Stmicroelectronics releases G3-PLC Hybrid Power Line and Wireless Fusion Communications Certified chipset

     ST8500 and S2-LP chipsets are the first to be certified by G3-PLC Hybrid Power Line and Wireless media Convergence communication standards. G3 - PLC communication specification allows the smart grid, smart city, industry, and the Internet of things device automatically at any time according to the network conditions, dynamically select the best available wireless or power line connection, so as to realize the network coverage, connection of higher reliability and system scalability, but also can improve the efficiency of the system operation cost, support the new application scenarios.

     The Semiconductor Semiconductor showed the world's first batch of ST8500 Hybrid chipsets that support G3-PLC Hybrid communication specifications at the G3-PLC alliance interoperability test conference in 2020. The chipset is now the first to complete the G3-PLC's latest certification plan. The plan was released in March 2021, including Hybrid fusion scene tests.

     The new authentication chipset integrates ST8500 programmable multi-protocol power line communication system chip (SoC), STLD1 line drive and S2-LP ultra-low power consumption SUB-GHz radio frequency transceiver. The programmability of the SOC chip can support various power line communication protocol stacks in global frequency bands such as Cenelec and FCC.

     ST8500 Power Line Communication SOC platform is widely used in smart table meter, intelligent industry and infrastructure. The new ST Hybrid overall solution has been selected by the main enterprises in the smart grid market. In addition, the G3-PLC alliance official radio frequency authentication testing equipment also selects hardware and firmware solutions for semiconductors. The ST8500 SOC is packaged with a 7mm x 7mm x 1mm QFN56. Both STLD1 and S2-LP are packaged with 4mm x 4mm x 1mm QFN24.