Silicon Labs introduces a line of secure, ultra-low-power Zigbee SoCs

     Silicon Labs has announced a new line of secure, ultra-low-power Zigbee system-on-chip (SoC) products. These SOCs are designed for environmentally friendly IoT products in mesh networks. The EFR32MG22 (MG22) family of products is the smallest, lowest-power SoCs optimized for Zigbee Green Power applications and expands Silicon Labs' Zigbee portfolio. Based on Silicon Labs' Wireless Gecko Series 2 platform, the MG22 SoC is ideal for Zigbee devices that use button batteries or are powered by energy harvesting, targeting applications such as smart home sensors, lighting control, and building and industrial automation.

     Energy efficient Zigbee Green Power technology helps solve environmental problems by gradually reducing energy consumption in residential, commercial and industrial areas. Zigbee Green Power uses the same 802.15.4 PHY and MAC as the energy-efficient Zigbee 3.0 protocol to further reduce energy consumption by reducing the amount of data transmitted wirelessly. From the beginning, Zigbee Green Power has been designed as an efficient protocol to support IoT devices, whether they are powered by batteries or powered by "battery-free" energy harvesting. Silicon Labs specifically optimized the design of the new MG22 SoC to bring leading connectivity solutions to these challenging, power-sensitive wireless applications.

     Matt Johnson, senior vice president and general manager of IoT products at Silicon Labs, said: "As a leading Zigbee provider, Silicon Labs is uniquely positioned to lead the development of Zigbee Green Power mesh networking solutions. "Our new MG22 SoC solution combines industry-leading energy efficiency, security features, wireless performance, software tools and protocol stacks to meet the growing market demand for environmentally friendly, ultra-low-power IoT products."

     The MG22 SoC integrates a high-performance, low-power 76.8 MHz Arm® Cortex®-M33 core with TrustZone. The SoC delivers excellent energy efficiency with ultra-low transmit and receive power (8.2 mA TX at +6 dBm, 3.9 mA RX), 1.4 µA deep sleep mode power consumption, and low-power peripherals.