Microwave Journal
www.microwavejournal.com/articles/7557-freescale-leads-in-ieee-802-15-4-chipsets

Freescale Leads in IEEE 802.15.4 Chipsets

February 19, 2009

Freescale Semiconductor, a supplier of 802.15.4 chipsets, announced it has shipped more than seven million IEEE® 802.15.4 and ZigBee® units in 2008 for the wireless sensor networks used in smart energy, industrial control and home entertainment applications.

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 seven 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.”

Designed to address the need for a low cost, low power wireless solution, IEEE 802.15.4 has become a solid foundation for monitoring and control networks, as well as numerous other standard network stacks such as ZigBee technology, RF4CE consortium, SynkroRF network technology and WirelessHART™ technology. Freescale's platform approach makes wireless simple by providing a one-stop shop for customers, complete with hardware, software, development tools and reference designs.