Wireless: Smaller Radio Chip Ups Sensitivity And Boosts Range By 50%

Sept. 15, 2005

The MICRF010, the latest addition to the QwikRadio family, features the same high performance as the previous MICRF009. However, it comes in a smaller SOIC-8 package. The MICRF010 has a frequency range of 300 to 440 MHz and a data rate up to 2.0 kbits/s (Manchester encoding), and it consumes little current—just 2.9 mA (fully operational) at 315 MHz. It also offers sensitivity typically 6 dB higher than earlier eight-pin QwikRadio receiver ICs in the company's RF product family. This increase in sensitivity equates to a 50% increase in range. The solution additionally offers quicker recovery from shutdown, typically 3 ms. This RF transceiver targets a wide variety of applications in the automotive, industrial, and consumer markets and costs as little as $1.94 each in 1000-unit quantities.

Micrel Inc.
www.micrel.com

About the Author

Dave Bursky

Technologist

Dave Bursky, the founder of New Ideas in Communications, a publication website featuring the blog column Chipnastics – the Art and Science of Chip Design. He is also president of PRN Engineering, a technical writing and market consulting company. Prior to these organizations, he spent about a dozen years as a contributing editor to Chip Design magazine. Concurrent with Chip Design, he was also the technical editorial manager at Maxim Integrated Products, and prior to Maxim, Dave spent over 35 years working as an engineer for the U.S. Army Electronics Command and an editor with Electronic Design Magazine.