Target Applications Include Smart Meters, Home Area Networks, and
Industrial Automation
Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: SWKS), an innovator of high
performance analog and mixed signal semiconductors enabling mobile
connectivity, and Ember, a leader in ZigBee®
technology, today announced that they are partnering to develop the
industry’s first portfolio of ZigBee front-end
modules (FEM) targeting applications such as smart meters in energy
management, home area networks (HAN), and industrial automation. ZigBee
is a wireless network standard that solves the unique needs of remote
monitoring and control, and sensor-network applications.
“Skyworks’
partnership with Ember accelerates our efforts in the energy management
industry by more than doubling our addressable market for front-end
modules,” said Stan Swearingen, Skyworks’
vice president and general manager of Linear Products. “By
integrating our front-end modules with Ember’s
ZigBee silicon, we are offering our customers a high performance
plug-and-play solution that is truly unmatched worldwide.”
“Ember and Skyworks are teaming together to
create the industry’s first ZigBee FEM that
dramatically reduces component size, cost and power consumption,”
said Bob Gohn, Ember’s vice president of
marketing. “We are making it easier than ever
for our customers to deliver exceptional performance in their products
across a wide range of ZigBee-based applications.”
West Technology Research Solutions (WTRS) is forecasting the ZigBee/IEEE
802.15.4 market to grow at an annual rate of over 117 percent ─
from approximately 8.4 million units shipped in 2007 to as many as 516
million in 2012.
About the EM250 & EM260
Ember’s EM250
system-on-chip (SoC) along with the EmberZNet PRO networking stack is
the industry’s only true SoC platform
supporting the ZigBee PRO Feature Set. The EM250 integrates an IEEE
802.15.4 radio, a 16-bit microprocessor, flash, random access memory
(RAM) and peripherals delivering excellent performance at a low system
cost.
Ember’s EM260
is the industry’s first ZigBee network
co-processor that combines a 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) IEEE 802.15.4 compliant
radio transceiver with a flash-based microprocessor running the
EmberZNet PRO ZigBee stack. The EM260 delivers unparalleled flexibility
allowing developers to easily add ZigBee networking to their preferred
application microprocessor via a fast SPI/UART interface.
The EM250 and EM260 chips are tightly integrated with EmberZNet PRO –
Ember’s “ZigBee
Golden Unit” platform –
and are optimized for designs requiring long battery life, low external
component count, and a reliable, proven, industry-standard networking
solution. Innovative on-chip debugging combined with Ember’s
InSight tools provide developers with the most advanced views into their
application and network available in the industry.
About the SKY65336 and SKY65337
The SKY65336
is a high efficiency 8 x 8 millimeter (mm) multi-chip module (MCM) FEM
for ZigBee and other 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM)
band applications. The FEM is comprised of a selectable transmit and
receive (Tx/Rx) path. The Tx path incorporates a harmonic filter and
high efficiency PA which delivers 20 dBm at the module’s
output port. The Rx path includes a low noise amplifier (LNA) which
boasts a total Rx path noise figure of 1.9 dB, including switch loss.
