At the recent 2014 Embedded World Exhibition and Conference in Nuremberg, Germany, Maxim Integrated Products demonstrated the novel advantages of highly-integrated analog solutions. Maxim's interactive demo kiosks exhibited embedded solutions for energy management, power management, and the signal-chain with high integration for savings in space, cost, energy, and time to market.
Energy-Measurement Solutions
• With the compact MAX78700/MAX78615 energy-measurement chipset, designers can measure AC or DC power usage without additional bulky sensors, optocouplers, or an extra power supply for the measurement subsystem. When embedding high-voltage AC (or DC) measurement into a design, isolation must be maintained. This traditionally required power and data isolation components. Instead, Maxim’s energy-measurement chipset integrates a unique isolated interface between the high-voltage analog (MAX78700) and low-voltage digital (MAX78615) domains for significant reductions in size, complexity, and cost.
Power-Management Solutions
• Maxim’s high-voltage buck regulator family, MAX17501/02/03/04, offers high efficiency across a wide industrial voltage range and is compliant with IEC 61131-2, IEC 61508 and IEC 60664 standards. These products bring synchronous rectification to 60V buck regulators for industrial control and automation applications that operate over 24V but need to withstand 60V operation. The MAX17503 synchronous DC-DC step-down converter, for example, operates from 4.5V to 60V and delivers up to 2.5A output current. It saves up to 50% space, reduces component count by 75%, and operates 50% cooler than competing asynchronous solutions.
• Maxim also showcased the MAX15062, a 4.5-60V / 300mA synchronous DC-DC step- down converter which powers a moving WiFi® robot. This is also part of Maxim’s high- voltage buck regulator family.
Signal-Chain Solutions
• Maxim unveiled the industry’s smallest IO-Link® ambient light sensor that detects clear, RGB, and infrared (IR) light. This sensor features unsurpassed light sensitivity and low latency. The integrated IO-Link software and device stack provide for self- identification and configuration without additional programming resources. This ambient-light-sensing solution enables more connected factories and saves valuable manpower resources on the factory floor.
• Maxim also unveiled a smart temperature-transmitter reference design that transmits temperature measurement over -200°C to +850°C range with better than 0.1% accuracy using the highway addressable remote transducer (HART) protocol. Temperature is among the most widely measured parameters in industrial process control and automation applications. With this new solution, factories can easily, and very accurately, measure and transmit industrial temperatures.
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