Date: 28/02/2011

Low-power RF transceiver for operation in the global 2.4 GHz ISM band

Analog Devices has introduced a low-power RF transceiver for operation in the global 2.4 GHz ISM (industrial, scientific and medical) frequency band. The ADF7241 RF transceiver enables support of the standard IEEE 802.15.4 PHY protocol at 250 kbps on a single chip. The transceiver's low-power consumption of 19mA in receive mode and 21.5 mA in transmit mode makes it effective for battery-powered systems, such as wireless sensor networks, automatic meter reading, industrial wireless control, wireless audio and video, consumer electronics, and ZigBee applications.

The receive path of the ADF7241 RF transceiver is based on a zero-IF architecture, while the transmit path is based on a closed loop VCO (voltage controlled oscillator) modulation scheme. It also features a flexible port RF-interface with support for switched antenna diversity. ADF7241 RF transceiver incorporates low-power, custom 8-bit processor that supports a number of RF functions, including radio control and packet management. The integrated 8-bit processor is firmware that can be programmed to execute firmware modules or system upgrade patches from internal RAM memory, which provides the flexibility to respond to protocol standard evolution and maintain system robustness.

The ADF7241 RF transceiver is equipped with a SPI (serial port interface) for high throughput efficiency as well as a bi-directional SPORT (serial port). The transceiver can be easily designed into system designs with ADI's ADSP-21xx, SHARC, TigerSHARC , and Blackfin Processors.

Other key specs:
Low power consumption: 19 mA in receive mode; 21.5 mA in transmit mode; 1.7 µA, 32
kHz crystal oscillator wake-up mode
High sensitivity: -95 dBm at 250 kbps
Programmable output power: -20 dBm to +4.8 dBm in 2 dB steps
Integrated voltage regulators: 1.8 V to 3.6 V input voltage range
Complies with a number of industry standards, including EN300 440 Class 2, EN300 328, FCC CFR47 Part 15, ARIB STD-T66

Package: 32-lead LFCSP
Availability: Now
Price: Each$1.98 in 1K pieces