ET1902, ET1903 | Safety over EtherCAT licence

In the interest of realising safe data communication for EtherCAT, the Safety over EtherCAT protocol has been disclosed. The protocol meets the requirements of IEC 61508 up to Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3 and of IEC 61784-3, as approved by the TÜV.

EtherCAT is used as a single-channel communication system. The transport medium is regarded as a “black channel” and not included in the safety considerations. Thus, the protocol can also be transmitted by other communication systems, backplanes, WLAN. The transfer cycle can be as short as required without affecting residual error probability. The cyclic exchange of safe data between a Safety over EtherCAT master and a Safety over EtherCAT slave is referred to as a connection that is monitored via a watchdog timer. A master can establish and monitor several connections to different slaves.

The Safety over EtherCAT frame includes a command, safe process data that are verified via a checksum (FCS), and a unique connection ID. A minimum frame with 1 byte of safe process data is 6 byte long. The maximum length is determined by the number of process data required by the slave. The protocol imposes no maximum length restriction.

The licences allow implementation of the Safety over EtherCAT protocol in a device. They are general company licences that are independent of the quantity.

Ordering information	Description
ET1902	general licence for producing Safety over EtherCAT-compliant slave devices, including – Safety over EtherCAT slave specification – test specification – introduction to the technology, 1-day seminar at Verl, Germany
ET1903	general licence for producing Safety over EtherCAT-compliant master devices, including – Safety over EtherCAT master specification – test specification – introduction to the technology, 1-day seminar at Verl, Germany