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Low Power RF transceiver for Zigbee and ISM

Atmel has released a new RF transceiver for low power wireless applications. The AT86RF212 800/900MHz IEEE 802.15.4 radio has a receive mode current consumption of 9mA and 17mA in transmit mode with a power output level of 5dBm. The sleep mode current consumption is down to 0.2µA. The AT86RF212 performs extremely well, initial field test showed about a 6km link without the use of any external LNA’s or PA’s. A wide range of data rates are supported. In addition, security is handled by an AES 128bit onboard hardware engine. Atmel has created some common firmware solutions making it easier and faster to develop new applications. Take a look at the datasheets for full specs:

AT86RF212

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This entry was posted on April 1, 2009 at 5:53 pm and is filed under Low Power Products. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

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2 Comments on “Low Power RF transceiver for Zigbee and ISM”

  1. thierry37_2 Says:

    April 26, 2009 at 6:50 am

    Hi John,

    I am currently performing a survey of existing low power transceivers for the ISM band, and I found your blog very interesting.

    I have found a transceiver from Zarlink which seems to be far better than everything else I have found, and I would be happy to have your opinion on it, since i don’t understand why there is a single company offering such a product. Most likely, I have “missed” something in the specification. Here is a link to the datasheet: http://www.zarlink.com/zarlink/zl70250-datasheet-jan2008.pdf

    From what I have seen, the 2mA power consumption in both RX and TX is much beyond what other transceivers are capable of doing, and the low voltage power supply also seems to be a key advantage.

    Did I miss something ? Do you know any other transceivers with the same performances ?

    Thanks
    Thierry

    Reply
    • John Artiuch Says:

      April 29, 2009 at 5:30 pm

      Hi Thierry

      Your right 2mA in both TX and RX is good for the -10dBm output power. And since you can run it of 1.8V means that you may be able to integrate the transceiver with a low power uC without having to use additional regulators making a very efficient design. I did not see a lower power transceiver, in fact I want to make a post about this one. However, depending on your application, this may not be the right radio for you, the low power consumption usually has some impact on other device specifications. So check if things like the output power, bit rate, and receive sensitivity meet your specs.

      Thanks for the comment

      John

      Reply

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