MANHASSET, N.Y. — AMI Semiconductor this week announced the first available silicon in compliance with the recently ratified IEEE 802.15.4 draft standard. The ZigBee Alliance bases its low-power wireless networking effort for home control and building automation applications on this air interface standard. AMIS (Pocatello, ID) has recently become a participant in that effort.
The ASTRX1 chip is a multi-channel transceiver system-on-chip that offers two-way communications at burst data rates of up to 40 Kbits/s over short ranges and targets wireless data applications It comes with frequency-range options of 868-870 MHz and 902-928 MHz, allowing operation in both the license-free European band and North American ISM band.
AMIS, which originally announced its IEEE 802.15.4 compliance in 2002, based its ASTRX1chip on the company's ASTRIC (Application Specific Transmit and Receive IC) mixed-signal, RF ASIC technology. It was jointly developed with ADCON RF Technology B.V., a division of Austrian ADCON TELEMETRY A.G.
The chip integrates all RF and baseband functions, along with interfaces for direct connection to a microcontroller and host computer. A power manager allows the developer to configure functions such as duty cycle, acquisition time and carrier frequency, thereby allowing optimization for a range of low-power applications
The radio is based on a zero-IF architecture with receiver sensitivity of -95 dBm and a single antenna will provide wireless communications over distances of up to 100 meters at transmitted power of 0 dBm. The device comes in a 64-lead, 9- x 9-mm Microlead frame package and operates from a 3.0-volt supply. A patent-pending quick-start oscillator exends battery life, while overall transmit and receive current consumption at 3.0 volts is less than 25 mA and 36 mA, respectively.
The chip will be priced at $4.50 each for 100,000 devices with production quantities by Q4 2003.
The AMIS announcement coincided with the emergence from stealth mode of Millennial Net Inc., which received $6 million in Series A funding for its miniature, low-power wireless sensor networking devices called i-Beans. That company has joined the ZigBee effort.
Air-interface agnostic, Millennial Net uses a portfolio of radio technologies, including micro-power narrowband solutions as well as IEEE 802.15.4 wireless personal area network (WPAN) components.
The financing was led by Globespan Capital Partners, Kodiak Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners
