Semtech Partners with IMST On New Radio Module Featuring Long Distance LoRaTM Technology

IMST announced the iM880A, a compact, low power, bidirectional radio module for the 868 MHz frequency band, at the Innosecure 2013 conference in Velbert, Germany, on Sept. 25-26.

LoRa™ technology and the iM880A are designed for industrial control, security/automation, smart metering, and sensor network applications.  The additional range provided by LoRa will eliminate the need for repeaters in these applications, significantly simplifying the system design and lowering the total cost of deployment.  The range extension provided by LoRa™ also makes the device ideal for emerging smart city, Internet of things (IOT) and machine-to-machine (M2M) applications.

LoRa utilizes spread-spectrum communication and provides high interference immunity while minimizing current consumption. The iM880A achieves a maximum sensitivity level of    -137 dBm with a maximum output power of +19 dBm resulting in a link budget of 156 dB and achieving range of more than 15 km in a rural environment or 2 - 5 km in a dense urban environment operating in compliance with European regulatory limits.

“LoRa solves the traditional design compromise between range, interference immunity and energy consumption” explains Hardy Schmidbauer, Director of Wireless Products at Semtech Corp.

The roll out of LTE next to the traditional 868MHz frequency band commonly used in Europe creates increased interference for security systems, smoke detectors, lighting control, home automation and smart meter applications. The iM880A provides increased interference immunity compared to conventional radio systems by providing up to six orthogonal spreading sequences with three different signal bandwidth options and four error correction schemes.

“This flexibility enables the user to configure the perfect balance between range, interference robustness and data rate for multiple wireless applications,” says Heinz Syrzisko, Head of Wireless Solutions Business Unit at IMST. 

The module provides a cost effective and quick solution for integrating LoRa technology into existing or new products. To simplify the first steps of integration, IMST also offers the SK iM880A starter kit with the corresponding demo and configuration software WiMOD LR Studio.