MCUs reduce cost of e-metering apps

Texas Instruments has announced the MSP430FE42x2 system-on-chip microcontroller series designed to reduce the electronic bill of materials for single-phase electricity metering applications to the $1 range in high volumes. Integrating all metering functionality onto a single chip and offering ultra-low power operation, the MCUs require only simple voltage regulation to provide a complete solution.

Key features include an embedded signal processor peripheral that fully automates energy conversion by integrating two independent, high-resolution sigma-delta ADCs, programmable gain amplifiers, a temperature sensor, precision voltage reference, H/W multiplier and a dedicated fixed function MSP430 CPU. A second, fully-programmable on-chip MSP430 CPU is available for application processing and communication functions.

An enhanced watchdog timer, brownout protection and a supply voltage supervisor are designed to increase system reliability. Other features include a 128-segment LCD driver, a three channel 16-bit pulse width modulation timer, serial communication port and a basic timer.

The MSP430FE42x2 MCUs are available now in 64-pin LQFPs, and offer up to 32 kB of in-system programmable Flash memory.

Texas Instruments, 800-477-8924, www.ti.com

Product literature:
TI metering solutions
MSP430FE42x2 product folder
MSP430 tools page