'World's first' integrated solution for voltage and current monitoring in power inverters

The AS8002 is a single chip design and is said to offer improved performance and reduced system cost of power inverters while allowing simplified design with a reduced number of components. It is targeted for grid connected systems such as solar photovoltaic inverters. According to austriamicrosystems, the chip offers advantages over alternative approaches in terms of monitoring the signals injected into the grid and 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 front-end is designed to provide adjustable gain to accommodate various resistor values and on-chip calibration allows compensation for external component inaccuracies as well as variations over temperature. Additional features include fast over-current detection. "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 to 3.6V and is specified for an operating temperature range of -40 to 125^°C.