IN Brief:
- Cirrus Logic is developing a new metrology analogue front-end platform in Scotland.
- Target applications include smart meters, EV chargers, energy storage, data-centre DC systems, and grid monitoring.
- The project expands Edinburgh engineering activity and University of Strathclyde research collaboration through 2028.
Cirrus Logic has received a Scottish Enterprise research and development grant to advance a smart-energy metrology platform and expand engineering activity in Edinburgh.
The project centres on a metrology analogue front end designed to provide high-accuracy electrical measurement and associated calculations. Target applications include residential, commercial, and industrial power metering, electric-vehicle charging, energy storage, grid monitoring, and direct-current measurement within data centres.
Although the value of the grant has not been disclosed, the programme is scheduled to continue through 2028 and will support investment in engineering talent, research capability, infrastructure, intellectual property, and advanced feature design.
Cirrus Logic’s Edinburgh operation is its largest engineering centre outside the United States. Together with its predecessor, Wolfson Microelectronics, the company has maintained an engineering presence in Scotland for more than 40 years, covering architecture, circuit design, testing, and product delivery.
Collaboration with the University of Strathclyde’s Institute for Energy and Environment will also expand through research on electricity management and optimisation for utilities and infrastructure operators. Academic power-system expertise will inform the practical requirements placed on measurement components operating within increasingly active energy networks.
An analogue front end forms the interface between electrical quantities and the digital processing used for billing, monitoring, protection, or control. Typical functions include signal conditioning, amplification, filtering, analogue-to-digital conversion, reference circuitry, and channels designed to operate with current and voltage sensors.
Measurement accuracy underpins flexible power systems
Electricity metrology now extends well beyond conventional revenue meters. EV chargers must measure delivered energy accurately, storage systems require dependable bidirectional readings, and data-centre DC architectures need measurements across converters, distribution buses, racks, and backup systems.
Grid monitoring introduces additional performance requirements because equipment may need to capture small changes across a wide dynamic range while retaining accuracy under varying temperature, frequency, harmonics, and phase displacement. Power-electronic generation and loads also produce distorted waveforms that can challenge metrology systems designed around stable sinusoidal conditions.
Accuracy depends on the complete signal chain rather than the converter alone. Sensor tolerance, printed-circuit-board layout, isolation, electromagnetic compatibility, thermal drift, calibration, firmware, and mechanical design all contribute to the final measurement uncertainty.
Higher sampling performance and digital processing can provide more detailed information on power quality and transient behaviour, provided the analogue input preserves signal integrity. Poor conditioning or noise at the front end cannot be corrected fully by later software.
The alignment of DLMS and OpenADR grid-edge standards addresses how devices exchange metering data and flexibility instructions. The quality of those communications ultimately depends on the accuracy and stability of the electrical measurements entering the system.
EV charging combines certified billing, local load management, demand response, and communication with operator platforms. Small measurement errors can affect customer billing, while systematic inaccuracies across large fleets may distort aggregated flexibility or settlement data.
Battery systems operate bidirectionally and across rapidly changing power levels, requiring accurate distinction between charging, discharging, auxiliary consumption, and conversion losses. Those measurements must align with inverter telemetry, state-of-charge estimates, grid instructions, and market settlement.
Data-centre DC metrology presents another developing application as higher-power computing loads encourage operators to reduce conversion stages within parts of the electrical architecture. Measurements are needed to quantify losses, manage loading, confirm redundancy, and allocate energy use across dense power-distribution systems.
By combining semiconductor development with power-system research, the Strathclyde collaboration can translate utility and infrastructure requirements into specifications covering dynamic range, communications, calibration, and environmental performance. Cirrus Logic’s university programmes, scholarships, internships, and research partnerships also support the engineering workforce needed for mixed-signal design.
Software, automation, and communications are central to smart-energy systems, but their decisions remain constrained by the accuracy of the underlying electrical data. The development programme running through 2028 will determine how Cirrus Logic’s mixed-signal expertise can be applied to regulated meters, charging equipment, storage, data centres, and grid-monitoring platforms.
