Texas Instruments MSP430FR600x Ultrasonic Sensing & Measurement SoCs
Texas Instruments MSP430FR600x Ultrasonic Sensing and Measurement SoCs are powerful, highly integrated microcontrollers (MCUs) that are optimized for water and heat meters. The MSP430FR600x MCUs offer an integrated ultrasonic sensing solution (USS) module, which provides high accuracy for a wide range of flow rates. The USS module helps achieve ultra-low-power metering and lower system costs due to maximum integration requiring very few external components. TI MSP430FR600x MCUs implement a high-speed ADC-based signal acquisition followed by optimized digital signal processing using the integrated low-energy accelerator (LEA) module to deliver a high-accuracy metering solution with ultra-low power optimum for battery-powered metering applications.
The USS module includes a programmable pulse generator (PPG) and a physical interface (PHY) with a low-impedance output driver for optimum sensor excitation to deliver excellent results for zero-flow drift (ZFD). The module also includes a programmable gain amplifier (PGA) and a high-speed 12-bit 8Msps sigma-delta ADC (SDHS) for accurate signal acquisition from industry-standard ultrasonic transducers. Additionally, MSP430FR600x MCUs integrate other peripherals to improve system integration for metering. These MCUs have an on-chip 8-mux LCD driver, an RTC, a 12-bit SAR ADC, an analog comparator, an advanced encryption accelerator (AES256), and a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) module.
MSP430FR600x MCUs are supported by an extensive hardware and software ecosystem with reference designs and code examples to get designs started quickly. Development kits include the MSP-TS430PZ100E 100-pin target development board and the EVM430-FR6047 ultrasonic water flow meter evaluation module. TI also provides free software, including the ultrasonic sensing design center, ultrasonic sensing software library, and MSP430Ware™ software.
Features
- Best-in-class ultrasonic water-flow measurement with ultra-low power consumption
- < 100ps differential time-of-flight (dTOF) accuracy
- High-precision time measurement resolution of 20ps
- Ability to detect low flow rates (4 to 6 liters per hour)
- Approximately 3.8µA overall current consumption with one measurement per second
- Compliant to and exceeds ISO 4064, OIML R49, and EN 1434 accuracy standards
- Ability to directly interface standard ultrasonic sensors (up to 2.5MHz)
- Integrated analog front end – ultrasonic sensing solution (USS)
- Low-energy accelerator (LEA)
- Embedded microcontroller
- 16-bit RISC architecture up to 16MHz clock
- Wide supply voltage range from 3.6V down to 1.8V (SVS levels restrict minimum supply voltage)
- Ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM)
- Up to 256KB of non-volatile memory
- Ultra-low-power writes
- Fast write at 125ns per word (64KB in 4ms)
- Unified memory = program + data + storage in one space
- 1015 write cycle endurance
- Radiation-resistant and non-magnetic
- Optimized ultra-low-power modes
- Active mode: approximately 120µA/MHz
- 450nA standby mode with a real-time clock (RTC) (LPM3.5)
- 30nA shutdown (LPM4.5)
- Intelligent digital peripherals
- High-performance analog
- Multifunction input/output ports
- Code security and encryption
- Enhanced serial communication
- Flexible clock system
- Development tools and software
- Ultrasonic Sensing Design Center graphical user interface
- An ultrasonic sensing software library
- EVM430-FR6047 water meter evaluation module
- MSP-TS430PZ100E target socket board for 100-pin package
- Free professional development environments with EnergyTrace++ technology
- MSP430Ware™ for MSP430™ microcontrollers
- Device comparison summarizes the available device variants and package options
Applications
- Ultrasonic smart water meter
- Ultrasonic smart heat meter
- Liquid level sensing
- Water leak detector
Functional Block Diagram
Development Tools
Texas Instruments C-GANG Low-Cost Gang Programmer
Gang programmer can program up to six targets at once & is compatible with the MSPM0/MSP430 devices.
Texas Instruments EVM430-FR6047 Evaluation Module (EVM)
Evaluates the performance of the MSP430FR6047 MCUs for ultrasonic sensing applications.