digital input.
Atmel’s ATM90E2x single-phase energy metering demo board can be used to evaluate and test ATM90E2x chips. More specifically, the board is capable of sampling single-phase voltage/current, meter active/reactive energy, output active/reactive energy pulses, as well as measure parameters such as voltage, current and power.
