Second-Generation RF Receiver ICs Drop Power, Extend Range

With 1/30th of the power consumption and increased range, the MICRF002 and MICRF022 single-chip RF receiver ICs represent a quantum advance over the company's earlier MICRF001 device. These additions to the QuikRadio family use that chip's architecture, which eliminates the need for manual tuning that's required in competing solutions.Sensitivity and, therefore, range, have been improved by about 6 dB in the new devices. Filtering is improved by narrowing the IF bandwidth to 0.5 MHz, changing the IF filter to five poles instead of one, and adding a two-pole baseband filter. Data rates have risen to 9600 kbps as well. The improvements in sensitivity are achieved by decreasing the noise equivalent bandwidth of the receiver. While boosting sensitivity, this modification also prohibits the use of ultra low-cost LC-based transmitters. The original MICRF001 IC offers greater tolerance for inexact, low-cost transmitters.