Energy-Efficient Chip Creates Low-Cost 802.11n WLAN Home Gateways

The XWAY WAVE100 family of WLAN ICs forms the basis of wireless network access points that comply with the 802.11n draft standard for data rates up to 150 Mbit/s as well as the 802.11 b/g standard. The single-chip XWAY WAVE100 family integrates the WLAN baseband, media access controller (MAC), RF, low-noise amplifier (LNA) and power amplifier (PA) functions. Systems based on the XWAY WAVE100 family require the industry’s lowest number of external components and need no external memory. This results in a smaller bill of materials and consumption of up to 70% less board space. The XWAY WAVE100 chips are available with either SDIO or PCI interface and feature advanced power-management modes to reduce the power consumption by at least 25% compared to competing 802.11n products. The chips also offer output power at least 2 dBm higher than competing devices. Sensitivity is rated at -90.5 dBm at 11 Mbit/s (11b), -76.5 dBm at 54 Mbit/s (11g) and -73.5 dBm at 150 Mbit/s (11n 1x1). Antenna diversity is supported to improve receiver sensitivity. The XWAY WAVE100 family uses only a single 3.3-V supply, operates at 2.4 GHz, and supports both 20-MHz and 40-MHz bandwidths. Samples of the XWAY WAVE100 in a PG-VQFN-108 package are available now, with mass production starting in the fourth quarter of 2009.INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG, Neubiberg, Germany. 0(0)800 951 951 951.