The drive for more complex Internet of Things (IoT) style devices is putting more demands on wireless solutions. Freescale’s MCR20AVHM 802.15.4 transceiver can handle two personal area networks (PANs) without packet loss. It can be used with Freescale’s 32-bit Kinetis microcontroller to support wireless solutions built around Thread, ZigBee, and proprietary solutions.
The transceiver supports the 2.4 GHz frequency ISM band. It has an SPI interface with on-chip AES encryption hardware and a true random number generator (TRNG). The -102 dBm receive sensitivity and up to +8 dBm programmable output power allows a longer operational range. The typical power requirements are 17 mA for transmit at 0 dBm and 19 mA for receive. It supports two antennas.
The dual-PAN support allows the host to connect to two wireless networks at the same time using different protocol stacks. It has a built-in high-resolution receive strength signal indicator (RSSI).
The MCR20AVHM is available on a Freedom Development Platform board (Fig. 1) that is compatible with Arduino.
The chip can use 1.8 to 3.6 V power supplies. Its operating temperature range is -40° C to 105° C and it is available in a 5-mm by 5-mm, 32-pin LGA package. SMAC, Thread, and ZigBee protocol stacks support the Freescale MQX RTOS as well as Freescale middleware built on the Kinetis SDK.