RF&WirelessBlog

IMEC Technology Forum: Impulse-radio UWB radio succesfully developed

At the IMEC Technology Forum earlier this week, Kathleen Philips presented the results of a project to create an impulse radio that uses the ultra wide band spectrum. Philips foresees this technology, which uses minimal power, will be used in wireless headphones of the future. The IMEC- and Holst Centre-developed impulse radio operates in the 6-10GHz band, extends a smartphone’s battery life by 3x compared to a comparable Bluetooth solution and does not suffer from fading or interference.

WirelessUSB radio-on-a-chip allows a year of battery life for peripherals

Cypress Semiconductor’s latest 2.4-GHz WirelessUSB Radio-on-a-Chip, the WirelessUSB NL, boasts low power consumption for wireless keyboards, mice, remote controls and other human interface devices. The device features very low active and standby current (less than 1 uA), enabling battery life to be more than a year for normal mouse usage.

LPRS wireless modules used to protect museum art and collections from environmental damage

Meaco has designed LPRS’s wireless modules into its environmental monitoring systems for protecting antiquities in museums, art galleries, castles, libraries and stately homes around the UK. These devices monitor temperature and humidity as well as lux and UV and are used in a variety of applications. LPRS is supplying Meaco with the Circuit Design CDP-TX05M-R transmitter and CDP-RX03BS-R receiver modules for Meaco’s monitoring systems, which are used as far afield as Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and Edinburgh Castle.

First of Freescale's MC1323x ZigBee family in production – easing migration from IR to RF

The first device in Freescale Semiconductor's MC1323x family is now available in production quantities – the MC13233C. Freescale says the ultra-low-power MC13233C includes all of the functionality needed for ZigBee remote controls, keyboards, touchpads, mice, 3D glasses and many other applications outside of the consumer market, such as the residential, industrial and medical markets.

Silicon Labs launches single-chip wireless remote control with 27MHz to 960MHz operating frequency range

Silicon Laboratories has introduced a wireless IC designed to reduce the cost and complexity of one-way wireless links used in applications such as remote keyless entry (RKE), garage door openers, building automation and security devices, while still ensuring one-way link integrity.

ASICs an advantage for miniature, low power wireless modules

Shortlink, the Swedish manufacturer of wireless M2M modules, has been divulging details of its latest developments in miniature, ultra low power radio modules for use in short-range applications such as in-ear hearing aids. The modules are custom-designed, but each incorporate an RF ASIC based on a portfolio of standard CMOS building blocks, to enable rapid and efficient product development.

Energy Micro takes on challenge of RF power reduction

It is an often-repeated mantra that the pressures on RF products are for smaller size, lower cost and reduced power consumption. But while the first two of these seem to broadly move in the required direction over time, following the RF version of Moore's Law, the truth is that although RF transceiver subsystems have become more sophisticated and more highly integrated over the past 5 years, no real improvement in power consumption has been achieved.

Now Energy Micro, founded in 2007 by former Chipcon CEO and co-founder Geir Førre, has pledged to disrupt this trend in 2011 by launching devices that equal present standards of integration while offering energy consumption figures four times lower than those available today. This is a feat that the young company has already achieved with its range of low-energy ARM Cortex-M3 based microcontrollers, and Førre sees no obstacle to repeating this in the RF domain.

Shortlink RF transceiver module covers telemetry and automation applications

Shortlink's SL4300-B1 wireless transceiver module has been designed for short range communications applications in the standard ISM/SRD band of 433MHz. It offers a quick and easy way to integrate powerful wireless functionality to replace cables at an economical cost, for applications such as telemetry, sensor networks, remote control, cable replacement, home and building automation. Further uses include automatic meter reading, consumer electronics, barcode scanners, meshnet, alarm and security systems, two-way remote key entry, and industrial monitoring and control.

EnOcean announces ASIC modules designed for energy harvesting

EnOcean has announced its third generation suite of energy-harvesting wireless modules, based upon the Dolphin ASIC, a platform supporting self-powered two-way wireless communications. The modules also feature very low power sleep modes, and the ability to self-power actuators such as water valves and air vents.

Dolphin employs the EnOcean Alliance wireless standard for wireless sensor networks. Because wireless building automation devices spend much of their time asleep, Dolphin-based modules have been designed to consume only 200nA when in sleep mode, meaning that they consume only around 10% of the power required by conventional low power radio modules. The platform allows OEMs to create energy-autonomous controls able to draw power from multiple ambient sources, such as solar, linear motion and thermal energies.