Fully Integrated Power-Line Modem Serves Smart Meters

The AMIS-49587, the latest member of the company’s power-line carrier (PLC) modem family, is a standards-compliant and low-power PLC modem for use in applications such as smart electric automatic meter reading and management, street-lighting control, smart power plug and building automation. The AMIS-49587 combines both the analog modem front end and digital post processing capability in the same IC. This device is based around an ARM7TDMI processor core and includes both the physical interface transceiver (PHY) and the media access controller (MAC) layers. Using the spread-frequency shift keying (S-FSK) modulation technique coupled with accurate filtering gives robust low data-rate communications on power lines over long distances. Half-duplex selectable communication speeds of 2400 bits/sec (baud) can be achieved. Supplied in a PLCC-28 package, the AMIS-49587 is pin-compatible with the company’s AMIS-30585 half-duplex S-FSK modem. Operating temperature range for the AMIS-49587 is -40°C to +80°C. The AMIS-49587 is available now for $11 each in lots of 1000 or more. Evaluation kits are available. ON SEMICONDUCTOR, Phoenix, AZ. (888)-743-7826.