Design of a Single Pair Ethernet System with Power over Data Lines (SPoE)

This article presents a reference design for a Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) system with Power over Data Lines (PoDL), developed by Würth Elektronik. SPE is gaining traction in industrial networking due ... Read original →

Würth Elektronik’s SPE + PoDL reference design is catalyzing a structural shift in industrial networking. Upstream, semiconductor firms like NXP and Microchip will integrate PHYs with power management ICs, while magnetics suppliers face tighter EMC and miniaturization demands. Regulatory risks are rising: although IEC 63171-6 standardizes connectors, EU’s NIS2 Directive may inflate compliance costs, pushing SMEs toward pre-certified modules. Competitors like TE Connectivity and HARTING will likely bundle SPE into edge or PLC ecosystems rather than compete on hardware alone. Within 18 months, SPE+PoDL will dominate sensor-layer deployments in smart factories—especially in Taiwan, China, Germany, and North America—fueling demand for ultra-compact, low-power embedded nodes and accelerating SoC-level convergence of MCUs and communication cores.