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Appendix C

An Example
Wireless Sensor
Network Transceiver
Integrated Circuit (IC)
This appendix describes a short-range, low-power 2.4-GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band transceiver designed for the emerging IEEE
802.15.4 wireless standard supporting star and mesh networking (Exhibit
1). When combined with an appropriate microcontroller (MCU), it provides a cost-effective solution for short-range datalinks and networks.
Applications include remote control and wire replacement in industrial
systems such as wireless sensor networks, factory automation and control, heating and cooling, inventory management, and radio frequency
identification (RF ID) tagging. Potential consumer applications include
wireless toys, home automation and control, human interface devices, and
remote entertainment control.
The receiver includes a low-noise amplifier, 1.0-mW PA, VCO, full spreadspectrum encoding and decoding compatible with Institute of Electrical
and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.4, and buffered transmit and
receive data packets for simplified use with low-cost microcontrollers
(Exhibit 2). The device supports 250-kbps O-QPSK data in 5.0-MHz channels, per the IEEE 802.15.4 2.4-GHz physical layer specification. A Serial
Peripheral Interface (SPI) to the MCU is used for RX and TX data transfer
and control (Exhibit 3). This allows MAC, Network, and application software to be supported by an appropriately sized MCU for the use model. In
many applications, a larger read-only memory (ROM) version of the existing MCU can be used resulting in embedded solutions.
Features include:
Power supply range: 2.0 to 3.6 V (Exhibit 4)
16 channels

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Exhibit 1. An Example Transceiver

Low power drain

Power-down modes for power conservation
RX sensitivity of -90 dBm at 1.0 percent Packet Error Rate (PER)
Full spread-spectrum encode and decode compatible with 802.15.4
Transition times from power down modes to active modes are short, to
allow for maximum power conservation (Exhibit 5).

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Exhibit 1.

(Continued)

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Exhibit 2.

Simplified Block Diagram

Exhibit 3.

Serial Peripheral Interface

Exhibit 4.

Recommended Operating Conditions

Characteristic

Symbol

Min

Typ

Max

Unit

Power supply voltage

Core supply voltage,
logic interface
Digital interface supply
Input frequency
Ambient temperature
range
Logic input voltage low

VDD
VCORE

2.0

2.7
1.8

3.6

Vdc
Vdc

VDDINT
fin
TA

2.0
2.405
-40

2.7

25

3.6
2.480
85

Vdc
GHz
C

Vil

Logic input voltage high

Vih

SPI clock rate

RF input power
Ref Osc frequency
( 40 ppm over
temperature range)

SPICLKi
Pmax
fref

70 percent
VDDINT

16 MHz only

30 percent
VDDINT
VDDINT

-20

8.0
0

MHz
dBm

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Exhibit 5. Mode Definitions and Transition Times

Mode

Definition

Transition time

Off

All IC functions Off, Leakage only.

Responds to RSTBi
Reference Oscillator Off. IC.
Responds to ATTENBi
Ref Osc On but no CLKO output.
Responds to ATTENBi and TC2
Ref Osc On with CLKO output available.
SPI active.
Ref Osc On, Receiver On, SPI should
not be accessed.
Ref Osc On, Transmitter On, SPI should
not be accessed.

23 ms to Idle

Hibernate
Doze
Idle
Receive
Transmit

RAM = random access memory.

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15 ms to Idle
3.3 ms to Idle

144 ms from Idle

160 ms from Idle