Controller for Ethernet based industrial communications systems

Looking to take advantage of the rapidly growing demand for industrial networking spawned by IoT applications, Microchip has launched the LAN9252, a standalone EtherCAT slave controller featuring two 10/100 PHYs.


Supporting fibre and copper based communications, along with cable diagnostics capabilities, the LAN9252 features traditional Host Bus and SPI/SQI communication, along with standalone digital I/O interfaces. This, says the company, provides system designers with the flexibility to select from a wide range of microcontrollers when implementing EtherCAT based communications. The device is also said to reduce system complexity and cost for those developing factory automation, process control, motor/motion control and IoT applications based on Ethernet.

The part boasts 4kbyte of dual port RAM and three Fieldbus Memory Management Units. It also features cable diagnostics support that allows rapid diagnosis of line faults.

This controller is available in commercial, industrial and extended industrial temperature ranges and in a choice of QFN and QFP-EP packages.

The launch of the LAN9252 is supported by two evaluation boards and a software development kit.