1 April 2011

RFMD and Atmel collaborate on ZigBee solutions for smart-energy applications

RF Micro Devices Inc of Greensboro, NC, USA has teamed with semiconductor manufacturer Atmel Corp of San Jose, CA, which provides microcontroller and touch solutions, to deliver ZigBee solutions for a broad range of smart-energy applications.

RFMD’s newly introduced RF6575 ZigBee front-end module (FEM) has been combined with Atmel’s ATmega128RFA1 single-chip solution to create the ATmega128RFA1 reference design. RFMD says that the ZigBee-based solution can provide public utilities and consumers more control over how they monitor and save energy. It is targeted at portable battery-powered equipment, smart-energy advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), high-performance ZigBee, and home-area network (HAN) applications in the 2.4–2.5GHz ISM band. Working together, RFMD and Atmel are targeting the need for aggressive size reductions in IEEE 802.15.4 designs with a reduced solution footprint and minimized component count.

“RFMD and Atmel are leveraging each other’s expertise to deliver high-performance, highly integrated solutions that reduce design cycle times, lower customer costs, and accelerate product time-to-market,” says Bob Van Buskirk, president of RFMD’s Multi-Market Products Group (MPG). “Large-scale smart-energy projects are forecasted to grow rapidly, with particularly strong demand anticipated in low-power wireless technologies like ZigBee,” he adds.

“The RFMD front-end module combined with the Atmel ATmega128RFA1 single-chip solution offers smart-energy providers better battery life with their lower-power consumption designs without comprising performance,” says Magnus Pedersen, Atmel’s director of wireless solutions.

RFMD’s highly integrated RF6575 features a 2.4–2.5GHz +22dBm power amplifier, Tx harmonic output filter, double-pole double-throw (DPDT) diversity switch, and a low-noise amplifier (LNA). It is housed in a 3.5mm x 3.5mm x 0.5mm package that is one-third the size of competitive offerings, RFMD claims, greatly reducing discrete component requirements while minimizing footprint and assembly costs. The transceiver interface is a single-port bi-directional Rx/Tx.

RFMD says that its expanding portfolio of ZigBee FEMs enables users to accelerate new ZigBee products to market while reducing component count, size, cost, and power consumption. The RF6575 single-chip ZigBee FEM is specifically optimized for smart-energy applications including smart meters, energy usage control, or ‘demand response’ and HAN devices. Other RFMD ZigBee FEMs are designed for industrial applications and wireless sensing and control applications requiring low power consumption, high performance and proven reliability.

Tags: RFMD Atmel ZigBee Smart-energy

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Visit: www.atmel.com

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