Gainspan low power wireless SOC

Gainspan low power wireless SOC enables Wi-Fi Sensor Networking Module with 5 Year Battery Life

RF Monolithics has harnessed the features and benefits of Gainspan’ GS1010 low power-consuming wireless SOC in a Wi-Fi sensor networking module that combines an exceptionally low power profile with long battery life capabilities. The WSN802G is a fully functional, certified radio module that easily interfaces to existing Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) infrastructure for a wide variety of sensor monitoring and WLAN applications.

RF Monolithics, Inc. www.RFM.com has announced a low-power Wi-Fi sensor networking module - the WSN802G – that integrates Gainspan’s GS1010 System on Chip (SoC), the lowest power Wi-Fi chip solution in the market today. As RF Monolithics (RFM) has ably demonstrated, the GS1010 enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to build low-power wireless local area networking (WLAN) and sensor monitoring solutions for the global market.

Said Tim Cutler, Director of Product Marketing for RFM RF module products, "GainSpan technology is enabling RFM to expand its already broad portfolio of low-power, wireless sensor networking products. We anticipate reaching deeper into the markets that we currently serve while expanding into untapped markets, both with entirely new low-power Wi-Fi sensing applications."

The Gainspan GS1010 SOC together with its embedded software stack is a highly integrated ultra low power wireless solution that integrates 802.11 radio, media access controller (MAC) and baseband processor, on-chip flash memory and SRAM, and an applications processor all in a single package. It offers a highly scalable, reliable, manageable and secure wireless link to meet the growing demand of wireless sensor networks utilizing the broadly accepted IEEE* 802.11 standards infrastructure. The GS1010 also provides capabilities such as location awareness which also opens opportunities in logistics and supply chain applications for tracking asset location and status.

To achieve its low power consumption and long battery life, the WSN802G combines the features and benefits provided by the Gainspan GS1010 with 1 Mb/s and 2 Mb/s data rates, which are appropriate for most sensing applications, and an advanced sleep management feature that puts the module to sleep between active periods. Depending upon the frequency of active periods, a single AA Lithium cell can provide a battery life in excess of 5 years. When the module is active, it consumes less than 200 mA. In sleep mode it consumes less than 8 uA.

Housed in a very small 1.0 x 1.05 square inch footprint the WSN802G operates in the 2.4 GHz ISM band at 10mW RF power. It features outstanding receive sensitivity of -92dBm at 1 Mb/s and -90dBm at 2 Mb/s. Typical transmission ranges are 50 meters indoors and 250 meters outdoors.

Concluded RFM’s TIM Cutler: “The Gainspan GS1010 has made the WSN802G highly suitable for wireless sensor networking applications due to its ability to operate for years, rather than weeks or months, on battery power."