Toumaz launches ‘TELRAN’ TZ1053 – ultra-low energy radio for wireless sensor networks, environmental monitoring and smart metering

Commenting on the TELRAN launch, Toumaz CEO Professor Chris Toumazou said: “With this important addition to our ‘Connected Consumer’ portfolio, we are harnessing our strengths in ultra-low energy wireless healthcare to create solutions for high-volume consumer markets. TELRAN is uniquely placed to support the development of a range of new ultra-low energy wireless applications, and we are very excited by the product opportunities that we will be enabling for our customers with today’s launch.”

The TZ1053 TELRAN uses AMx state-of-the-art ultra-low energy technology to deliver much longer life from low voltage battery-based systems for customers developing ultra-low energy applications – without compromising on performance. Designed with ease of use in mind, the TELRAN contains an enhanced 8051 running Toumaz’s Nanopower Sensor Protocol (NSP) allowing developers to program and control the TELRAN device easily with high level commands either over a standard interface eg UART or “over the air”. Target applications include the development of two-way communication remote controls for consumer electronic devices; wireless sensor networks based on TELRAN sensor nodes and basestations; environment monitoring and room temperature control; remote controls and toys/games; and smart metering, using TELRAN wireless sensor networks to connect multiple meters for the two-way transmission of status data and firmware upgrades.

Highlight features of the TELRAN IC include:

- Fully integrated SoC comprising transceiver, baseband, embedded microprocessor and control logic
- Ease of development – no compilers or specialist programming investment required
- Simple over-the-air programming and reconfiguration
- Quick and efficient customisation using application profiles
- Support for networking and communication modes including P2P (Point to Point), star network (up to 8 sensor nodes) and basestation-to-basestation communication
- Data rate of 50 kbps with a range greater than 100m line of sight using a high gain antenna, or 20m from a PCB or chip antenna in a body-worn environment.
- Ability to directly connect SPI/I2C sensors

This latest chip release from Toumaz adds to the company’s expanding ‘Connected Consumer’ and Connected Healthcare product portfolio, which includes the SensiumTM vital signs monitoring platform, FENIX DAB+/DAB/FM CMOS RF IC and the XENIF all-in-one internet connected and broadcast audio SoC announced in September 2010.

TELRAN TZ1053 devices will be available worldwide as engineering samples from the end of February 2011, with production devices in full availability from June 2011. A TELRAN developer kit will also be available at the end of February. The TELRAN Development Kit (TDK) includes a USB TELRAN basestation, TELRAN RF module and an accelerometer sensor board with demo and PC application. The TELRAN RF module (TZ1053RFM) is also available to customers for fast prototyping and production.