Microwave Engineering Europe - March 2009 - (Page 29) PRODUCTS 29 Embedded radio and MCU combination optimized to reduce power and lower system cost The EZRadioPRO™ radio family and C8051F9xx series low-power MCU combination from Silicon Laboratories enable customers to develop embedded wireless solutions that operate from a single cell battery. The EZRadioPRO embedded radio family delivers a single-chip output power of up to +20 dBm and industry leading sensitivity of -118 dBm, providing a best-in-class link budget that substantially increases communication range while minimizing power consumption. High performance coupled with comprehensive built-in system features, such as packet handling and antenna diversity, allows the devices to achieve the lowest overall system cost for frequencies from 240 to 960 MHz. When paired with the company’s low-power, low-voltage C8051F9xx MCU family, customers can develop embedded wireless solutions that operate from a single cell battery, reducing cost and size in consumer and industrial applications such as remote meter reading, home security, remote keyless entry and building automation. Most embedded wireless applications require a high performance RF transceiver, receiver or transmitter for data communication with an embedded MCU for system control and data processing. These applications demand the best possible reach, robust performance and the longest possible battery life. Often, these types of applications are implemented in noisy environments that can degrade the wireless performance. By maximizing the wireless link budget, including advanced radio features like antenna diversity and implementing key radio features digitally using an embedded DSP, high performance can be achieved under the most difficult operating environments. The EZRadioPRO transceiver, receiver and transmitter integrate embedded antenna diversity capabilities on chip to automatically choose the most effective antenna. In addition the devices support built-in packet handling, wakeup timers, temperature sensing and low-battery detection. Competing solutions depend on an external controller to offer similar functionally, increasing cost and software complexity while negatively impacting battery life. The embedded radio family’s built-in, low-noise amplifier (LNA) and power amplifier (PA) eliminate the need for expensive external components used in many demanding applications, resulting in BOM savings. Further customers have the flexibility of being able to change key radio parameters via register settings, enabling an optimal tradeoff between performance and battery life customized for their application and environment. The C8051F9xx family of low-voltage, low-power MCUs, capable of operating down to 0.9 V, integrates a dc-dc controller able to supply up to 65 mW of power to the MCU and EZRadioPRO device, enabling a complete single-cell battery powered radio/MCU. At no cost to the customer, a complete professional wireless development suite (WDS) is provided that includes reference code, schematics and Gerbers as wells as an easy-to-use GUI to help designers configure the radio for quick lab evaluations. www.mwee.com/214502359 Mobile radio network walk test solution simplifies quality assurance for GSM, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA and HSDPA The ROMES2GO walk test solution from Rohde & Schwarz makes it easy to perform on-site coverage measurements of mobile radio networks. The instrument supports GSM, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA and HSDPA. For comprehensive error analyses, it also automatically stores error events that occur before the measurement starts. Further expanding the company’s product portfolio of drive test systems, ROMES2GO is implemented in specific test mobile phones that are commercially available. In mobile phone mode, network operators can simultaneously analyze data and voice transmission in the mobile phone network under test. Even lengthy tests (i.e., greater than 100 hours) can be easily performed using the costefficient solution. To preserve and record error events that occur before the start of a measurement, a ring buffer has been integrated into the test solution. If a measurement is saved, the data in the ring buffer is automatically stored in the test file. In this way, no measurement results are lost. The drive test system simplifies everyday work as common measurement tasks are preconfigured. During measurement, key parameters such as channel, level and quality-of-service value are graphically displayed on the mobile phone. If additional information needs to be included, the engineer can enter a comment on site and the comment is linked to the measurement along with a time stamp. For indoor measurements, results are automatically created along the walked route; when used outdoors, a GPS link can be set up. When a test has been completed, ROMES2GO automatically transmits the data to an FTP server. The results are evaluated using the wellestablished ROMES software or suitable third-party tools. www.mwee.com/214502743 ● Microwave Engineering Europe ● March 2009 www.mwee.com http://www.mwee.com/214502359 http://www.mwee.com/214502743 http://www.mwee.com
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