New Products

First programmable solution for data communication over existing power lines

March 22, 2010 // Paul Buckley

Cypress Semiconductor Corp., has introduced what the company claims is the world's first truly programmable solution for data communication over existing power lines.

Applying the programmable analog and digital resources of Cypress's PSoC programmable system-on-a-chip varchitecture, the new Cypress Powerline Communication (PLC) solution integrates multiple functions beyond communication, such as power measurement, system management and LCD drive.
In addition to its flexibility and integration, the new solution offers industry-leading reliability with greater than 97 percent packet success rates without retries and 100 percent success rates with retries built into the solution's coding. The solution offers the flexibility to communicate over high-voltage and low-voltage power lines for lighting and industrial control, home automation, automatic meter reading and smart energy management applications.

Whereas existing solutions require external microcontrollers and filters, the Cypress PLC solution integrates a Frequency-Shift Key (FSK) PHY modem network protocol and application code with the programmable analog and digital blocks and microcontroller of the PSoC architecture.

This combination provides a single hardware platform for multiple applications, reducing BOM cost, board size and chip count while improving manufacturability. Cypress offers reference designs for both high-voltage (110V - 240V AC) and low-voltage (12V - 24V AC/DC) coupling circuits based on boards compliant with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) standards.

The precertified boards provide developers with a complete solution with fast time-to-market.

"Smart energy metering, renewable energy, intelligent LED lighting, and advanced industrial applications have the market for powerline communication poised for strong growth," said Linnea Brush, senior research analyst at Darnell Group. "The programmable Cypress PLC solution addresses smart communication, and smart grid connectivity, over existing power lines with no new wires."

The PowerPSoC family offers the industry's first single-chip solution to control and drive high-power LEDs. The Cypress PLC solution integrates LED driving support.

Additional features and benefits of the Cypress PLC solution include:

• Support for bidirectional half-duplex communication
• Flexibility to use complete solution (PHY, Protocol and Application code)
• or just pieces of solution (PHY and Protocol or PHY only)
• Variable baud rates up to 2400 bps
• Onboard power supply derives power from the power line bus.

Availability

The Cypress PLC family includes a cost-optimized fixed-function device with an I2C interface (CY8CPLC10), programmable PSoC-based devices (CY8CPLC20), and programmable PSoC-based devices optimized for LED support (CY8CLED16P01). The CY8CPLC10 device is available in a 28-pin SSOP package, while the CY8CPLC20 and CY8CLED16P01 devices come in 28-pin SSOP, 48-pin QFN and 100-pin TQFP packages. All of the devices are currently in production.  

Cypress also offers multiple evaluation and development kits:

The CY3272 High Voltage Powerline Communication Evaluation Kit and CY3273 Low Voltage Powerline Communication Evaluation kit are currently available for 299 US Dollars each. Each kit is compliant with FCC and CENELEC standards and includes an evaluation board, quick start guide, multiple cables, a USB cable, a 12V AC power adapter and a CD with test software, datasheets, a user guide, an application note, schematics and Gerber files.

The CY3274 Programmable High Voltage Powerline Communication Development Kit and CY3275 Programmable Low Voltage Powerline Communication Development Kit enables system design using CY8CPLC20 devices and are available for 642 US Dollars each. The CY3276 Programmable High Voltage Powerline Communication Development Kit and CY3277 Programmable Low Voltage Powerline Communication Development Kit are targeted for lighting application system design using CY8CLED16P01 devices and are available for 951 US Dollars each.

Related links:

www.cypress.com/go/PLC

www.cypress.com/psoc

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