Energy Measurement Redefined

Cirrus Logic High-Precision Analog Front End (AFE) ICs Deliver The MCU Advantage

As the high-precision leader in Analog Front End (AFE) ICs for energy measurement since 1999, Cirrus Logic focuses solely on developing the best AFE products in the semiconductor industry, freeing designers to use the MCU of their choice in their design. This approach enables customers to optimize performance and price on every platform and provides flexibility across platforms to meet changing market requirements.

Smart Power

New generations of energy measurement applications are driving innovation beyond the utility meter. Smart plugs, smart appliances and power supplies for intense-use applications are enabling businesses, enterprises and even consumers to more accurately account for their energy usage.

Designers have a fundamental choice for their application: SOCs that offer a limited “one size fits all” approach, or a dedicated MCU of their choice combined with a Cirrus Logic AFE solution. With this approach, each designer has the flexibility to choose an MCU with the combination of memory, LCD drive and I/O that is ideal for their specific application.

SOCs on the market today generally combine some AFE functionality with predefined microcontroller functionality in a single package. As the result, designers who use SOCs often pay for unnecessary features (eg. memory) and lesser performance — at a higher cost.

Cirrus Logic AFEs offer several benefits:

• HIGHEST ACCURACY:  very flat over long range; ultra-low noise level; high SNR --makes Cirrus Logic the market leader in accuracy
• LOW COST: optimizing die sizes; building devices as hard coded ROMs; no expensive flash memory – allows Cirrus Logic to pass the cost benefits through to customers
• FAST CALIBRATION: superior analog performance; offset correction is very fast; calibration time of 2-3 seconds; up to 10 times quicker than many competing SOC solutions – Cirrus Logic can significantly speed production.
• FLEXIBILITY: lock in a global metrology portion of the meter’s design; free up designers to select the MCU to satisfy local requirements for communications, LCD drive, IO etc. – the Cirrus Logic AFE approach
• EASE OF USE: Pre-programmed power calculation engine eliminates any need for manual programming and also mitigates security concerns

Product Portfolio

Development Tools

Prototyping Made Easy

Cirrus Logic evaluation boards are a great reference design for power supply monitoring, smart plugs, smart appliances or any other application that requires easy to use energy measurement in a very small form factor. Communication protocol, GUI, and MCU software source code are available from Cirrus Logic and can be tweaked for the specific needs of your system.

CDB5480-U CDB5480-U Evaluation Board for the CS5480 CS5480

CDB5484-U CDB5484-U Evaluation Board for the CS5484 CS5484

CDB5490-U CDB5490-U Evaluation Board for the CS5490 CS5490

The functionality and performance of the CS5484 CS5484, CS5480 CS5480 and the CS5490 CS5490 energy measurement ICs can all be evaluated with the CDB5484-U CDB5484-U, CDB5480-U CDB5480-U and CDB5490-U CDB5490-U demonstration boards. These CDBs expedite a preliminary performance assessment. Shunt resistors, current transformers or Rogowski coils can be connected to the analog inputs, while intuitive GUI software provides easy and full access to the on-board CS5484/80/90 devices and MCU. On-board LEDs and LCD displays enable stand-alone operation for extended testing.