Freescale Semiconductor has introduced three advanced microcontroller (MCU) solutions that enable smart meters to be designed with tamper detection mechanisms and real time usage monitoring, providing customers an extra layer of security for their smart meter products.
Jeff Bock, Freescale’s director of product marketing for Industrial and Multi-Market microcontrollers says, “Our goal is to provide developers with comprehensive plug-and-play solutions designed to alleviate cost and time-to-market concerns, while bringing everyone a step closer to a unified smart grid. Freescale’s smart energy technologies address smart metering and smart grid applications across the grid, enabling customers worldwide to provide secure, next-generation energy management solutions.”
Freescale’s advanced devices have several functions combined on one chip that were previously unavailable in a single solution. The real-time clock (RTC) on Freescale’s metering solutions enables utilities to implement different tariffs depending on time of the day, maximum demand and load availability.
In addition, the RTC can detect fraud and send a trigger or error notice to the utility company when tampering is detected. It can also run separately with its own battery power supply in the event of a main power failure. According to ABI Research, about 212 million smart electricity meters will be installed worldwide by 2015 – an increase of approximately 130 million in just five years
Freescale’s smart meter products features a 32-bit ColdFire V1 MCU core with multiply accumulate unit; Flexible LCD controller can run in ultra-low power modes, and support up to 288 segments Solutions for low-cost single phase electricity meters and energy monitoring.
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