Texas Instruments (TI) announced the new SimpleLink ultra-low power wireless microcontroller (MCU) platform that helps customers go battery-less with energy harvesting or enjoy always-on, coin cell-powered operation for multiple years.
With this industry-first technology, customers have the flexibility to develop products that support multiple wireless connectivity standards using a single-chip and identical RF design. The SimpleLink ultra-low power platform supports Bluetooth low energy, ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, Sub-1 GHz, ZigBee RF4CE and proprietary modes up to 5Mbps. This platform expands TI's SimpleLink portfolio, the broadest, lowest power and easiest to use wireless connectivity offering in the industry for the Internet of Things (IoT).
Extending TI's low-power MCU leadership, the SimpleLink ultra-low power platform is the most integrated with an ARM Cortex-M3 MCU, Flash/RAM, analog-to-digital converter, peripherals, sensor controller and built-in robust security on chip. The platform is also the easiest to design with through ready-to-use protocol stacks, TI RTOS, Code Composer Studio integrated development environment (IDE), development tools, online training and E2E community support. Minimal RF expertise is required with available reference designs, which simplify development and layout.
Additionally, TI makes it easier for customers to connect to the cloud through the TI IoT cloud ecosystem.
The first members of the SimpleLink ultra-low power wireless MCU platform are the CC2640 for Bluetooth Smart, and the CC2630 for 6LoWPAN and ZigBee. For additional flexibility, customers can use the CC2650 wireless MCU supporting multiple 2.4 GHz technologies including Bluetooth Smart, 6LoWPAN, ZigBee and RF4CE.
Leveraging this multi-standard support, customers can future-proof their designs and configure their chosen technology at the time of installation in the field. Additional members of the platform – the CC1310 for Sub-1 GHz operation and the CC2620 for ZigBee RF4CE – will be available later in 2015.
The new ultra-low power platform is designed for low power operation, which includes a unique integrated sensor controller that interfaces external sensors autonomously while the rest of the device sleeps. The platform includes radio peak currents below 6.2mA and MCU active current of less than 61uA/MHz. The complete chip can stay in standby at only 1 uA with memory retention and RTC (real time clock) running.
