Industry 4.0 marks the fourth industrial revolution, characterized by distributed, intelligent control systems. Breaking from a past with large, centralized programmable-logic controllers, Industry 4.0 allows for highly configurable, highly modular factories to provide analog signal controls to numerous equipment and operate at a higher output than ever before. The ultra-small PLC, or Micro PLC, lies at the heart of the Industry 4.0 factory, providing high performance with ultra-low power consumption in an ultra-small package. The MAXREFDES60# is Maxim’s Micro PLC analog output card.

The MAXREFDES60# features a 16-bit, high-accuracy 0V–10V analog output with isolated power and data. The MAXREFDES60# design integrates a low-noise, fast-settling buffer (MAX9632); a 16-bit, low-power DAC (MAX5216); an ultra-high precision 4.096V voltage reference (MAX6126); 600VRMS data isolation (MAX14850); a STMicroelectronics® STM32F4 microcontroller; an FTDI USB-UART bridge; a high-efficiency DC-DC converter (MAX17552); and isolated/regulated 15V, 5.5V, and -3V power rails (MAX17498C/MAX8719/MAX1659/MAX1735). The entire system typically operates at less than 250mW and fits into a space roughly the size of a credit card. While targeted for industrial Micro PLC applications, the MAXREFDES60# can be used in any application that requires high-accuracy analog output.

Applications:

• Industrial control and automation
• Process control
• PLC