Aiming to get an early entry into the emerging ZigBee market, Atmel has taken an initiative to develop a chipset for this upcoming alternative for wireless control and monitoring applications. To enable products for the low data rate, ultra-low power, networked ZigBee wireless standard, which is based on the tri-band IEEE wireless PAN (WPAN) standard 802.15.4, Atmel has crafted a system called Z-Link that comprises a controller, ultra-low power radio transceiver, and 802.15.4 protocol stacks. Target applications for this solution include home and office lighting, environmental control and security, industrial sensors and controls, and medical monitoring systems.

Based on Atmel's eight-bit AVR RISC core, the Z-Link controller AT86ZL3201 is a full-function device that uses standard AVR development, debugging and emulation tools. It provides sufficient on-chip memory to handle present and forthcoming applications. The controller offers 8 Kbytes of ROM with pre-loaded 802.15.4 protocol stack, 8 Kbytes of SRAM, and 32 Kbytes of flash. The 8 Kbytes of SRAM provide plenty of headroom for any increase in ZigBee data structures or to support larger networks. For hardware security support, the controller includes a 128-bit advanced encryption standard (AES) core, and hardware random generator per the ZigBee standard. Other features include four eight-bit GPIO ports, four-channel 10-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with bandgap reference, transmit and receive buffers, four 16-bit timhers/counters, UART and two SPI ports. The built-in SPI and buffered transmit/receive ports provide a plug-and-play interface to ZigBee transceivers.

The Z-link transceiver is a ZigBee radio capable of transmitting and receiving BPSK modulated digital data over a frequency of 868 MHz and 902 to 928 MHz using minimum external components. Offering low current consumption and a miniature package, the AT86RF210 includes on-chip a crystal stabilized fractional-N synthesizer, BPSK transmitter and receiver, and full direct sequence spread-spectrum signal (DSSS) processing. Fully compatible with IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee standards, the transceiver consumes 15.5 mA receive current and 4 mW (6 dBm) transmit power at 1.8 V supply (see the figure). For more information, visit www.atmel.com.