Expanding the functionality of Internet of Things (IoT) networks, Texas Instruments (TI) announced Wednesday availability for mass production of the industry’s lowest-power dual-band wireless microcontroller (MCU) supporting Sub-1 GHz and Bluetooth low energy connectivity on a single chip. The new SimpleLink CC1350 wireless MCU offers a range of up to 20 km on a coin cell battery for building and factory automation, alarm and security, smart grid, asset tracking and wireless sensor network applications.
As part of TI’s pin-to-pin and software compatible SimpleLink ultra-low power platform, the new SimpleLink dual-band CC1350 wireless MCU enables developers to move from a three-chip solution to a tiny single chip, while reducing design complexity, saving power, cost and board space.
The CC1350 device is a highly integrated, true single-chip solution incorporating a complete RF system and an on-chip DC-DC converter. Sensors can be handled in a very low-power manner by a dedicated autonomous ultra-low-power MCU that can be configured to handle analog and digital sensors; thus the main MCU (Cortex-M3) can maximize sleep time.
The CC1350 power and clock management and radio systems require specific configuration and handling by software to operate correctly, which has been implemented in the TI-RTOS. TI recommends using this software framework for all application development on the device. The complete TI-RTOS and device drivers are offered in source code free of charge.
Designed for low-power wide area networks (LPWAN), the CC1350 wireless MCU features dual-band connectivity that expands the functionality of a Sub-1 GHz network with Bluetooth low energy implementations such as beaconing, over-the-air updates, smart commissioning, and remote displays; long-range connectivity paired with ultra-low power consumption that offers a sleep current of 0.7 uA which allows for over ten years of battery life. It also offers enhanced integration in a tiny wireless MCU that combines a Sub-1 GHz transceiver and Bluetooth low energy radio, as well as an ARM Cortex-M3 core in a single, flash-based, 4×4 mm QFN package.
Developers can get started in minutes with the low-cost SimpleLink CC1350 wireless MCU LaunchPad development kit or connect sensors to the cloud in minutes with the SimpleLink CC1350 SensorTag demo kit supported by TI’s Code Composer Studio integrated development environment (IDE) and IAR Embedded WorkBench. Additionally, TI has simplified development by providing multiple software options including point-to-point communication examples with EasyLink, a wireless M-Bus protocol stack leveraging TI RTOS, as well as the BLE-Stack 2.2 software development kit (SDK) which supports Bluetooth 4.2 specifications. Developers will also have access to online training and E2E community support to help ease their design process.
The CC1350 is a member of the CC26xx and CC13xx line of cost-effective, ultra-low-power, 2.4 GHz and Sub-1 GHz RF devices. Very low active RF and microcontroller (MCU) current consumption, in addition to flexible low-power modes, provide excellent battery lifetime and allow long range operation on small coin-cell batteries and in energy-harvesting applications.
The CC1350 device combines a flexible, very low-power RF transceiver with a 48-MHz Cortex-M3 microcontroller in a platform supporting multiple physical layers and RF standards. A dedicated Radio Controller (Cortex-M0) handles low-level RF protocol commands that are stored in ROM or RAM, ensuring ultra-low power and flexibility to handle both Sub-1 GHz protocols and 2.4 GHz protocols, for example, Bluetooth low energy.
This enables the combination of a Sub-1 GHz communication solution that offers the best possible RF range together with a Bluetooth low energy smartphone connection that enables great user experience through a phone application. The Sub-1 GHz only device in this family is the CC1310.
SimpleLink Sub-1 GHz CC1350 wireless MCU-based development kits are available now on the TI Store and through TI authorized distributors.
The CC1350 LaunchPad kit (LAUNCHXL-CC1350), priced at US$29.00, develop a complete prototype with a low-cost Sub-1 GHz and Bluetooth low energy wireless MCU hardware, software and RF development platform; while the CC1350 SensorTag demo kit (CC1350STK), coming in the fourth quarter of this year and priced at $29.99, includes Sub-1 GHz and Bluetooth low energy project with a small, sensor-based kit which includes 10 low-power MEMS sensors and can connect to the cloud in less than three minutes.
The SimpleLink Sub-1 GHz CC1350 wireless MCUs, for operation in 315 MHz, 433 MHz, 470 MHz, 500 MHz, 779 MHz, 868 MHz, 915 MHz and 920 MHz and 2.4 GHz ISM bands and SRD systems, will be available in 4×4, 5×5 and 7×7 mm QFN packages. The devices available today are for 868 MHz, 915 MHz and 920 MHz ISM band operation and the 7×7 mm pricing is as $4.60 in 1,000 unit volumes.
