Silicon Labs provides Müller-electronic with the FG28 Sub-GHz dual-mode low-power Bluetooth SoC solution, helping them achieve the goal of extending battery life for the next generation of smart water meters. As Müller-electronic’s smart metering products require a multifunctional platform for future development and need to scale with increasing demand without significantly raising costs, Silicon Labs’ FG28 product line naturally became the best choice.Explore more about this success case:https://cn.silabs.com/applications/case-studies/muller-electronic-and-fg28-enable-next-gen-smart-water-meters
Design Challenges
Müller-electronic aimed to transition the next generation of wireless water meters from a multi-chip design to a SoC-based design to meet their needs for GPIO flexibility, BOM simplification, and additional energy savings.
Solution
Silicon Labs’ FG28 dual-band Sub-GHz + 2.4 GHz low-power Bluetooth SoC provides maximum flexibility, performance, and power efficiency, enabling Müller-electronic to achieve its aggressive current consumption goals and extend battery life.
The FG28 SoC is an ideal dual-band Sub-GHz + 2.4 GHz low-power Bluetooth SoC solution for IoT applications such as smart home, security, lighting, building automation, and metering. This dual-band solution combines high-performance Sub-GHz radio, providing long-range capabilities and Bluetooth radio, enhancing design flexibility.
The large memory space and increased IO count of the FG28 contribute to achieving high design integration, and its accompanying Secure Vault™ IoT security technology provides flexibility in security protection to meet and exceed the security levels required by these products. Developers can also benefit from the additional memory available on the FG28 through simplified code development without extensive optimization, making testing much easier.
Development Outcomes
The transition to a design based on the FG28 SoC ultimately led to a significant reduction in the bill of materials (BOM)— compared to the previous dual-chip solution, the FG28-based design reduced the number of required components by approximately 12 parts by minimizing the use of decoupling capacitors. This not only simplified procurement but also reduced costs, saving about 30 euro cents per unit, which is a significant figure for high-volume, low-cost products.
In fact, the greatest impact came from the increased memory available on the FG28. It supports the inclusion of a large number of complex test units in software without the need for optimizing compiler switches. This avoids unexpected behavior in low-power algorithms, accelerating development and testing speed by about 20%, and eliminates the need to exclude system software components to free up space for testing functionality.
The strong relationship established between Müller-electronic and Silicon Labs has proven fruitful and will continue to strengthen. Müller-electronic’s recent adoption of the FG28 SoC has resulted in a new generation of wireless water meters with higher system integration, fewer BOM components, and longer battery life, once again demonstrating how innovative SoC solutions drive advancements in smart metering technology and pave the way for the future development of the IoT industry.
Explore the FG28 SoC solution:https://cn.silabs.com/wireless/proprietary/efr32fg28-sub-ghz-wireless-socs
Adapting to Evolving Precision Smart Water Meter Demands
Müller-electronic is a leading designer and manufacturer of smart metering devices, offering a wide range of smart meter solutions. The company is also a long-term customer of Silicon Labs, with some of its previous devices based on the Si446x EZRadioPRO® transceiver. However, to achieve innovative developments in its smart water meter products, Müller-electronic required higher flexibility and performance. To upgrade product performance, system integration became key, so both development teams prioritized more GPIO options, LCD controllers, and simplified single-chip packaging. In addition to easier-to-manufacture packaging forms and better performance, power management was also emphasized. SoC-based designs will help address both issues—integrated devices will reduce the number of required devices, while the architecture will consider low power: 1200 mAh batteries can last up to 7 years.
The company is also quite familiar with Silicon Labs’ development platform, especially Simplicity Studio, which greatly accelerates the firmware development process, while existing libraries and familiar toolchains facilitate a smooth transition. Although new options like RAIL require some initial learning, the overall development speed benefits from the accumulated knowledge of previous generations. The addition of the security engine further simplifies future use and migration, enhancing device security.
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