Date: 04/06/2012

Atmel MCU certified for ZigBee Light Link Golden Units for lighting reference

Atmel Corporation has announced it is one of the first companies to achieve ZigBee Certified product status using ZigBee Light Link Certification, a new industry standard to accelerate the design of easy-to-use consumer lighting and control products that will give consumers the ability to wirelessly control their LED fixtures, light bulbs, timers, remotes and switches within their homes.

With this reference implementation for ZigBee Light Link, Atmel has achieved 'golden unit' status, making it the benchmark against which future ZigBee Certified products designed to this standard will be tested. The ATmega128RFA1 wireless MCU serves as a hardware platform for the ZigBee Light Link Golden Units.

The reference design integrates Atmel's ATmega128RFA1 wireless MCUs on a RF4CE-EK evaluation kit with ZigBee Light Link profile software stack ported onto the system. The ATmega128RFA1 offers low power consumption at 12.5mA in active receive mode, combined with receiver sensitivity at -101dBm. The ZigBee Light Link reference implementation can also be used with Atmel's LED drivers for color-mixing, system management and advanced dimming in commercial, industrial or architectural solid-state lighting applications.

"Atmel continues to deliver leading-edge, innovative ZigBee Certified devices for the latest standards," said Ryan Maley, vice president of strategy at the ZigBee Alliance. "We are excited to work with companies such as Atmel and help them deliver products that will enable a new and efficient lighting experience using ZigBee."

ZigBee Light Link provides a global standard for interoperable and very easy-to-use consumer lighting and control products. In addition, the standard allows consumers to change lighting remotely to reflect ambiance, task or season, all while managing energy use and making their homes greener. The standard also enables the lighting control platforms to control up to 255 devices.

"The need to manage all your lighting requirements on one control panel is becoming increasingly more popular," said Oyvind Strom, sr. director of wireless solutions, Atmel Corporation. "ZigBee Light Link addresses this requirement by enabling end users to control lighting, color and dimming for improved comfort, energy savings and convenience. With Atmel's latest ZigBee Certified products and software stacks, designers are able to develop these innovative lighting products to address the end users' needs."

The price for RF4CE-EK evaluation kit is US $479.

Atmel's ZigBee Light Link profile (software stack) is available now free of charge at: http://www.atmel.com/tools/bitcloudprofilesuite-zigbeepropublicprofile.aspx