Low Power RF System-On-Chip features integrated DSP.
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Press Release Summary:
Tailored for portable wireless communication products, icycom integrates 900 MHz low-power RF transceiver; 32-bit, 150 μA/MHz dual-MAC DSP RISC core, and 96 KB SRAM. It also offers range of peripherals on same chip and operates from 1 V supply. Compatible with single alkaline cell, product consumes 3.5 mA in receiving active mode, 40 mA for 10 dBm transmission, and 1.1 μA in standby with RTC running.
Original Press Release:
CSEM Introduces a Low Power RF SoC with an Integrated DSP Processor
Neuchatel - CSEM has developed a unique System-on-Chip (SoC) tailored for portable wireless communication products including an integrated DSP processor and opti-mized power management to maximize battery life .
Embedded wireless systems such as Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and Body Area Networks (BAN) require miniaturized integrated solutions with minimized energy consumption for maximum autonomy with reduced-size batteries. While battery life is partly driven by the radio transmission, it is also highly dependent on sensor data acquisition and associated local processing. Efficient local digital signal proc-essing (DSP) would allow compression of the sensor information and thereby reduction of the energy consumption associated to the transmission of the resulting information. Unfortunately the RF SoCs available today do not have the required computing power, while external DSPs are not optimized for ultra-low power consumption.
CSEM has developed an RF system-on-chip (SoC) integrating a 900MHz low power RF transceiver, a 32-bit 150μA/MHz dual-MAC DSP RISC core with 96kibytes of SRAM. Named "icycom", the SoC runs off a 1V supply, compatible with a single alkaline cell, and is optimized for long battery life, consuming 3.5mA in receiving active mode, 40mA for 10dBm transmission and 1.1μA in standby with RTC running. Additional peripherals such as a voltage-divider to also address lithium batteries, ADC, SPI, I2C, UART, I2S, etc, are all included on the same chip, resulting in a compact system solution.
The icycom SoC opens up the way to ultra-compact, autonomous wireless systems such as WSN, BAN and others. Samples and development kits are available.
CSEM will present their results at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco in February.
Pictures available on: ftp.csem.ch/outgoing/ftpcju/icycom/csem-icycom.zip
About CSEM
CSEM - an innovation center
CSEM, Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique SA (Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology), founded in 1984, is a private research and development center specializing in microtechnology, nanotechnology, microelectronics, system engineering and communications technologies. It offers its customers and industry partners tailor-made innovative solutions based on its knowledge of the market and technological expertise derived from applied research. Having founded several start-ups, it contributes to developing Switzerland as an industrial location. To date, a total of 29 such enterprises, with more than 500 em-ployees, have been launched by CSEM. In addition, CSEM has acquired an international dimension by establishing a presence in the Arab Emirates in 2005, and in Brazil in 2007, in order to speed up and encourage the transfer of knowledge and new technolo-gies beneficial to the local economy of these countries.
Approximately 400 highly qualified and specialized employees from various scientific and technical disciplines work for CSEM in Neuchtel, Zurich, Basel, Alpnach and Landquart. They represent more than 30 nationalities and constitute the basis of the com-pany's creativity, dynamism and innovation potential.
Further information is available at www.csem.ch.
Additional information
CSEM
Simon Gray
Head of Marketing & Sales, Integrated & Wireless Systems
Tel. +41 32 720 5080
Fax +41 32 720 5763
E-mail: simon.gray@csem.ch
Media contacts
CSEM
Claudine Julia-Schmutz Marketing Communication
Tel. +41 32 720 5694 e-mail: claudine.julia-schmutz@csem.ch
CSEM
Florence Amez-Droz Corporate Communications
Tel. +41 32 720 5203 e-mail: florence.amez-droz@csem.ch
