TI Rolls out Low-Power Wireless Microcontroller Platform
Single-chip technology could help drive wireless innovation
Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor -- Design News, December 8, 2008
Texas Instruments has combined a low-power microcontroller with an RF transceiver to create a computing and communications platform for energy harvesting, networking, home security, metering and a host of other applications.
Known as the CC430, the new single-chip platform takes special aim at low-power applications that could benefit from wireless connectivity but haven't done so to date.
"Today, the average consumer touches about 300 microcontrollers every day," says Kevin Belnap, MSP430 product marketing manager for TI. "And of those 300 MCUs that the consumer touches, a very small percentage now have wireless communication capability. But we see a lot of cases for those applications to start adopting wireless communications."
The new platform is built atop TI's low-power MSP430 microcontroller and its sub-1-GHz CC1101 RF transceiver, which came to TI as part of the company's Chipcon acquistion. The combination of the two products in a single chip is significant, TI says, because together the two draw low enough current to enable battery-operated wireless networking systems to operate without servicing for ten years or longer.
The technology would be well-suited for so-called "energy harvesting" modules, which employ mechanical vibrations or human body temperature as a power source to send data from sensors to a collection site. TI engineers foresee such capabilities as being key in many industrial applications because they eliminate the need for frequent battery changes, as well as the need for installation of discrete wiring between sensors and controllers. Possible applications for the technology include hard-to-reach sensors on bridges and buildings, as well as security systems, wireless medical equipment and measurement for micro-environmental sensors in agricultural applications.
"Some applications aren't possible unless they are wireless," Belnap says. "When you're trying to monitor data over a large environment, it's very difficult to string wires between nodes. Also, in many factories they don't want to install a lot of cables to monitor their equipment. When they use wireless, everything is simpler."
ARC Advisory Group, an industrial research and consulting organization, has predicted the worldwide market for wireless technology in manufacturing will grow at a 32-percent compound annual growth rate over the next five years, reaching $1 billion in 2010.
TI expects the CC430 to serve as a technology development platform for such industrial applications. "We believe this platform is going to enable new markets and drive a lot of innovations in the years to come," Belnap says.
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