TI chipset enables equipment location system in hospitals

The InnerWireless RTLS solution is easy to implement and readily adaptable to a variety of industries, said James McCoy, chief technology officer and senior vice president, InnerWireless. TI's ultra low-power MSP430 MCU and single-chip RF transceiver enabled us to develop this 802.15.4 product quickly, while achieving our goals of low-cost tags with long battery life.

In hospitals nationwide, medical equipment from wheelchairs to heart monitors are moved continually, making it difficult to locate these items when needed. In fact, hospitals often over-purchase to compensate for missing equipment, and each employee wastes approximately 30 minutes per day searching for equipment - leading to unnecessary expenses and increased patient safety risks.

To address this issue, InnerWireless can track equipment and other items to the area in which an item is located by using RF technology based on the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standard and Zigbee-like protocols for RF communications.

InnerWireless 802.15.4 systems comprise three networked components: beacons, tags and master radios. Rooms equipped with battery-operated beacons the size of a smoke detector broadcast unique identification signals that are received by tags. The tags, sized to attach unobtrusively to objects and collect location information from the beacons, periodically retransmit this information to the master radio; real-time results are displayed through Web-based applications for personnel.

The TI chipset used in all of this product's components combines an MSP430F155 MCU with a CC2420 802.15.4 transceiver to handle all the processing and communication needed for wireless RTLS tracking. The MSP430 MCU features a stand-by power consumption of 0.8 micro-Amps (uA) and wakes up in less than one micro-second to an active mode of 250uA (1MHz). The combination of the MSP430 MCU's extremely low-power standby current with an instant-on active mode and fully synchronized, high-speed system clock enables the trend toward smaller, lower-cost applications. Additionally, the CC2420 transceiver from TI's low-power RF group provides the industry's first single-chip 802.15.4 solution, supporting quick design for this low-bandwidth standard. The combined MCU and transceiver saves costs and space while allowing InnerWireless beacons and tags to operate reliably for up to seven years without a battery change or recharge.

TI Enables Innovation with a Broad Range of Controllers From ultra low power MSP430 and 32-bit general purpose TMS470 ARM7®-based MCUs to high performance TMS320C2000TM digital signal controllers, TI offers designers a broad range of embedded control solutions. Designers can also accelerate their design to market by tapping into TI's complete software and hardware tools, extensive third party offerings and technical support.