In light of battery supply and application demands, Internet of Things (IoT) devices usually use low power-consumption and a low data rate for connection to wireless networks. The common techniques include wireless standards like Zigbee® and Thread®. This paper will introduce the low power-consumption SoC (System on Chip) device NCS36510 launched by ON Semiconductor which can simplify the development process of IoT devices.
Low Power-consumption/Low Data Rate Connection as the First Choice for IoT Devices
There are many types of wireless networks and standards. The most common is Wi-Fi, which is a high data-rate transmission standard and uses a wireless local area network (WLAN) to realize wireless connection of devices. Wi-Fi can provide more bandwidth, but it also consumes more power making battery operation difficult. In the fields of smart home, intelligent building, and wireless sensor networks, etc, the low-distance, low power-consumption, low-rate, and low-cost IEEE 802.15.4 standard is used more often than the Wi-Fi standard. Concentrating on the ubiquitous communication of low cost and low rate between the devices, IEEE 802.15.4 is very suitable for IoT devices consuming low power and using a battery without needing to transmit massive amounts of data and used to enter the market of home control and automation.
Aiming for IoT applications, the IEEE 802.15.4 technical standard defines the Low-rate, Wireless Personal Area Network (LP-WPAN) protocol and standardizes the physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) of LR-MPANs. It is maintained by the IEEE 802.15 Work Group. IEEE 802.15.4 is the basis of Zigbee. Specifications such as ISA100.11a, WirelessHART, MiWi, 6LoWPAN, Thread, and SNAP all extend the standard further by developing the higher-level layers not defined in IEEE 802.15.4.
Seeing the market demand, ON Semiconductor has launched the low power-consumption SoC NCS36510, which is suitable for 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4 applications and supports Zigbee®, Thread®, and other proprietary protocols. NCS36510 is a fully-integrated SoC for low power consumption. It integrates a 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4 compliant transceiver, built-in ARM® Cortex®-M3 microprocessor, RAM and FLASH memory, possesses a true random number generator, AES 128/256 encryption engine, and multiple peripherals that can support various designs, so as to be convenient for rapidly developing complete and safe wireless networks using the fewest external components.
NCS36510 provides advanced power supply management technology, which allows operation at a voltage as low as 1V and also decreases the current consumption to the lowest. It is designed to have multiple sleep modes (including a 0.65µA sleep current for “coma mode”, and 0.18µA leakage current). It provides industry leading receiving power consumption of 6.6mW, a receiver sensitivity of -99 dBm, and a transmission power consumption of only 6.9mW, and can be programmed to output a power up to 8dBm. NCS36510 is specifically designed for applications requiring maximum battery life and the lowest cost.
NCS36510 integrates the industry-leading 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3, allowing it to realize high-performance, low power-consumption, and low-cost processing. NCS36510 also consists of an embedded FLASH memory used to store programs and 48kB RAM used to store data. The FLASH memory is split into two banks of 320kB, allowing easy firmware over the air updates (FOTA) without using an external memory. NCS36510 utilizes the hardware-accelerated MAC to minimize the overhead on the processor and also maximize the available processor capability to operate application software.
The peripherals supported by NCS36510 include DMA, two UARTs, two SPIs, two I2Cs, PWM, RTC, three programmable timers, WDT, 18-channel GPIO, and 10-bit ADC having four external inputs and integrated temperature and voltage sensors. ON Semiconductor also provides the support software, including the demo application for the 802.15.4 MAC layer, Zigbee 3.0 compliant platform stack with sample applications, as well as a Thread demo.
The typical applications of NCS36510 include IoT, connected home security, automation and lighting applications, building and industrial automation, smart grid applications, IEEE 802.15.4 applications (Zigbee® / 6LoWPAN / WirelessHART® / Thread / ISA100 protocols) as well as consumer electronics. The common end products include the sensor nodes driven by energy harvesting and/or battery supply, smart meters, thermostats, electronic security devices and controls (door lock, etc), smoke/Carbon-Monoxide detector and alarms, smart lighting devices and controls, HVAC systems and controls, irrigation sensors and controls, industrial control and monitoring devices, as well as electrical appliances, etc.
ON Semiconductor also introduces the RF module NCAT00LKT002G4 integrating NCS36510. This fully-certified RF PCB module is suitable for the specific applications of Zigbee® and IEEE®802.15.4 and can operate the specific applications on IEEE 802.15.4 PHY/MAC or other compatible protocols (Zigbee, for example). It has passed the full certification and is applicable in the USA, Canada, Europe, and Japan.
If used in combination with a Zigbee 3.0 stack, this module has passed pre-certification as a platform compliant with the Zigbee Alliance. ON Semiconductor also provides an 802.15.4 MAC layer demo application and software development kit (SDK) for download. The Zigbee 3.0 SDK has a complete hardware driver and board support package which contains multiple application demos and stack development documents. These two SDKs are both IAR Workbench projects and require 7.80.02 or higher versions.
The IoT applications are the hottest technological applications so far and hold a very surprising amount of market potential. To accelerate the pace into the IoT market, the low-power consumption SoC NCS36510 by ON Semiconductor can be used to speed up the development of new products to seize market opportunity, and is worth further understanding of the relevant details.
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ON Semiconductor NCS36510MNTXG 802.15.4 LR-WPAN