Silicon Labs rolls wireless remote control SoC

PORTLAND, Ore.—A new wireless remote-control system-on-a-chip enables remote-keyless entry designs to slim down their bill-of-materials to one external component, compared to dozens required for traditional solutions, according to Silicon Laboratories Inc., which announced the EZRadio single-chip radio frequency (RF) transmitter Wednesday (July 21).

Silicon Labs combined its RF microcontroller and its all-CMOS oscillator technologies to enable the EZRadio Si4010 SoC radio frequency (RF) transmitter to eliminate the need for external components (except for a single capacitor). The EZRadio chip is designed for remote-keyless entry applications such as garage door openers, building automation remotes, secure-entry devices and other remote controls that require only a one-way RF link.

Silicon Labs claims its Si4010 RF transmitter maintains 150- or 250- parts per million accuracy in its carrier frequency over commercial temperature ranges and industrial temperature ranges, respectively. The 8051-based RF microcontroller also auto-tunes a printed-circuit board (PCB) antenna with on-chip variable capacitors that dynamically match the antenna's inductance. The chip also supports programmable edge-rate control for on-off keying, power outputs up to +10 dBm and standby current consumption as low as 10 nanoAmps.

On-chip peripherals include wake-on-touch general-purpose I/O, 20-bit EEPROM counter, LED driver, sleep timers, debugger and 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard accelerator for securing RF links