The Internet of Things (IoT) has become one of the most popular technology applications at present. In order to seize market opportunities, it is necessary to adopt a complete development platform and highly integrated SoCs to speed up product development and reduce product size and power consumption. This article will show the IoT wireless platform and SoCs launched by Silicon Labs to understand the latest technological development and product features of the relevant products.
Integrating the development platform with SoCs to provide a complete solution
With the increasing use and variety of IoT devices, developers are seeking flexible connection solutions to quickly bring differentiated products to market while reducing the cost and design complexity. In addition, IoT developers often face trade-offs in product design such as wireless coverage, power consumption, size, security and cost.
In order to help manufacturers speed the development of IoT products and solve the problems faced in the development process, Silicon Labs has launched a new next-generation Wireless Gecko Series 2 platform to make IoT products more powerful, efficient and reliable. With advanced RF and multi-protocol capabilities in the Wireless Gecko, Series 2 provides the most extensive and scalable IoT connected platform in the industry. The first wave of Series 2 products are small form-factor SoCs with a dedicated security core and on-chip radio, which can provide 2.5 times wireless coverage compared with competitors.
Series 2 products improve a variety of design elements, including wireless performance, software reuse, RF communication reliability and enhanced security, to accelerate IoT development, deployment and adoption. Series 2 wireless connection portfolio simplifies the design of IoT products through highly integrated SoC options and reusable software, making RF communication more reliable and energy-saving. Series 2 can help developers optimize system cost and performance and is suitable for various smart home, commercial and industrial IoT applications.
Integrated development environment accelerates product time to market
Through Series 2, designers can use Silicon Labs' Simplicity Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to quickly bring secure next-generation IoT products to market. Simplicity Studio IDE accelerates product time to market through various tools, including unified wireless development kit, software development kit (SDK), energy profiler, patented network analyzer, application demonstration and mobile applications. With the best security and RF performance, Silicon Labs SoC and software can optimize smart home and industrial IoT applications.
Silicon Labs’ Series 2 products include the EFR32MG21 SoC supporting multi-protocol, Zigbee®, Thread and Bluetooth® mesh network, the EFR32BG21 SoC dedicated to low power Bluetooth and Bluetooth mesh network, and the EFR32MG22 (MG22) family optimized for Zigbee Green Power application.
Using Wireless Gecko Series 2 SoCs and modules compatible with pins, software and with other dedicated security technologies, developers can create the next-generation interconnected products with enhanced security features, helping to increase consumer trust and promote large-scale IoT applications.
Provides the best RF performance with the smallest multi-protocol SoC in the industry
The EFR32MG21 and EFR32BG21 SoCs introduced by Silicon Labs provide developers with unparalleled system design advantages, the best RF performance, +20dBm output power and up to +124.5 dB link budget, with robust wireless radio, improved blocking performance, and strong processing capability. Using 80MHz Arm® Cortex®-M33 core with Trust Zone technology, and benefited from low-power 40nm manufacturing technology, they have low active current (50.9 A/MHz) and meet strict green energy requirements, being the smallest multi-protocol SoCs in the industry. Available in 4mm x 4mm QFN package, with less BOM, lower system cost and fewer matching components, they do not need external inductors or power amplifiers, and are flexible pre-certified modules.
The EFR32MG21 and EFR32BG21 SoCs have enhanced security features, enabling developers to realize robust security in connected products. With a dedicated security core, they realize faster encryption with lower power consumption than software technology, and have a true random number generator, so that the device certificate key is insusceptible to attack and the devices can be safely started and loaded, ensuring the reliability of firmware images and over-the-air update, supporting secure debugging access control, and helping OEM prevent unauthorized access to the final product. The EFR32MG21 and EFR32BG21 SoCs are ideal solutions for line-powered IoT products such as gateways, hubs, lighting, voice assistant, and smart electric metering
Silicon Labs has also introduced the Wireless Gecko Starter Kit mainboard and EFR32xG21 radio Daughter Board. The EFR32xG21 Wireless Starter Kit supports Bluetooth, Zigbee, Thread, and Multiprotocol Zigbee/Bluetooth software stacks. The software provides one-click access to design tools, documentation, software, and support resources to start up and run quickly with precompiled demos, application notes, and examples and use advanced tools including energy profiling and network analysis to optimize your wireless systems and speed up product development.
Green energy application optimization supports ultra-low power applications
Energy-efficient Zigbee Green Power technology helps solve environmental problems by gradually reducing residential, commercial and industrial energy consumption. Zigbee Green Power uses the same 802.15.4 PHY and MAC as the energy-efficient Zigbee 3.0 protocol to further reduce energy consumption by reducing the amount of wireless data transmission. From the very beginning, Zigbee Green Power was designed as an efficient protocol to support IoT devices, whether powered by battery or "battery-less" energy harvesting options.
Silicon Labs has specifically optimized the design of the new MG22 SoC to present leading connectivity solutions for these challenging and power sensitive wireless applications. The MG22 SoC is integrated with high-performance and low-power 76.8 MHz Arm® Cortex®-M33 core with TrustZone. With ultra-low transmit and receive power (8.2 mA TX at +6 dBm, 3.9 mA RX), 1.4 µA deep sleep mode power consumption, and low power peripherals, the SoC provides excellent energy efficiency and supports 5 mm x 5 mm QFN40, 4 mm x 4 mm QFN32, and ultra-thin 0.3 mm x 4 mm x 4 mm TQFN32 packages.
The EFR32MG22 (MG22) family expands Silicon Labs' Zigbee portfolio. In combination with industry-leading energy efficiency, security features, wireless performance, software tools and protocol stacks, the new MG22 SoC can effectively meet the growing market demand for environmentally friendly and ultra-low power IoT products, and is an ideal choice for Zigbee device powered by coin cell batteries or energy-harvesting sources. Its target applications include smart home sensors, lighting control, building and industrial automation, etc.
The EFR32MG22 SoC starter development board kit has also been introduced. Developers may download the integrated development environment Simplicity Studio free of charge, which includes network analyzer and energy profiler tools, Zigbee 3.0 protocol stack, demonstration examples and mobile applications to speed up customer product development.
Conclusion
Silicon Labs' Wireless Gecko Series 2 platform has a complete system development environment and supports multiple protocols. Through optimized SoCs, it provides the optimal solution for the development of IoT products. As a sharp weapon to seize business opportunities in the IoT field, it is worthy of in-depth understanding and application.
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