April 5, 2012 – Silicon Laboratories Inc. (Country Manager Jong-Chan Lee, hereinafter Silicon Labs), a global leader in high-performance analog-intensive mixed-signal ICs, announced today the development of a single-port Power over Ethernet (PoE) controller (product name: Si3462) that provides cost-effective and easy plug-and-play capabilities for the design of embedded power sourcing equipment (PSE). With the Si3462 controller, it is easy to develop PSE endpoints such as residential gateways, set-top boxes, fiber optic media converters, and surveillance and security systems that connect to a variety of powered devices (PDs), including VoIP phones, security cameras, keypads, network attached storage (NAS), and WiFi access points.

With increasing demand for easy-to-use, single-port embedded PoE/PoE+ PSE solutions for implementing these end products, PDs are steadily expanding in SOHO environments and SMB markets. As the adoption of IEEE 802.3, which offers higher power than the PoE+ standard, and the growing need to support PD applications consuming up to 30 watts increase, developers require PSE controllers that offer flexible power measurement and monitoring capabilities, are standard-compliant, and free from interoperability issues.

The Si3462 is a cost-effective, complete single-port PoE and PoE + PSE solution. When installed with the new COM (Classification Optional Mode), the Si3462 can eliminate up to 10 discrete components, reducing the total cost of the embedded PSE's Bill of Materials (BoM) to $1.60. In this mode, the Si3462 controller detects when a valid PD is connected at the other end of the cable and immediately supplies the scheduled power. This mode offers optimized cost and simplicity for applications that do not require classification, such as specific systems operating with a fixed PD set.

The Si3462 controller introduces an innovative architecture that eliminates the need for a separate MCU and associated software, simplifying overall system integration, reducing software development costs and risks, and ensuring a rapid time-to-market. The Si3462's sensing, classification, power-up, malfunction monitoring, protection, and shutdown functions are all executed via hardware pin configurations without the assistance of a host processor or MCU. The Si3462 continuously monitors the power delivered to PDs to ensure that each PD operates safely and within the IEEE-required PoE/PoE+ specifications.

“The newly announced Si3462 controller frees developers from standards compliance risks and the complexities associated with other PSE solutions, while enabling the application of PoE+ to embedded PSE systems much more easily and cost-effectively,” said Jim Judkins, Product Line Director at Silicon Labs Access Products. “It is now possible to build PSEs simply with plug-and-play without a host MCU or excessive software.”

The Si3462 controller provides various easy-to-use, pin-selectable operating modes that allow for flexible use in both PSE endpoint and midspan applications. Although primarily designed for PSE endpoint products, the Si3462 controller also supports midspan power injectors, which are widely used in small business and enterprise LANs. Midspan allows a remote PD to receive power through an existing Ethernet switch without PSE functionality by inserting a midspan between the PSE endpoint and the PD.

Price and supply
The Si3462 is currently in mass production as a small 3 mm x 3 mm QFN. The Si3462 is priced at $0.95 per unit based on a 10,000-unit quantity. To help developers reduce development time and costs, Silicon Labs offers an evaluation kit for the Si3462, a comprehensive turnkey design that supports cost-effective drop-in installation of a single PoE+ PSE port. The Si3462 PSE controller and development tools are available at www.silabs.com/pr/PoE .