3.3.3 PLC Coupling Circuitry Description

FCC 47 CFR Part 15.107 defines the 9-490 kHz frequency band for PLC in North America and Canada. The band from 148.5 to 490 kHz is not yet regulated in Europe.

The European regulations concerning Power Line Communications are described in CENELEC standard EN 50065. This standard applies to electrical equipment using signals in the frequency range 3 kHz to 148.5 kHz to transmit information on low voltage electrical systems, either on the public supply system or within installations in consumers' premises. The following figure shows the different frequency bands allocated to the different applications.

The PL460-EK board communicates in several band frequencies. The use of frequencies in these bands are restricted to consumer use, for example, for end-user applications such as industrial applications.

Microchip has designed several coupling reference designs for these band frequencies with variations in the BOM cost and the communication performance.

The PL460-EK board is assembled with a multiband design:

• Main transmission branch

  • FCC

• Auxiliary transmission branch

  • CENELEC A-Band

The FCC band design is assembled in the Main transmission branch and CENELEC A-Band in the Auxiliary transmission branch. The goal is to provide a cost-optimized fully-featured design according to the G3-PLC and PRIME requirements. Still, the PL460-EK board is designed to allow using other designs by changing the corresponding components and firmware configurations.

Table 3-8 summarizes all the configurations that can support the PL460.

In a multiband design, a configuration of the main transmission branch can be combined with any other of the auxiliary transmission branch.

The following sections describe the purpose of every sub-circuit assembled in the PL460-EK board.