Freescale's ZigBee Enabled Platform Achieves Industry-Leading 378 Meter Range

December 16, 2004

Setting an industry record, Freescale Semiconductor’s ZigBee enabled platform scored high marks in L.S. Research’s evaluation tests by achieving over 378 meters (1240 feet) of range without the aid of external power amplifiers or low noise amplifiers. This far exceeds the ZigBee Alliance’s recently ratified 1.0 specification with expected ranges between 10-70 meters at low power with the battery life of months, years, even decades from a pair of alkaline batteries.

"These results are a significant proof point toward enabling true home automation and industrial control applications using ZigBee technology," said John Tepley, vice president of sales and marketing for L.S. Research, a leading product development company. “The Freescale MC13193 platform performed beyond our expectations and delivers the features and benefits of a true ZigBee networking solution.”

L.S. Research used the MC13193 Evaluation Kit (13193EVK-A00), Freescale’s latest addition of hardware tools to their ZigBee enabled platform. The 13193EVK-A00 builds on the success of the EE Times award-winning MC13192 Developer’s Starter Kit (13192DSK-A00), by adding full ZigBee networking capabilities. The kit contains the necessary hardware and software to demonstrate and develop robust, affordable and easy to deploy ZigBee solutions based on the IEEE® 802.15.4 compliant MC13192 and the MC13193 ZigBee transceiver.

“The performance results of our ZigBee platform show our continued leadership and commitment to bringing a comprehensive ZigBee solution to enable OEMs to quickly meet market demands,” said Brett Black, commercial wireless operations manager for Freescale.

Freescale’s comprehensive, scalable ZigBee solution is engineered to reduce the time and money customers spend developing products using multiple suppliers. Freescale’s ZigBee technology enables wireless products for a variety of monitoring, sensing, automation and control applications in the home, light commercial and industrial environments. ZigBee is an ideal solution for wireless applications requiring long battery life, cost effective connectivity and easy deployment.

Freescale is going beyond offering RF ICs, MAC and ZigBee software. MCUs, sensors, and the award-winning CodeWarrior™ Development Studio from Metrowerks are available to support developers. Along with these, Freescale is providing reference designs with layout files and antenna examples – all of which reduce the need for RF layout expertise, simplify procurement and help speed time-to-market.