Atmel offers AT86RF212 for Chinese wireless market

An Atmel Corporation product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Feb 27, 2009

Atmel Corporation has released the first IEEE P802.15.4c-compliant radio-frequency (RF) transceiver, the AT86RF212, for the Chinese wireless market.

The fully integrated transceiver is said to offer a flexible combination of frequency bands and data rates.

Customers can choose the operation for the Chinese WPAN band from 779MHz to 787MHz, the European SRD band from 863MHz to 870MHz and the North American ISM band from 902MHz to 928MHz.

Direct sequence spread spectrum techniques support different modulation and data rates, including: BPSK with 20kbit/s and 40kbit/s, compliant with IEEE 802.15.4-2006; O-QPSK with 100kbit/s and 250kbit/s, compliant with IEEE 802.15.4-2006; and O-QPSK with 250kbit/s, compliant with IEEE P802.15.4c (Chinese band).

There is also an option to select a set of proprietary high-speed modes - O-QPSK with a 200kbit/s, a 400kbit/s, a 500kbit/s and a 1,000kbit/s PSDU data rate.

All of the above bands and data rates are available in one chip.

AT86RF212 is an ideal device for designing long-range and robust wireless applications.

With receiver sensitivity up to -110dBm and a programmable transmit output power up to +10dBm, AT86RF212 is said to feature a link budget of 120dB and low power consumption.

Sleep currents are down to 0.2uA, while active power consumptions are 9mA in receive and 18mA in transmit mode (at 5dBm of output power).

Security is supported by on-chip AES hardware acceleration.

Magnus Pedersen, Atmel's product marketing director of wireless solutions, said: 'The AT86RF212 represents an extremely flexible wireless platform where customers can select regional support for China, Europe and the US, all in one device.

'Data rates from 20kbit/s up to 1,000kbit/s ensure maximum flexibility on the application side.

'AT86RF212 is a perfect match for AVR Picopower microcontrollers when designing wireless solutions with ultra-low power consumption and years of battery lifetime in mind.

'With the release of our new device, our Chinese customers can enjoy the benefits of Sub-GHz IEEE 802.15.4-compliant technology in their region,' he added.

The MCU wireless technology roadmap also includes firmware support for the AVR XMEGATM, AVR32 and ARM family of microcontrollers.