New Industry Products

Low-Power Embedded Wi-Fi Solutions for IoT Devices

March 16, 2016 by Jeff Shepard

Microchip Technology Inc. announced today four compact, low-power, highly-integrated solutions that allow Wi-Fi® and networking capability to be embedded into virtually any device, including Internet of Things (IoT) applications. These four modules provide complete solutions for 802.11b/g/n and are industry certified in multiple countries.

The new RN1810 and RN1810E are stand-alone, surface-mount WiFly radio modules that include a TCP/IP stack, cryptographic accelerator, power management subsystem, 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n-compliant transceivers and 2.4 RF power amplifier. They can be paired with any microcontroller and configured using simple ASCII commands. WiFly provides designers with a simple data pipe for sending data over a Wi-Fi network, requiring no prior Wi-Fi experience to get a product connected. Once configured, the device automatically accesses a Wi-Fi network and sends and receives serial data. The RN1810 has an integrated PCB antenna while the RN1810E supports an external antenna.

The new MRF24WN0MA and MRF24WN0MB are Wi-Fi modules that interface with Microchip's PIC32 microcontrollers and support Microchip's MPLAB® Harmony integrated software framework with a TCP/IP stack. The modules connect to the microcontroller via a 4-wire SPI interface and are a solution for low-power, low-data-rate Wi-Fi sensor networks, home automation, building automation and consumer applications. The MRF24WN0MA has an integrated PCB antenna while the MRF24WN0MB supports an external antenna.

"This new family of Wi-Fi modules provides design flexibility for a broad range of consumer, industrial retail, and utility/smart energy applications," said Clayton Pillion, worldwide marketing manager of Microchip's Wireless Solutions Group. "They greatly streamline the integration and configuration process, allowing designers to concentrate instead on the host product."

Each module is FCC (USA), IC (Canada) and ETSI (Europe) certified and supports multiple networking features including TCP/IP, Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) and Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS 1.2).

The RN1810/E and MRF24WN0MA/B are available today for sampling and volume production, starting at $13.05 each in 1,000-unit quantities.

Also available today from Microchip is the MRF24WN0MA Wi-Fi PICtail™/PICtail Plus Daughter Board, a demonstration board for evaluating Wi-Fi connectivity using PIC® microcontrollers and the MRF24WN0MA module (part # AC164153). This kit is available now for $34.95. In addition, the RN1810 Wi-Fi PICtail/PICtail Plus Daughter Board is also available today with a fully integrated TCP/IP stack and USB interface for easy plug-and-play development with a PC (part # RN-1810-PICTAIL). This kit is available now for $49.95.