Dennis McCain of SyChip, Inc visited our office in Norwood to demonstrate their new ZigBee module technology. SyChip is a subsidiary of Murata Manufacturing Co and develops and markets chip scale modules, semiconductors and software for the wireless mobile market. The company’s RF modules are differentiated due to proprietary integration and low loss silicon technologies.

SyChip has introduced the SyNode™ Smart Energy Embedded Module (SN3020) that is the smallest, lowest-power, fully compliant ZigBee module supporting Smart Energy and Home Automation profiles.

The SN3020 integrates a ZigBee system on a chip transceiver, power amplifier (PA) and LNA low noise amplifier (LNA) to achieve best-in-class radio performance with +20dBm output power and -103dBm receiver sensitivity. It also includes 512KB of serial flash for Smart Energy data-logging. The SN3020 measures just 420mm² (0.65 square inches) and offers best-in-class power consumption using SyChip’s power-management protocol.

In addition, they have introduced the SyNode wireless sensor node (SN3010) that is the lowest-power, fully complaint ZigBee sensor node on the market. The SN3010 facilitates reliable, energy-saving wireless networking applications and includes the complete ZigBee Pro protocol stack supporting the ZigBee Smart Energy and Home Automation profiles.

The SN3010 is a complete ZigBee endpoint sensor node with integrated temperature, humidity, and light sensors. Using SyChip’s power-management protocol with one transmission per minute, these sensor nodes can last up to 15 years using two AA batteries. The SN 3010 measures 729 mm² (1.13 square inches), and offers best-in-class ZigBee RF receiver sensitivity at -99dBm. It can be used as a stand-alone sensor node or integrated with original equipment manufacturer (OEM) products.

These modules are targeting smart energy, industrial/consumer automation and wireless monitoring. The primary initial focus is monitoring for data centers and base stations. These modules and sensors can wirelessly monitor critical environmental information such as temperature, humidity, energy use, etc. to help save energy and reduce maintenance costs. It is estimated that 1.5-3% of the energy use in the US is from data centers and this is growing. Monitoring the local temperature at the server cabinet level could realize significant energy savings by optimizing cooling requirements.

Dennis easily setup the modules and displayed the sensor information on his computer. Here is a short video highlighting the system.