Ultrasonic sensing and measurement SoCs for water and heat meters

Texas Instruments MSP430FR600x Ultrasonic Sensing and Measurement SoCs are powerful, highly integrated MCUs that are optimised for water and heat meters. The MCUs provide an integrated ultrasonic sensing solution (USS) module, which gives high accuracy for a wide range of flow rates. The USS module assists in achieving ultra-low-power metering coupled with lower system cost due to maximum integration needing very few external components. The MCUs achieve a high-speed ADC-based signal acquisition followed by optimised digital signal processing employing the integrated low-energy accelerator module to achieve a high-accuracy metering solution with ultra-low power optimum for battery-powered metering applications.

The USS module incorporates a PPG and a PHY with a low-impedance output driver for optimum sensor excitation to deliver the best results for ZFD. The module also includes a PGA and a high-speed 12-bit 8Msps sigma-delta ADC for accurate signal acquisition from industry-standard ultrasonic transducers. Furthermore, the MCUs combine other peripherals to enhance system integration for metering. These MCUs provide an on-chip 8-mux LCD driver, an RTC, an analog comparator, a 12-bit SAR ADC, an advanced encryption accelerator (AES256), and a CRC module.

The MCUs are supported by an expanded hardware and software ecosystem with reference designs and code examples to get designs commenced swiftly. Development kits incorporate the MSP-TS430PZ100E 100-pin target development board and EVM430-FR6047 ultrasonic water flow meter evaluation module. The company also offers free software incorporating the ultrasonic sensing design centre, ultrasonic sensing software library, and MSP430Ware software.