San Jose, California – February 25, 2014 – Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIM) has released the Novato (MAXREFDES16#) reference board, a 4–20mA loop power temperature transmitter equipped with the HART® communication protocol. This enables factories to measure and transmit temperatures easily and accurately.

Temperature is one of the most widely measured parameters in industrial process control and automation applications. The Novato reference board transmits temperature measurements from a remote sensor to a central control unit via a 4–20mA current loop using the Highway Addressable Remote Transducer (HART) communication protocol. This smart transmitter performs low-power temperature measurements from -200°C to +850°C with an accuracy of ±0.1% or less than ±1.0°C. Novato's flexible design supports 2, 3, or 4-wire Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD) sensor inputs and can be used with all types of RTDs from the PT100 to the PT1000, making it ideal for a wide variety of industrial applications.

The HART function was developed by AB Tech Solution (Westford, Massachusetts), an engineering company specializing in product development services for industrial automation applications. The HART stack for Novato runs on the Renesas® RL78/G13 microcontroller and supports all general-purpose and common execution commands.

"Factories of the future require a wide range of temperature measurements and smart temperature transmitters like Novato that operate at low power while rapidly transmitting data to a central control unit," said Sean Long, Director at Maxim Integrated. "Maxim provides the perfect solution for these designs by integrating ABTech's HART stack running on the Renesas RL78 ultra-low power microcontroller."

"High-accuracy temperature measurement is essential in factory environments," said Colin Barnden, a senior analyst at Semicast. "The proliferation of smart sensors in the market has made it possible to have smarter systems in smart industrial applications."

It is available in DIN size B head mounting cases (diameter less than 40 mm) and meets field sensor requirements, and details on other standard designs can be found at Maxim’s Reference Board Center.

High-resolution images of the Novato board and Novato circuit diagram are provided.