Atmel AT86RF212 RF Transceiver for Zigbee, IEEE 802.15.4 and ISM

Atmel has announced the availability of the AT86RF212 RF Transceiver, a low-power 800/900 MHz transceiver specially designed for low-cost IEEE 802.15.4, ZigBee, and ISM (Industrial Scientific and Medical) applications. AT86RF212 RF transceiver provides a complete radio interface between the antenna and the microcontroller. AT86RF212 comprises the analog radio part, digital modulation and demodulation including time and frequency synchronization, as well as data buffering.

Atmel AT86RF212 RF Transceiver - Block Diagram

Features of Atmel’s AT86RF212 RF transceiver:

• Fully Integrated 800/900 MHz-Band Transceiver
  • European ISM Band from 863 to 870 MHz
  • North American ISM Band from 902 to 928 MHz
• Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum with Different Modulation and Data Rates
  • BPSK with 20 and 40 kbit/s (compliant to IEEE 802.15.4-2006)
  • O-QPSK with 100 and 250 kbit/s (compliant to IEEE 802.15.4-2006)
  • O-QPSK with 200, 400, 500, and 1000 kbit/s PSDU Data Rate
• Flexible Combination of Frequency Bands and Data Rates
• Industry Leading Link Budget
  • Receiver Sensitivity up to -110 dBm
  • Programmable TX Output Power up to +10 dBm
• Low Current Consumption
  • SLEEP = 0.2 μA
  • TRX_OFF = 0.4 mA
  • RX_ON = 9 mA
  • TX_ACTIVE = 19 mA (at PTX = 5 dBm)
• Low Power Supply Voltage from 1.8 V to 3.6 V
  • Internal Voltage Regulators and Battery Monitor
• Radio Transceiver Features
  • Adjustable Receiver Sensitivity
  • Integrated TX/RX Switch, LNA, and PLL Loop Filter
  • Fast Settling PLL Supporting Frequency Hopping
  • Automatic VCO and Filter Calibration
  • Integrated 16 MHz Crystal Oscillator
  • 128 byte FIFO for Transmit/Receive
• Digital Interface
  • Registers, Frame Buffer, and AES Accessible through SPI
  • Clock Output with Configurable Rate
• IEEE 802.15.4-2006 Hardware Support
  • FCS Computation and Check
  • Clear Channel Assessment
  • Received Signal Strength Indicator, Energy Detection, and Link Quality Indication
• MAC Hardware Accelerator
  • Automatic Acknowledgement, CSMA-CA, and Retransmission
  • Automatic Frame Filtering
• AES 128 bit Hardware Accelerator (ECB and CBC modes)
• Extended Feature Set Hardware Support
  • True Random Number Generation for Security Applications
  • TX/RX Indication (External RF Front End Control)
  • MAC based Antenna Diversity
• Optimized for Low BoM Cost and Ease of Production
  • Low External Component Count: Antenna, Reference Crystal, and Bypass Capacitors
  • Excellent ESD Robustness
• Compliant to IEEE 802.15.4-2003 and IEEE 802.15.4-2006, ETSI EN 300 220-1, and FCC 47 CFR Section 15.247
• Industrial Temperature Range from -40°C to +85°C
• 32-pin Low-profile Lead-free Plastic QFN Package, 5.0 x 5.0 x 0.9 mm3

AT86RF212 transceiver offers high quality RF performance with a link budget of up to120 dB (in 800/900 MHz). The link budget is the result of the -110 dBm sensitivity offered by the device and the maximum output power of +10 dBm. The high link budget combined with the reduced path loss in the 800/900 MHz enables long range wireless communication without the use of external LNA or PA.

AT86RF212 RF Transceiver supports low data rates (20 and 40 kbit/s) of the IEEE 802.15.4-2003 standard and provides optional data rates (100 and 250 kbit/s) using O-QPSK, according to IEEE 802.15.4-2006. AT86RF212 RF Transceiver can also supports proprietary High Data Rates Modes up to 1000 kbit/s

The current consumption of AT86RF212 Transceiver in receive mode is 9 mA and in transmit is 17 mA at a power output level of 5 dBm. The sleep mode current consumption is down to 0.2 uA. Low-dropout voltage regulators provide the analog and digital 1.8 V power supply. Control registers retain their settings in sleep mode when the regulators are turned off. The RX and TX signal processing paths are optimized for low power consumption. AT86RF212’s low current consumption in both active and sleep mode makes this device suitable for battery operated devices.

Security of AT86RF212 Transceiver is handled by an AES 128-bit hardware engine which can be accessed in parallel to all PHY operational transactions and states using the SPI interface.

Atmel AT86RF212 RF Transceiver - Application Circuit (Extended Feature)

Supporting application developers, a set of firmware and applications notes has been prepared for AT86RF212,  including low-level drivers for simple wireless applications, IEEE 802.15.4 MAC for standard compliant solutions as well as solutions for ZigBee.

The samples of AT86RF212 RF Transceiver are available now in 5mm x 5 mm QFN32 packages (Pb-free). Pricing of AT86RF212 RF Transceiver starts at US $3.21 each in 10k volume quantities.

More information about AT86RF212 RF Transceiver  can be found at Atmel website.