Driven by the concept of Industry 4.0, the application of network solutions such as IO-Link and sensor technology in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is pushing industrial automation applications towards a direction of greater intelligence, universal and ease of customization. This article will show you the relevant applications and solutions of industrial automation, and further details on the development direction of Industry 4.0.
IO-Link Network Solutions are the Foundation of Industry 4.0
The concept of Industry 4.0 refers to the demand for more intelligent and flexible process management from the supply chain, production end, quality control, packaging and shipping in the process of commodity production, including flexible recipe capabilities, real-time monitoring of production processes, and predictive maintenance of production equipment in an effort to minimize downtime and achieve the goals of energy and waste saving.
In realizing the goals of Industry 4.0, one of the key technologies is the IO-Link network solution, which can eliminate noisy signals in the IoT application environment and nest lines resulting from different wire arrangements, while significantly decreasing production downtime caused by installation/repair.
Traditionally, the signal transmission using analog technology requires multiple A/D conversions, resulting in the loss of accuracy, and affected by EMI and other external factors, the signal may not be detected due to the impact on the analog signal, and the shielded cable with EMI prevention function is also relatively more expensive. The use of IO-Link digital technology in an industrial environment eliminates unnecessary multiple A/D conversions, avoids loss of accuracy and eliminates the need for shielded cables. The EMI resistance of digital signals allows for the use of unshielded cables, which can save cost, space and the expense of using analog I/O cards. The adoption of digital carriers makes it possible to carry multiple data simultaneously.
The IO-Link technology provides better noise immunity. Simple 3-wire digital data transmission reduces conversion losses and speeds up transmission, allowing for the use of standard connectors and cables of length up to 20m (unshielded M12/M8 cables), and bi-directional input/output transmission on a single port, enabling sensor and actuator connections. In addition, the IO-Link standard, which is not limited to a single manufacturer, can be adapted to any existing PLC and bus, and can act as an alternative of multiple standards. Because of its versatility, flexible production lines can be expediently and easily customized. It also enables seamless remote monitoring, flexible recipe and reduced downtime. In contrast, its remote monitoring of machine status achieves predictive maintenance and energy conservation, making it the foundation for driving the development of Industry 4.0.
Statistics show that in 2020, the number of IO-Link nodes in the world exceeded 16 million, and the IO-Link market is expected to reach more than $12 billion by 2023. In particular, the Asia Pacific region will grow into the largest market for IO-Link applications, accounting for more than 30% of the global market and a market share of over $3.6 billion.
Complete IO-Link Solution and Technical Support
In response to the urgent market demand for IO-Link technology, Arrow Electronics has introduced the ARW-IOLM4P-STM32L4 control board that conforms to the IEC 61131-9 IO-Link specification and realizes point-to-point connection from controller to sensor/actuator. ARW-IOLM4P-STM32L4 is an all-in-one IO-Link Master 4-port solution based on STM32L431RBT6 controller, with low-power STM32 ARM®Cortex®-M4 MCU, including a 4-port master controller stack in line with IO-Link V1.1.3. The control board has passed the conformance test of the IO-Link master control. It can connect to the host CPU via SPI, simplifying the design of the IO-Link master control, reducing software effort and providing guaranteed IO-Link functions. Arrow Electronics also provides the ARW-IOLM4P-EVAL01/02 evaluation board, allowing shorter time-to-market.
In addition to serving as the master control and the device transceiver IC of IO-Link communication core, ST also provides a complete ecosystem, including rich evaluation board product portfolio and partners. ST has signed a tripartite partnership with Arrow Electronics and TEConcept. The specific result is IOLM4P, a 4-port IO-Link master chip solution based on ultra-low power STM32L4, with an integrated protocol stack capable of controlling up to four IO-Link devices.
Arrow Electronics also provides the L6360 IO-Link master transceiver and L6362A IO-Link slave transceiver from ST, and corresponding 8-CH IO-link Master and DI/DO Hub reference design and IO-Link slave software platform for IO-Link interface of Industry 4.0 to connect sensor/actuator, suitable for industrial automation system, Profinet/Ethernet/Profibus, programmable logic controller and predictive maintenance, among other scenarios.
In addition, Arrow Electronics, in collaboration with ST, also develops a single IO-Link MCU with integrated Master/Ethernet IP/Profinet functions that can support 8-channels IO-Link devices and dual-control architecture (PC or embedded host), including an 8-port master controller stack in line with IO-Link V1.1.2 standard and two integrated EtherNet/IP interfaces. The core chips used include STM’s STM32H743ZIT6, VN808-32-E, L6360, M24256-BRDW6TP, L7986A, SLVU2.8-4A1 and SMA4F28A, Microchip's KSZ8863RLL, Amphenol's M12A-05PMMC-SF8B20 and Apps Electronics' AE-RJC101013 and AE-SB16001, and Abracon's ABM8W-19.2000MHZ-8-J1Z-T3, making it applicable to IO-Link master hubs, PLC, factory automation and other fields.
The IO-Link tower light solution, also released by Arrow Electronics and using M12 standard industrial connectors, allows the control of actuator tower lights through the IO-Link interface. Its configurable modes enable it to support the physical layer compatibility of IO-Link version 1.1/1.0. The core chips used include ST quad low-side intelligent power switch IPS4260L, IO-Link dual-channel transceiver IC L6364Q, ARM Cortex-M0+ 32-bit MCU STM32G071, 8Kbit serial EEPROM M24C08 and 1500W TVS SMB15F24A, and analog multiplexer STG3157CTR. It incorporates Murata's MEMS resonator WMRAG32K76CS1C00R0 and 8MHz ceramic resonator CSTNE8M00G520000R0, and Amphenol ICC’s M12A-04PMMP-SF8001 and BergStik board-to-board connector 77311-1180xLF with M12 circular 4 POS ST through-hole 4 terminals and 1 port, making it suitable for actuator tower light control, factory automation and control and building automation applications.
Arrow Electronics also supports IO-Link software and compliance testing in collaboration with TE-concept, enabling customers to pre-test IO-Link. Also available are TE-Concept control tool, IO-Link master tester, IODD Designer, IO-Link diagnosis tool, all electronic components of ST and Amphenol’s connector, cable and module, thus speeding up product development for IO-Link-related applications.
Advanced IO-Link Master Control and Device Chip
Given the optimistic attitude on the development of IO-Link technology, ST has joined the IO-Link Alliance from the very beginning, and its master control and device chips, including L6360, L6362A transceiver and L6364 new device chips, can realize the physical layer in IO-Link communication.
The L6360 is a PHY2 (3-wire)-compliant monolithic IO-Link master transceiver that supports COM1, COM2 and COM3 modes. The C/Q output stage can be programmed as high-side, low-side or push-pull. Both cut-off current and its delay time can be programmed, and the combination with thermal shutdown and automatic restart functions protects the device against overload and short circuit. C/Q and L+ output stage can drive resistive, inductive and capacitive loads, and even inductive loads up to 10 mJ, and can also monitor supply voltage and detect low-voltage conditions.
L6360 IO-Link communication main transceiver IC, with supply voltage of 18 - 32.5 V and packaged with miniaturized VFQFPN-26L (3.5 x 5 x 1 mm), supports high-side drives with up to 500 mA L+ protection, additional IEC61131-2 type-1 input and protection features such as short circuit, overcurrent, overvoltage (> 36 V), overtemperature and ESD.
The L6362A is a PHY2-compliant (3-wire connection) IO-Link and SIO (standard IO) mode transceiver IC in support of COM1, COM2, and COM3 modes, allowing low-side, high-side, and push-pull output configurations and supporting driving any kind of load (resistive, capacitive, or inductive). L6362A is the ideal interface for industrial sensors running in the 24 V environment and can be connected to the PLC, industrial IO module or IO-Link master side.
L6362A is provided with a supply voltage range of 7 - 36 V, an extremely efficient power level, RDSON of 0.8 Ω/1 Ω (low side/high side) and output current of up to 300 mA. It can drive L/C/R up to 500mJ/30μF, and support wake-up detection and selectable linear regulators of 5 V or 3.3V and 10 mA, and it also contains a rich set of protection features, including reverse polarity among VCC, GND, OUTH, OUTL and I/Q pins, which are key features for installation industrial sensors. Other available protection features include output short circuit, overvoltage/under-voltage, overload, over-temperature and fast transient conditions (±1 kV, 500 Ω and 18 μF coupling). It comes in a miniature DFN package (3 x 3 mm) and is suitable for operating in the temperature range of -40 to 125°C, and its EMC robustness makes it possible to withstand burst, surge and ESD.
The newly launched L6364 is a dual-channel IO-Link device transceiver IC that provides a bridge between a microcontroller with a sensor or actuator feature and a 24 V power supply and signal cable. It is designated to support IO-Link communication in COM2 and COM3 modes.
All-in-one Flexible PLC Solution
For industrial automation applications, ST has also introduced a full-featured industrial-grade programmable logic controller (PLC) with 12 inputs and 12 outputs and supporting the use of touch screen display HMI. This all-in-one solution ensures fast and easy access to all control functions. It is paired with a high-performance STM32F7 microcontroller with DSP and FPU instructions, adaptive real-time accelerator (ART Accelerator™) with L1 cache, and LCD-TFT controller with dedicated Chrom-ART Accelerator™ for creating enhanced graphic content.
The solution offers various possibilities on both input and output arrays, including electrically isolated 8-channel high-side smart power solid-state relay (ISO8200AQ) with SPI interface or 4-channel low-side intelligent power switch (IPS4260L) that can drive the output. The high-speed digital input current limiter (CLT01-38SQ7) or the self-powered digital input current limiter (CLT03-2Q3) can provide high-speed SPI and self-powered input in support of 60V.
The ISO8200AQ introduced by ST is an electrically isolated 8-channel high-side industrial output driver with SPI interface and 20 MHz SPI interface with daisy chain, with the output current of per channel reaching 0.7A, and it is embedded with a number of protection features, including overtemperature (case and per-channel) and grounding loss, and it can sense the fast demagnetization of inductive loads with IEC 61000-4-2, IEC 61000-4-4, IEC 61000-4-5 and IEC 61000-4-8 standards.
The ST IPS4260 is a quad low-side intelligent power switch with four independent protected channels, each with a current capacity of 0.5 A. It is embedded with a variety of protection features, including grounding and VCC wire break, overvoltage and open loads. It also has a wealth of diagnostic features including overload and thermal shutdown (common and per channel) and complies with IEC 61131-2 standard.
Industrial Sensors for Position and Motion Monitoring
In industrial sensor nodes, various different position and motion monitoring sensors are adopted to detect the position and orientation of objects, or to detect the displacement and rotation of an object along one or more axes. ST manufactures a range of state-of-the-art digital sensors for different use cases, such as the time-of-flight (ToF) ranging sensor with multi-target detection capabilities. Embedded with ST's third-generation FlightSense patented technology, the sensor combines high-performance proximity and ranging sensors, multi-target range measurement and automatic smudge correction to detect the location and distance of objects. In addition, accelerometers, due to their capabilities to reference the earth's gravitational field, are often suitable for detecting the orientation of an end product or waking up a system when external movement is detected. ST's MEMS accelerometer provides high precision measurement results with very low power consumption.
ST has launched a variety of ToF ranging sensors, including VL53L3CX multi-target detection ToF ranging sensor, VL53L0XToF ranging sensor, VL53L1CB advanced multi-zone and multi-object detection ToF ranging sensor, VL53L1X ToF ranging sensor, VL53L4CD ToF high-accuracy proximity sensor, VL53L4CX ToF sensor with extended measurement range, VL6180V1 ToF proximity sensor, VL6180X proximity sensor and ambient light sensing (ALS) module, which can meet the diverse needs of customers in different applications.
ST has also released a variety of accelerometers for different applications, including the ultra-low-power and high-performance 3-axis accelerometer IIS2DH with digital output for industrial applications, digital output motion sensor using MEMS technology, high-performance and ultra-low-power 3-axis accelerometer IIS2DLPC for industrial applications, high-resolution and high stability 3-axis digital inclinometer IIS3DHHC for industrial applications, high-performance and ultra-low-power 3-axis accelerometer IIS328DQ with digital output for industrial applications, and MEMS digital output dual-motion and temperature sensor LIS2DTW12, making it possible to provide a variety of acceleration measurements for industrial applications.
ST also provides 1- or 3-point tumble sensor calibration capable of computing the offset and gain of the 3-axis sensor (accelerometers in typical cases). Previously, the MotionFX library only provided magnetometer and gyroscope calibration functions. ST has added the accelerometer calibration features to the MotionFX library, allowing end users easy customization and enhancement (MotionFX is only available in binary format, and no source code is provided), and is easy to use on each microcontroller (MotionFX can only run on STM32), making it applicable to all of ST's accelerometers, eCompass modules and iNemo inertial IMUs.
NFC technology is also suitable for the field of industrial automation. The ST25R3916/7 from ST is a high-performance NFC universal device and EMVCo reader that supports NFC initiator, NFC target, NFC reader and NFC card emulation mode where applicable. Fully compliant with EMVCo 3.0 analog and digital standards, the NFC IC is optimized for POS terminal applications to achieve the fastest EMVCo 3.0 certification cycles even in harsh conditions such as noisy LCD displays around antennas.
The ST25R3916/7 is designed for use in a wide power supply range (2.6 - 5.5 V in the range of -40°C to +105°C; 2.4 - 5.5 V in the range of -20°C to +105°C) and a wide peripheral IO voltage range (1.65 - 5.5 V). The combination of high RF output power, low power mode and wide power range make these devices ideal for NFC applications in infrastructures.
Reference Design and Sensor with High Precision and Ultra-low Power Consumption
ST also launches STEVAL-IOD04KT1 industrial smart sensor kit for industrial smart sensor applications, a reference design based on L6364W dual-IO-Link device transceiver, and is capable of assisting and accelerating the development and application of smart industrial sensors in the field of IO-Link industrial connection. The kit is composed of an STEVAL-IOD004V1 mainboard (not sold separately), STLINK-V3MINI programmer and debugger tools (including an M8-M12 industrial connector adapter and 20cm cable). The STEVAL-IOD004V1 mainboard comes with the STM32G071EB, a mainstream Arm® Cortex®-M0+ RISC core MCU with up to 64 MHz operating frequency L6364W dual-channel transceiver IC for SIO and IO-Link sensor applications. In addition, it is provided with IIS2MDC, a high-accuracy and ultra-low-power 3-axis digital output magnetometer, and ISM330DHCX, an iNEMO inertial module with machine learning core, and a finite-state machine with digital output, making it suitable for industrial applications.
The STEVAL-IOD04KT1 reference design supports IO-Link protocol stack v.1.1 and provides additional sensor connectors, status LED and M8 industry-standard connectors. It measures just 45.8 x 8.3 mm and is easily integrated into the industrial sensor housing, providing examples of relevant firmware capable of running on STM32G071EB and enabling the realization of multiple real-world use cases. The reference design is designed for smart industrial sensor applications based on IO-Link to provide easy configuration, remote monitoring, reduced wiring, advanced diagnostics and easy replacement of devices.
Conclusion
The industrial application environment towards the direction of Industry 4.0 must rely on more advanced digital IO-Link network technology and all sorts of sensors to achieve more intelligent industrial automation applications. The complete solutions and technical services launched by Arrow Electronics in cooperation with ST and other partners can accelerate the development of relevant applications. Please contact Arrow Electronics immediately for more detailed product and technical information.