November 20, 2013, Seoul, Korea – Freescale Semiconductor will soon begin mass production shipments of its Kinetis M Series microcontrollers (MCUs). Based on 32-bit ARM® Cortex™-M0+ cores, the Kinetis M Series products are designed for next-generation smart metering applications.

The cost-effective Kinetis M Series MCUs enable the design of safe, high-precision 1, 2, and 3-phase electric metering solutions by combining a sophisticated AFE (analog front-end), hardware modulation detection, and low-power operation. Freescale also provides verified 1, 2, and 3-phase hardware reference designs with 0.1% measurement precision and complex instrumentation firmware that meets all ESD requirements.

Conventional smart metering designs typically employ two chips to separate user-requested software from the main application code, in accordance with the requirements of WELMEC, OIML, and other global standards. However, Kinetis M Series MCUs handle this task on a single chip through on-chip memory protection, peripheral bridges, protected GPIOs, and DMA controllers. To protect against external tampering, M Series MCUs include active and passive tamper-proof pins with auto-time stamping applied throughout, including iRTC (Standalone Real-Time Clock). In addition, using a random number generator enables faster and easier implementation of encryption algorithms compared to software implementation.

The analog front-end, which forms the basis of the Kinetis M Series design, provides exceptional performance and value for smart metering applications. The AFE also enables the M Series to handle many precision industrial measurement applications beyond metering. The configuration of the AFE is as follows.

· Up to four non-multiplexed 24-bit sigma-delta ADCs (analog-to-digital converters) for simultaneous voltage and current measurement
· Two low-noise programmable gain amplifiers providing a dynamic range of 2000:1
· Up to 12 16-bit SAR ADC inputs for accurate phase voltage measurement in 3-phase applications
· Precision voltage reference with low deviation due to temperature
· Phase shift compensator to simplify accurate power calculation

With these capabilities, the CPU can perform power calculations with 0.1% precision while providing a high signal-to-noise ratio (94 dB) that meets the latest regulatory standards for such systems. Additionally, the on-chip analog comparator enables highly accurate frequency detection. This is a key requirement for meters utilizing the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm.

Other key features of the Kinetis M series MCU are as follows.

· 50MHz 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0+ core with high-speed GPIO, 32x32 MACs, and excellent code density and energy efficiency
· 64KB or 128KB flash memory and 16KB SRAM
· Flexible segment LCD controller with low-power mode operation and segment error detection (segment LCD modules are available only in 64 and 100 LQFP packages)
· Multiple low-power modes, including low-power boot mode, and quick startup options
· 24-bit ADC Clock Dedicated PLL – Uses a low-frequency crystal to reduce jitter and maximize AFE performance
· 1.71-3.6V (no AFE) and 2.7-3.6V (no AFE)
· 64, 100 LQFP, and 44LGA (5 x 5 mm²) packages

Development support

Kinetis M Series devices are supported by a wide range of easy-to-use 32-bit tools, including the Tower System TWR-KM34Z-50M development platform, CodeWarrior development studio, the integrated Processor Expert automatic code generator, MQX™ Lite RTOS, pre-validated 1, 2, and 3-phase reference designs for various regions, and optional modulation support. Additionally, Freescale provides a wide range of advanced filters and FET-based metering algorithms free of charge to help customers reduce development costs and time-to-market.