News Article
RFMD and Atmel unite to advance ZigBee products
RFMD's RF6575 Front End Module (FEM) which the firm says is one-third the size of competitive offerings, will feature the Atmel 128RFA1 reference design for use in smart energy applications.
RF Micro Devices, a designer and manufacturer of high-performance radio frequency components and compound semiconductor technologies, has teamed up with Atmel Corporation to deliver ZigBee solutions for a broad range of smart energy applications.
RFMD's new RF6575 ZigBee FEM has been combined with the Atmel ATmega128RFA1 single-chip solution to create the ATmega128RFA1 reference design. This high-performance solution provides public utilities and consumers more control over how they monitor and save energy.
The solution is targeted at portable battery-powered equipment, smart energy advanced metering infrastructure, high performance ZigBee, and Home Area Network (HAN) applications in the 2.4GHz to 2.5GHz ISM Band. Working together, RFMD and Atmel are addressing the need for aggressive size reductions in IEEE 802.15.4 designs with a reduced solution footprint and minimised component count.
Bob Van Buskirk, president of RFMD's Multi-Market Products Group said, "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. Large-scale smart energy projects are forecasted to grow rapidly, with particularly strong demand anticipated in low-power wireless technologies like ZigBee."
"As the smart energy market continues to grow worldwide, Atmel is excited to collaborate with companies such as RFMD to enable more battery-powered smart energy systems," said Magnus Pedersen, director of wireless solutions, Atmel Corporation. "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."
RFMD's highly integrated RF6575 features a 2.4GHz to 2.5GHz +22dBm power amplifier, Tx harmonic output filter, double-pole double—throw (DPDT) diversity switch, and a low-noise amplifier. The RF6575 is housed in a 3.5 x 3.5 x 0.5mm package that and greatly reduces discrete component requirements while minimising footprint and assembly costs. The transceiver interface is a single-port bi-directional Rx/Tx.
RFMD's ZigBee FEMs enables customers to accelerate new ZigBee products to market while reducing component count, size, cost, and power consumption. RFMD's RF6575 single-chip ZigBee FEM is specifically optimised 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 reliability.
Samples and production quantities are available now through RFMD's online store or through local RFMD sales channels.
