The EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) reported Apr. 3 that its members and other users have installed and are presently operating approximately 88 million EtherCAT nodes worldwide. Even if recent growth couldn’t be maintained due to global economics and the impact of chip overstocking, the organization adds this result is still impressive because an additional 11 million EtherCAT nodes were added in 2024.
ETG adds its node figures are very reliable because they’re based on actual chip sales reported by chip manufacturers to Beckhoff Automation, which invented EtherCAT. “There’s no interest in exaggerating these figures because this would add costs,” explains Martin Rostan, executive director of ETG.
EtherCAT’s technology license is included directly in the chip, so there are no additional license fees for device manufacturers and users. Beckhoff uses license revenue to finance ETG’s activities and the ecosystem surrounding the technology.
Because the number of field programmable gate array (FPGA) devices based on EtherCAT devices can only be estimated, it remains an uncertain factor when calculating the number of nodes. Likewise, multi-protocol chips are also considered, but only proportionally in relation to EtherCAT’s market share at respective manufacturers.
“We assume these implementations make up around 10% of the total number,” adds Rostan. “The real figure is probably even higher, but we’re deliberately conservative in our estimate.”
