Fujitsu Introduces 802.15.4/ZigBee Wireless Solution

(Product News, 28 May 2007)

Fujitsu Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd has announced what it claims to be the industry's first 2.4GHz 802.15.4/ZigBee demo kit, aimed at making it easier for customers to add wireless control functions to existing systems. Named WiLeKit, the kit supports IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee standard and greatly reduces the complexity of wireless ZigBee interconnections with a Fujitsu-patented simple network control protocol.

Based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, ZigBee is a wireless communication technology for short distances (within 100m), low data rates (up to 250kbps), low power consumption (operating life from six months to two years with ordinary alkaline batteries) and high reliability. Unlike Bluetooth (802.15.1), which is used to transfer voice data, and WiFi (802.11a/b/g), which is used to transfer Email and images, the ZigBee system emphasizes multi-node monitoring, control and sense networking applications.

Andy Chang, deputy marketing director of Fujitsu Microelectronics (Shanghai), said: "Customers always expect to immediately add wireless control functions into their existing systems. The market has been looking for an easy-to-use ZigBee solution. As the industry's first ZigBee wireless solution with simple networking protocol delivered by Fujitsu, WiLeKit fully meets market needs. There are almost unlimited applications for many fields, such as intelligent community systems, power sub-station monitoring and wireless measure instruments."

Today most systems used in medium- to small-scale corporations generally have no more than 255 nodes. Since it is not required to support a complex mesh network, simple star/tree topology network architecture is sufficient Users want to adopt a simple network control protocol, without expensive certification fees, and quickly implement ZigBee wireless control functions with high-reliability. The WiLeKit demo kit, with its uniquely simple network control protocol, satisfies the market need. Fujitsu Microelectronics is providing an optimal solution for this rapidly-increasing market through continuous innovation.

The WiLeKit demo kit consists of five end devices and one personal area network coordinator, which allows users to build a simple network. Manual or automatic modes can be set. In manual mode, users can obtain any end field data from the network control center by simply pressing a button. In automatic mode, the end device will regularly transmit field data to the control center on its own. Whether in manual or automatic mode, all communication between the network control center and end device is full duplex and adopts a collision-avoidance transmission mechanism for talk-when-ready to guarantee data reliability.

The newly-introduced wireless module contains a UZ2400 RF transceiver from Uniband Electronic Corp., and a low-power 8-bit microcontroller unit MB95F108A with 60KB Flash memory from Fujitsu Microelectronics.

Fujitsu Microelectronics (Shanghai)