MAXREFDES79#: IO-Link 4-Port Master

IO-Link is the first open, field bus agnostic, low-cost, point-to-point serial communication protocol, used for communicating with sensors and actuators, that has been adopted as an international standard (IEC 61131-9).1 IO-Link finally standardizes interoperability of industrial equipment from all over the world. IO-Link can function directly from the PLC or can be converted from all standard field busses to IO-Link through a gateway, quickly making it the defacto standard for universally communicating with smart sensors and actuators.

IO-Link is a Single-drop Digital Communication Interface (SDCI), which means there can only be one sensor or actuator per port. The 3-wire protocol is also backwards compatible with binary sensors and actuators that use standard input output (SIO). IO-Link Device Descriptor (IODD) files completely define the device and eliminate manual parameterization.

Maxim Integrated and TEConcept collaborated in designing the MAXREFDES79# IO-Link master using TEConcept’s IO-Link master stack. It is a version 1.1-compliant IO-Link master reference design. The MAXREFDES79# design consists of four industry-standard Maxim Integrated IO-Link master transceivers (MAX14824), two efficient industrial step-down converters (MAX15062B, MAX17552), and an STMicroelectronics 32-bit ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller (STM32F4) utilizing TEConcept’s TC Tool software and IO-Link master stack.