About UsNew STCOMET Smart-Meter Solutions with Powerline Communication
The STCOMET from STMicroelectronics Combines a Number of Key Functions on a Single Chip for Easy Design and Product Certification
STMicroelectronics has surpassed an important milestones with its STCOMET smart-meter System-on-Chip family, enabling utilities worldwide to deliver sustainable electricity, incorporating multiple sources including renewables, by leveraging smart-grid technologies.
STCOMET simplifies the design of smart meters by implementing key functions on a single chip,
including a powerline communication (PLC) modem compliant with major smart-metering industry standards.
Vital to wide-scale adoption, ST has recently achieved certification to the latest G3-PLC1 and
PRIME2 v1.4-profile 2 specifications covering frequency bands up to 500kHz, such as FCC3 bands.
Together with existing G3-PLC and PRIME v1.4 approvals covering European CENELEC-A4,
STCOMET is now certified according to all major standards in force globally.
In addition, ST has expanded the STCOMET family to four devices, allowing meter designers the flexibility to scale their applications to the needs of various markets and territories. STCOMET05 and STCOMET10 contain either 512Kbyte or 1Mbyte of program Flash, together with an application-processing subsystem, dedicated security engine with privacy and anti-hacking protection and high-accuracy metering front end, and the PLC module. The simplified STCOM05 and STCOM10 give designers flexibility to combine their own proprietary metering front end with ST's on-chip application processor, security engine, and PLC module, and to leverage ST's global approvals to accelerate project completion.
ST has also confirmed that STCOMET is the IC powering smart meters currently rolling out to 1000 households in the Toulouse area of France, as part of the SOGRID5 smart-grid pilot. ST is a member of the consortium led by ERDF6, which is conducting SOGRID to study automated network control under real operating conditions.
“The vision of the future world, enabled by the smart grid, becomes more real and more exciting day by day,” said Matteo Lo Presti, Group Vice President and General Manager, Industrial and Power Conversion Division, STMicroelectronics. “Our STCOMET smart-meter SoCs are leading the advance, combining outstanding technical features with unrivalled integration and flexibility to realize the smart-energy revolution everywhere from developed economies to emerging markets.”
As projects such as SOGRID continue to drive evolution of smart metering and the smart grid, ST's unique programmable and firmware-upgradeable architecture allows designers to create multiple product variants leveraging a common design, and take advantage of future-proof adaptability to minimize lifetime ownership costs. ST has a fully featured development ecosystem supporting rapid development of single-phase or three-phase smart meters based on STCOMET ICs, which includes certified protocol stacks, reference designs, prototyping hardware, and tools such as metrology-management software and drivers.
Features of the STCOMET Smart-Meter System-on-Chip
- Integrated differential PLC analog front-end
- PGA with automatic gain control and ADC
- Current DAC with transmission predriver
- Digital transmission level control
- Zero crossing comparator
- Up to 500 kHz PLC signal bandwidth
- Integrated dual line driver
- 14 V p-p single ended, 28 V p-p differential output range
- Very high linearity for EMC compliance
- Externally configurable amplifier topology
- 1 A rms max. current
- Embedded overtemperature protection
- Suitable for all PLC signals up to 500 kHz
- Fully reprogrammable real-time engine (RTE) modem for PLC standards up to 500 kHz
- High accuracy metering front-end
- 3 independent 24-bit ΣΔ ADC channels
- 3.6 kHz bandwidth
- Dedicated DSP for turnkey calculation of metrology parameters
- Direct access to 24-bit ΣΔ data
- Integrated application core: ARM® 32-bit Cortex™-M4F CPU
- 96 MHz maximum frequency
- 8-channel direct memory access controller
- 8-region memory protection unit
- Serial wire and JTAG interfaces
- Cortex-M4 Embedded Trace Macrocell™
- Up to 86 multiplexed GPIOs
- 11 timers
- 1 flexible CRC calculation unit
- 5 USARTs (ISO 7816 compliant), 5 SPI, 3 I²C
- 12-bit general purpose ADC with 6 channels
- Cryptographic engine
- AES 128/192/256 engine
- True Random Number Generator
- Memories
- 640 kB or 1 MB of embedded Flash
- 128 kB of embedded SRAM
- 8 kB of embedded shared RAM
- Flexible static memory controller
- Clock management
- 24 MHz external crystal for system clock with internal QFS synthesizer
- 32.768 kHz external crystal for RTC
- Power management
- .3 V and 8 - 18 V external supply voltages
- 1.2 V and 5 V integrated linear regulators
- Normal and low power modes
- Real-time clock (RTC)
- VBAT supply with battery health monitoring for RTC and backup registers
For more information on the STCOMET Smart-meter System-on-Chip family, visit the ST website at STMicroelectronics STCOMET product page.
The STMicroelectronics website address is www.st.com
[Reprinted with kind permission from STMicroelectronics - Release Date 3rd November, 2015]
