SAN JOSE, CA- December 16, 2002 -7 Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) announced today the availability of a UHF RF wireless on/off key transceiver chip set based on Atmel's AT86RF401 Smart RF microtransmitter and its T5744 receiver. The microtransmitter's powerful AVR-based core enables it to be paired with the T5744 receiver and supervise 2-way on/off keyed communications in the unlicensed ISM band (300MHz -- 450MHz). Both chips minimize external component count through high levels of integration. As a result, with +6dB of output power on the microtransmitter and --110dB of input sensitivity on the receiver, a high performance, low-cost, 2- way RF wireless system can be realized. These features make this chip set ideally suited for low- cost, low-data rate, 2-way remote sensing applications, such as temperature, pressure, and motion as well as remote control applications, like home appliance and lighting, energy management and monitoring, and security systems.
The AT86RF401 Smart RF microtransmitter contains an AVR microcomputer with 2KB of Flash program memory and 128B of EEPROM data memory. Its Flash can be updated easily and quickly with the customer's software anytime before, during or after the assembly process, using its built-in In System Programmability (ISP) capabilities. This eliminates costly obsolescence associated with masked ROM solutions and moves the product to market swiftly.
The microtransmitter's integrated PLL-based RF transmitter is intricately linked to the AVR microcomputer core. This places many key RF parameters, including VCO tuning, output power, and carrier modulation, under software control. Control and flexibility like this enables the user to quickly and easily optimize a design.
The T5744 receiver offers high sensitivity at data rates to 10KHz and has an integrated Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) output to enable signal strength determination of the received signals. Its architecture supports all kinds of modulation schemes, including Manchester, Biphase and most Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) protocols.
The chip set is available now and is intended to minimize PCB area with space saving TSSOP20 (TX) and SO20/SSO20 (RX) packages. Chip set pricing starts at $3.23 per pair in quantities of 10,000 units.
An evaluation kit featuring a fully operational system including a receiver board and transmitter board, samples of the AT86RF401 and T5744 chip set, and the necessary tools to enable the development of a 2-way RF wireless system is available Now. The kit can be ordered by contacting any Atmel distributor. Reference part number ATAK4015744U/E, where the U suffix indicates a 315MHz system and the E suffix indicates a 433.92MHz system. The kit sells for $279.
