NUREMBERG, Germany, April 24, 2024 – The EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) now counts a total of 77.1 million EtherCAT nodes worldwide, with 18 million added in 2023 alone. As yet another example of the strong continued growth of EtherCAT, these figures are based on EtherCAT chips sold. To mark 20 years of EtherCAT, the ETG published node figures for the first time last year, which is why they are not yet included in most market studies.
"The number of new EtherCAT nodes added in 2023 is impressive. We had assumed that chip sales would fall drastically after the end of the semiconductor crisis, as everyone had stockpiled significantly more chips than were needed in the short term," explains Martin Rostan, Executive Director of the EtherCAT Technology Group. "In addition, the market as a whole cooled down last year. Nevertheless, EtherCAT growth continues without interruption."
The figure is based on the EtherCAT chips sold through the end of 2023 and does not include chips for individual I/O terminals. For example, an I/O station with 50 EtherCAT Bus Terminals only counts as a single node. Chips with multi-protocol capability are counted according to their EtherCAT use and are included proportionally. Of course, not every chip immediately becomes an EtherCAT device, but counting chips still leads to a more accurate total than other methods.
It might be convenient to think ETG overinflated these figures for marketing purposes, but that’s not the reality. On the contrary, the counting method is comparatively cautious to ensure the figures are very accurate.
The ETG was reluctant to publish node numbers until last year. One reason was that the number of devices based on FPGAs can only be estimated, in contrast to chip sales. These used to account for a higher proportion of implementations. In the figures now published, FPGAs only account for 10%, so that a certain amount of blurring here has no significant impact on the overall figure.
The EtherCAT Technology Group's membership figures also continue to grow. With over 7,600 member companies from 74 countries, the ETG remains the world's largest fieldbus user organization. Despite the current challenging economic conditions, membership growth has even accelerated in the past 12 months, with the ETG reporting over 500 new members in 2023.
About EtherCAT Technology Group
The EtherCAT Technology Group is an organization in which key user companies from various industries and leading automation suppliers join forces to support, promote and advance the EtherCAT technology. With over 7,600 members from 74 countries the EtherCAT Technology Group has become one of the largest fieldbus organizations in the world. Founded in November 2003, it is also one of the fastest growing fieldbus organizations.
About EtherCAT®
EtherCAT is the Industrial Ethernet technology which stands for high-performance, low-cost, easy to use with a flexible topology. It was introduced in 2003 and has been an international IEC standard and a SEMI standard since 2007. EtherCAT is an open technology: anyone can implement or use it. For further information please visit: www.ethercat.org.