Infineon has presented its smart-grid technologies at the Metering, Billing / CRM Europe 2012 Conference and Exhibition in Amsterdam, where it showed off the building blocks for an intelligent infrastructure, that supports worldwide energy-efficiency goals, with a portfolio addressing every step of power generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption. Highlighted by the company's smart-meter IC family, Infineon combines expertise in power semiconductors, embedded control, and chip-based security to address requirements for a reliable, flexible, and secure smart grid. Smart grid technologies upgrade grid infrastructure by adding distributed local intelligence, security across the network, enhanced efficiency, advanced control (to accommodate bi-directional power flow), and flexible demand management. Importantly, the chip-level building blocks of these systems must meet the highest quality standards to fulfill industry requirements for reliable, long-lifetime use. "While power semiconductors represent on average more than one-half of our annual revenue, we also have leading market-share positions in chip-based security, deep experience in embedded control, and the ability to meet demanding quality and product-lifetime requirements, which we have already proven with our automotive portfolio," says Dr. Sergio Rossi, Head of Smart Grid and Peripherals at Infineon. Smart Meters are emerging as a critical element of the grid's interface between providers and end-consumers. They monitor energy consumption, communicate with devices in the household, and gather all information required by the grid to efficiently allocate resources. As the market landscape changes from pilot project to mass-scale deployment, smart meters need to be cost effective yet enriched with features. The Infineon smart-meter IC family—specifically designed for that purpose—is a feature-rich, highly-integrated, cost-effective, secure-by-design, tamper-resistant and low-power platform for the implementation of single- or poly-phase electric meters, as well as static and mechanical based flow meters. Currently being qualified in India, Brazil, and China as well as for meters compliant to ANSI and IEC standards, the Smart Meter family is designed and produced using automotive qualified blocks and silicon processes. The broad Infineon portfolio for smart-grid applications includes high-efficiency power MOSFETs, IGBTs, and diodes with power ranges from a few Watts to megaWatts which are used to enable highly efficient and reliable power conversion in, for instance wind, solar, and energy storage applications. Furthermore, Infineon offers dedicated thyristors for high-voltage DC transmission lines, modules to control industrial drives, sensors, microcontrollers, security ICs, and metrology MCUs well suited for implementation of distribution-automation applications and a wide range of devices dedicated to cost-effective implementation of smart meters and energy-efficient smart home appliances. Infineon Technologies Smart-metering deeplink
