New-Tech Europe Magazine | February 2018

Arrow Electronics new IOLinkChips solution reduces software development time and costs Sebastian Scholz, ARROW

First all-in-one IO-Link Master 4-port solution on the market Industry 4.0 and smart factory requirements have resulted in the integration of IO-Link connectivity (IEC 61131-9). Industrial sensors and actuators via IO-Link have enhanced reliability and robustness alongside the increased volumes of data in a factory environment and proved to be easy to maintain. On the down side the currently established design process for an IO-Link multiport Master still produces considerable non- recurring engineering (NRE) costs. Manufacturers typically implement the interface protocol on a dedicated microcontroller. The protocol stack (IP) is usually licensed from a third- party technology provider, as the development of an own protocol stack is more expensive and time consuming. This approach requires

porting the stack to a microcontroller and an IO-Link transceiver, which produces the NRE costs. In times of high cost awareness, the industry seeks for innovations that lead to savings. Therefore, Arrow Electronics introduces a solution that enables companies to quickly add IO-Link Master functionality to their products without the addition of royalties or licence fees. (the Arrow IOLinkChips.) This 4-port IO-Link Master chip solution is based on low-power ARM ® Cortex ® -M4 or STM32 microcontroller withanintegratedprotocolstack,which can control up to four IO-Link Devices via various IO-Link transceivers. It helps to simplify designs, accelerate development schedules, and to reduce software development efforts, while it guarantees proved IO-Link functionalities.

Image: ARROW IOLinkChips Program

Sebastian Scholz Solution Application Engineer Engineering Solutions Center, EMEA ARROW Central Europe GmbH

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