Low-Power MCU Used in Aquiba Smart Water Meter

Aquiba has selected Energy Micro's energy-friendly EFM32 Gecko microcontroller (MCU) for use in its A200 smart water meter. The EFM32G890F128 microcontroller was selected for its ultra-low-power performance, processing capability and peripheral set. It handles the A200's high-accuracy flow measurement, data logging, secure communication and application firmware upgrades. A platform for intelligent water networks, the Aquiba A200 smart water meter is said to outperform traditional mechanical meters, has no moving parts and provides metrology ensuring high-accuracy measurement even at low flow rates.

To allow water operators to plan for future changes in climate and network infrastructure, the A200 also has the in-built flexibility to enable it to be rapidly adapted to meet future metering requirements. Mark England, chief executive of Sentec, said: 'In designing the A200, future-proofing was a key consideration and choosing the right microcontroller for the job was vital. 'We needed to move to a microcontroller that could give us the 32-bit data processing but at a power consumption that would deliver a battery life of 15 years.

'It needed to be able to support our operating system and modular software and handle over-the-air field upgrades as well. 'The Energy Micro part gave us the performance we needed on all counts and with its ARM Cortex-M3 core, provides a stable, non-proprietary architecture that opens the way for further next-generation product developments,' he added. 'Aquiba's adoption of the EFM32 in its A200 smart water meter underlines the microcontroller's low-power, 32-bit processing advantages to energy sensitive metering product design,' said Geir Forre, chief executive officer at Energy Micro.

In real-world benchmark tests, Energy Micro's EFM32 Gecko microcontroller has proven capable of consuming a quarter of the battery energy required by alternative 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit microcontrollers. Built around the 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 processor core, the microcontroller is characterised by the very low active and standby power consumption, fast processing and wake-up time and highly flexible low-energy modes. It provides an array of low-power peripheral functions, able to be operated autonomously and supports energy debugging, through its Advanced Energy Monitoring system and Simplicity Studio toolset.

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