The EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) now counts a total of 77.1 million EtherCAT nodes worldwide, with 18 million added in 2023. These figures are based on EtherCAT chips sold, which EtherCAT started compiling last year.
"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."
To mark 20 years of EtherCAT, ETG published node figures for the first time last year, which is why they are not yet included in most market studies. 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.
ETG said that it might be easy to think these figures are overinflated, but on the contrary, the counting method is comparatively cautious to ensure the figures are very accurate. ETG was reluctant to publish node numbers until last year. One reason it said was because the number of devices based on field programmable gate arrays (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 also continues to grow. With more than 7,600 member companies from 74 countries, ETG remains the world's largest fieldbus user organization. Membership growth has even accelerated in the past 12 months, with the ETG reporting more than 500 new members in 2023.
