Powerline Communication System-on-Chip in 180 nm Harsh Environment SOI Technology

authored by: Tobias Stuckenberg, Malte Rücker, Niklas Rother, Rochus Nowosielski, Frank Wiese, Holger Blume
Abstract: Broadband powerline communication systems using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) can utilize existing power lines to transmit data packets alongside power distribution. Recent standards focus towards high speed multi-media in-house streaming. With improvements towards robustness and throughput new standards increase the speed and reliability of in-house powerline systems. A very different approach is the use of powerline communication systems in a deep drilling environment where temperatures of more than 150°C and pressure levels up to 30 000 psi are present. Typical applications in this environment usually do not require more than several kbit/ys per node and are more reliant on a stable and continuous connection. Here, a powerline communication system can reduce the amount of wiring needed and increase communication robustness significantly. This work provides a harsh environment suitable, reliable and standard compliant communication ASIC that is manufactured in XFAB 180 nm Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) technology allowing operating temperatures of up to 175°C. The die size is 5.25 mm x 5.25 mm and contains a complete Homeplug 1.0 communication stack with an environment for boot, interfacing and debugging. The data rate is as high as 6.1 Mbit/s using the fastest transmission mode and reaches the theoretical maximum of 0.55 Mbit/s in the robust OFDM (ROBO) mode which is of particular interest for harsh environment applications. To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first OFDM-based powerline communication ASIC which is particularly designed for harsh environment.
Organisation(s): Architectures and Systems Section
External Organisation(s): Baker Hughes Drilling Services
Type: Conference contribution
Publication date: 2021
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality, Energy Engineering and Power Technology, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hardware and Architecture
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.15488/13273 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1109/NorCAS53631.2021.9599855 (Access: Closed)