Sub-GHz (that is, frequencies below 1 GHz, 27 MHz to 960 MHz) is one of the important areas of wireless communication, including consumer electronics, automotive, industrial, and medical, such as: TV/STB/VCR/DVD/audio device remote control , high-end wireless toys, garage door remote control switch, lighting control, door remote control switch, wireless POS machine, wireless health monitor, wearable monitoring equipment, etc., are widely used. Silicon Laboratories, a high-performance analog and mixed-signal IC manufacturer, today announced the EZRADIo wireless IC solution Si4010, which dramatically reduces the use of unidirectional wireless links in consumer, industrial control and automation systems. Cost and complexity.
Remote control solution challenges and product features
The new Si4010 system single-chip RF transmitter (below) allows developers to optimize the design of remote door locks, garage door openers, remote controls, building automation systems and security devices to achieve maximum performance at the lowest system cost At the same time, it can ensure a complete unidirectional link.
“The challenges of remote control solutions generally represent higher cost-effective requirements, transmission distance, battery life, PCB area, etc. Traditional SAW (surface acoustic wave) based transmitters are multi-discrete devices that support only single frequency and single OOK modulation. Mode. In addition to performance instability, sensitivity is affected by device performance, and product productivity is low," said Dr. Yijing Lawrence Der, senior product manager for embedded mixed-signal wireless product line at Silicon Laboratories. The Si4010 RF transmitter is a single-chip remote control IC. Only a single external bypass capacitor, a printed circuit board, a battery and a housing with buttons complete the wireless remote control. The Si4010 features a patented, highly reliable crystalless oscillator architecture that eliminates the need for an external clock source and is immune to shock and vibration. Its carrier frequency accuracy is ±150 ppm over the commercial temperature range and ±250 ppm over the industrial temperature range. It is twice as accurate as conventional (SAW) transmitters and requires no external crystal oscillations. The price savings of $0.77. Of course, the most prominent technology of the Si4010 is automatic antenna tuning. This function maximizes the transmission distance, provides stable output power, effectively reduces the adverse effects on the remote control, and improves production efficiency.
Antenna automatic adjustment technology
Based on Silicon Labs' patented technology, the antenna auto-tuning feature is one of the biggest features of the Si4010; it is equipped with a feedback loop that detects the optimum output power of the amplifier. According to Lawrence Der, the antenna auto-tuning feature reduces power consumption without causing jitter. He said that there are two main tuning functions: one is to ensure a stable power supply, which is a relatively new application; the other is to tune the feedback frequency function, monitor the voltage, ensure the best output power, and it has no delay. The problem, because the feedback is very fast, you can adjust the current size. Compared with the operation of electronic components, the movement of the human body is very slow, and there is no problem of delay. In addition, its power consumption is low, and the MCU implements functions in both hardware and software.
Lawrence Der also emphasized that Silicon Labs' mixed-signal ICs are highly integrated. In our architecture, there are both analog and digital signals. In simple terms, the analog part is the RF and the digital part is the MCU. In traditional designs, RF performance is easily disturbed, but Silicon Labs has many years of experience in this area and has solved this problem.
Advantages of silicon technology
A well-defined frequency is required for RF communications, and Silicon Labs has introduced a CMOS-based Si500 crystal product, which is now also used in the Si4010. Lawrence Der said: "Compared to SAW and crystal-based transmitter design, CMOS process is more flexible, can be oriented to any frequency. And the frequency is more accurate, our advantage is high integration, can reduce cost, impact on the outside And the vibration interference also has a good defense effect. In addition, on the product line, Silicon Labs will strictly measure the relationship between temperature and frequency change for each chip to ensure the best results."
Optimized 8051 core
The 8051 is a very popular low-cost core, and the Si4010 uses the optimized 8051 as its control unit. Lawrence Der said that the Silicon Labs-customized 8051 MCU has 4kB RAM/8kB NVM and 128-bit EEPROM, and its ROM integrates a functional feature set. The outstanding feature of this MCU is support for 128-bit AES encryption and on-chip debugger. "Silicon Labs' product line is very extensive. The higher-end products will integrate the ARM core. The Si4010 integrated 8051 core is designed based on customer needs: first, cost, and more importantly, most of the engineers in the field use 8051 for development. Lower the technology threshold and speed up the time to market."
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