Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (Freescale) has shipped over 7 million IEEE 802.15.4 chipsets and ZigBee units in 2008 for the wireless sensor networks used in smart energy, industrial control and home entertainment applications. The new IEEE 802.15.4 chipset has become a solid foundation for monitoring and control networks, and also many other standard networks stacks like ZigBee technology, RF4CE consortium, SynkroRF network technology and WirelessHART technology.
The new chipset is designed to address the need for a low cost, low power wireless solution. The company is the foremost supplier of 802.15.4-based chips with approximately 60% market share.
A recent study by In-Stat, 802.15.4, A New Sense of Energy, projected that 802.15.4 node and chipset units will reach 292 million in 2012, up from 7 million in 2007. “We are projecting significant growth rates for 802.15.4 over the next four years,” said Brian O’Rourke, principal analyst with In-Stat. “Freescale has a diverse portfolio and has been able to achieve several key design wins and develop key relationships with third parties. The company is positioned very well in this market.”
We’ve seen high demand for our IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee products as wireless applications such as home entertainment control, smart energy, industrial and process control and monitoring continue their rapid growth,” said Brett Black, manager of Freescale’s Wireless Connectivity Operation. “Our customers need platform solutions that help them get to market quickly so they can keep pace with this growth and be ready to develop their next applications.”
The company’s platform approach makes wireless simple by providing a one-stop shop for customers, complete with hardware, software, development tools and reference designs.
More flexibility and control:
ZigBee wireless technology has emerged as the winning technology in the smart energy/automated meter infrastructure market in the US, and IEEE 802.15.4 is emerging in consumer electronics markets through efforts by the RF4CE consortium. RF4CE founding members – Panasonic, Philips, Samsung Electronics, Sony Corporation – announced the consortium in June 2008 and have been working together with Freescale to address increased demand for advanced functionality and robust performance not currently available through infrared or other proprietary wireless technologies.
As an early creator and adopter of RF control for consumer electronics, the company announced in 2008 its initiative to offer its own SynkroRF entertainment control network technology as an open specification to the consumer electronics manufacturers. Synkro RF control technology is the basis of RF4CE protocol and the company continues to lead the charge in the adoption of an open RF entertainment control specification based on IEEE 802.15.4.