austriamicrosystems Launches First Integrated Measurement IC For Power Inverters

austriamicrosystems has announced the AS8002, which it says is the world’s first integrated solution for voltage and current monitoring in power inverters. This single-chip design is said to offer improved performance and reduced system cost of power inverters while allowing simplified design with a reduced number of components. The AS8002 is especially targeted for grid connected systems such as solar photovoltaic inverters.

According to the company, the chip offers advantages over alternative approaches for monitoring electrical power injected into the grid. The AS8002 allows the use of low-cost resistors for current and voltage sensing. The sensed voltage and current are directly available in high-resolution digital format. The chip’s flexible front-end provides adjustable gain to accommodate various resistor values, and on-chip calibration allows compensation for external component inaccuracies as well as variations over temperature. Added features like fast over-current detection provide additional safety. These features make the AS8002 also well suited for other power monitoring applications, such as wind turbines and uninterruptible power supplies.

"For economic, safety and regulatory reasons, electrical energy injected to a power grid must be accurately monitored" said Michael Leitner, Director Marketing Business Unit Industry and Medical at austriamicrosystems. "As the need for grid monitoring continues to grow, the AS8002 will replace a number of solutions that suffer from higher cost, lower accuracy or poorer performance."

The AS8002 is available in a 4 x 4mm QFN-16 package, operates from 3.0 to 3.6V and is specified for an operating temperature range of -40 to +125°C.

The AS8002 integrated measurement IC is available now at a 1k price of $5.31.