Silicon Labs Simplifies Power over Ethernet Deployment

Silicon Laboratories Inc., a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, today introduced a single-port Power over Ethernet controller that brings economical “plug-and-play” simplicity to embedded power sourcing equipment designs. The new Si3462 controller eases the development of PSE endpoints just as residential gateways, set-top boxes, fiber-optic media converters, and surveillance and security systems that connect to a wide variety of powered devices including VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phones, security cameras, keypads, network attached storage and WiFi access points.

Powered devices continue to proliferate in small office/home office and small-to-medium business markets, driving the need for easy-to-use single-port embedded PoE/PoE+ PSE solutions to enable these end devices. With the rising popularity of the higher power IEEE 802.3at PoE+ standard and the need to support PD applications that consume up to 30 watts, developers require PSE controllers that offer flexible power measurement and monitoring capabilities, standards-compliance and no interoperability hassles.

The Si3462 controller provides a variety of easy-to-use, pin-selectable operating modes that enable the flexible use of the device in both PSE endpoint and midspan applications. Even though primarily designed for PSE endpoint products, the Si3462 controller as well easily supports midspan power injectors widely used in small business and enterprise local area networks. Midspans enable a remote PD to be powered by a legacy Ethernet switch without PSE capability by inserting the midspan between the PSE endpoint and the PD.