RF transceiver

Chipcon AS has released the CC2420, claimed to be the industry's first 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4 compliant RF transceiver.

The device includes extra features and can be qualified for use in 2.4 GHz ZigBee products. The transceiver is targeted at home and building automation, industrial monitoring and control systems and wireless sensor networks.

It is based on Chipcon's SmartRF 03 technology in 0.18 µm CMOS. The CC2420 is a highly integrated solution that requires few external components, is robust and has low power consumption.

It surpasses the IEEE 802.15.4 standard in terms of selectivity and sensitivity figures and ensures a long communication range as well as effective and reliable communication. In accordance with the standard, the CC2420 supports 250 Kbps data rate.

The device has a high level of security by provide hardware support for AES-128-based data encryption and data authentication. In addition, it supports packet radio, data buffering (128 byte RX + 128 byte TX), burst transmissions, clear channel assessment, link quality indication and timing information.

Reducing the load on the host microcontroller, these functions allow CC2420 to interface with low-cost microcontrollers.