Engineering precision, reliability, and flexibility in industrial systems is an ever-evolving challenge at the forefront of innovation. Highly automated industrial production lines can no longer afford to be static. Instead, today's demands for product variance and customization mean that production lines must be configurable and dynamic in response to these changes.
This week, we explore the many benefits the NAFEx88-EVB Evaluation Boards and the NAFEx388 family of analog front ends (AFEs) from NXP Semiconductors bring to precision industrial engineering as the industrial sector shifts from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0.
The NAFEx88-EVB board comprises low-leakage, high-voltage multiplexers; low-offset drift buffers; and a low-noise, low-drift PGA. The NAFEx388 AFEs embedded within these boards are crafted for versatility, allowing an engineer to toggle between various input types and ranges to accommodate a broad spectrum of sensors and input signals.
The NAFEx88-EVB evaluation board connects to the LPC54628 MCU board (Figure 1), which allows easy configuration and reading of the measurement data. These evaluation boards support voltage, current, RTD, and thermocouple measurements that allow for fast and easy testing or development of the final application (Figure 2).
Figure 1: The NXP Semiconductors NAFE13388-EVB evaluation board connects to the OM13098 (LPC54628) MCU board. (Source: NXP Semiconductors))
Figure 2: Block diagram of the NXP NAFE13388. (Source: NXP Semiconductors)
NXP’s NAFEx88-EVB Evaluation Boards provide a robust and viable solution for design engineers to spearhead existing Industry 4.0 and emerging Industry 5.0 smart factory industrial automation challenges.
These cutting-edge boards are the perfect tool for easy testing and designing for NXP’s NAFEx388 family of AFEs—an AFE family of integrated circuits (ICs) known for their measurement precision and adaptability. Within the robust and often rigid and uncompromising environments of modern industrial control systems, these AFEs are the key to providing new levels of visibility and insights into industrial control systems that require unwavering precision and high availability functionality to boost efficiency and streamline manufacturing processes.
At the core of the NAFEx88-EVB Evaluation Boards are NXP's NAFE devices that enable software-defined smart factories by offering software-configurable analog inputs for voltage, current, resistance, or temperature. The NAFEs' advanced diagnostics and anomaly detection features enable predictive maintenance, preventing downtime. Integrated signal chain components include protections, multiplexers, amplifiers, analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and digital filters. Options range from low power to high speed, with or without voltage/current excitation, all in a package with pin-to-pin compatibility (Table 1).
Table 1: The nomenclature of the NAFE family of devices.
NAFE
1
3
8
1: Low power 7: High speed
1: No VIEX 3: VIEX
1: No Cal (calibrated) 3: Factory calibrated
4: 16bit 8: 24bit
4: 4-ch (channel) 8: 8-ch (channel)
Note: The low-power version has a max data rate of 288ksps, while the high-speed version can support up to 576ksps in Normal Settling mode.
The versatility of the NAFEx388 family makes them ideal for various applications. They are at home within the modular and often complex architecture of a programmable logic controller (PLC), where they can adjust to the PLC's needs without needing hardware changes. Their robustness also makes them a natural fit for I/O modules that act as the nervous system of industrial machinery, directing the flow of information and ensuring reliability.
The NXP Semiconductors NAFEx88-EVB Evaluation Boards exemplify engineering accuracy, providing a flexible and precise testing environment for the NAFEx388 family of devices. As Industry 4.0 dovetails into Industry 5.0, highly automated industries strive for more efficient yet flexible and agile precision industrial systems. These evaluation boards empower design engineers to tackle these evolving challenges by keeping them innovative and ahead of the curve with enhanced visibility and insights into their industrial systems, helping improve product quality through accurate variance measurement. This level of precision leads to better predictive maintenance, optimized processes, and reduced downtime.
Rudy Ramos brings 35+ years of expertise in advanced electromechanical systems, robotics, pneumatics, vacuum systems, high voltage, semiconductor manufacturing, military hardware, and project management. Rudy has authored technical articles appearing in engineering websites and holds a BS in Technical Management and an MBA with a concentration in Project Management. Prior to Mouser, Rudy worked for National Semiconductor and Texas Instruments..