ICs Make Meter Designs Easier, Energy Theft Harder

Oct 1, 2007 12:00 PM
By David Morrison, Editor, Power Electronics Technology

In July, Teridian Semiconductor unveiled the 71M6523 three-phase residential metering SoC. This device is designed to address the growing use of three-phase residential metering that is being driven by higher residential energy demand in developing economies. The 71M6523 delivers an anti-tamper neutral-current-measurement accuracy of 0.4%, allowing the detection of smaller amounts of energy theft. This degree of accuracy outperforms alternative solutions by a factor of two, according to the vendor.

Teridian’s Single Converter Technology and SoC approach also eliminate the need to isolate individual phases using multiple regulators and isolation devices, speeding development time, improving meter reliability and performance, and reducing overall system cost by as much as 40%.

Fig. 3. Teridan Semiconductor’s 71M6523 three-phase residential electric energy-metering IC supports a wide range of metering applications with low-cost external components. (click image to see full-sized figure)

“Until the introduction of Teridian’s 71M6523, meter manufacturers were forced into complex, less robust, less reliable meter designs cobbled together from many discrete components,” said Steve McClure, vice president of marketing for Teridian.

With this solution, energy-measurement accuracy is enhanced, the mean time between faults is increased, and EMI susceptibility and power consumption are reduced, says the vendor. The 71M6523 also offers advanced power management and tamper detection features. Battery backup mode functionality allows measurements to be displayed and updated, push-button wake-up from sleep mode, and communications and I/O.

Pricing for Teridian’s 71M6523 metering solution in 100,000-piece quantities is available upon request. Data sheets and evaluation kits are also available.

Another device offering tamper protection is austriamicrosystems’ AS8268, a single- phase, anti-tamper liquid crystal display (LCD) energy-metering IC. Introduced in April, the AS8268 offers an integrated SoC design for LCD display meters, and provides for secure program and data through its inclusion of high-performance flash memory on chip.Meter implementations based on the AS8268 require a minimum number of external components, improving meter reliability and reducing meter system cost.

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© 2007 Penton Media, Inc.