Release Details

EZRadioPRO™ and MCU Optimized to Reduce Power and Lower System Cost

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 23, 2009-- Silicon Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ: SLAB), a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, today announced the industry’s highest performance embedded wireless solution, the EZRadioPRO™ family and C8051F9xx series low-power MCU. The EZRadioPRO embedded wireless radio family delivers the highest single-chip output power (up to +20 dBm) and industry leading sensitivity (-118 dBm), providing a best-in-class link budget that substantially increases communication range while minimizing power consumption.

High performance coupled with comprehensive built-in system features, such as packet handling and antenna diversity, allows the devices to achieve the lowest overall system cost for frequencies from 240 to 960 MHz. When paired with Silicon Labs’ low-power, low-voltage C8051F9xx MCU family, customers can develop embedded wireless solutions that operate from a single cell battery, reducing cost and size in consumer and industrial applications such as remote meter reading, home security, remote keyless entry and building automation.

Most embedded wireless applications require a high performance RF transceiver, receiver or transmitter for data communication with an embedded MCU for system control and data processing. These applications demand the best possible reach, robust performance and the longest possible battery life. Often, these types of applications are implemented in noisy environments that can degrade the wireless performance. By maximizing the wireless link budget, including advanced radio features like antenna diversity and implementing key radio features digitally using an embedded DSP, the highest performance can be achieved under the most difficult operating environments. Silicon Laboratories’ low-cost wireless solution includes:

The EZRadioPRO high-performance transceiver, receiver and transmitter, which integrate embedded antenna diversity capabilities on chip to automatically choose the most effective antenna, improving performance. In addition the devices support built-in packet handling, wake-up timers, temperature sensing and low-battery detection. Competing solutions depend on an external controller to offer similar functionally, increasing cost and software complexity while negatively impacting battery life.
The C8051F9xx family of low-voltage, low-power MCUs, capable of operating down to 0.9 V, integrates a dc-dc controller able to supply up to 65 mW of power to the MCU and EZRadioPRO device, enabling a complete single-cell battery powered radio/MCU solution.
The EZRadioPRO family’s built-in, high-performance low-noise amplifier (LNA) and power amplifier (PA) eliminate the need for expensive external components used in many demanding applications, resulting in a BOM savings of approximately $0.50 to $1.00 USD. EZRadioPRO gives customers the flexibility to change key radio parameters via register settings, enabling an optimal tradeoff between performance and battery life customized for their application and environment.

“By combining high performance and low power, EZRadioPRO and the C8051F9xx meet all the demands of customers employing embedded wireless into their applications,” said Rafi Fried, general manager of wireless products for Silicon Laboratories. “Our embedded wireless approach vastly increases performance and simplifies the customer’s design, while improving reliability and extending battery life.”

The EZRadioPRO and the C8051F9xx product families are supported by Silicon Labs’ industry-leading tools to help speed design and accelerate time to market. At no cost to the customer, a complete professional wireless development suite (WDS) is provided that includes reference code, schematics and Gerbers as wells as an easy-to-use GUI to help designers configure the radio for quick lab evaluations. The WDS GUI also outputs a radio configuration file including all required radio register settings for use with the MCU IDE.

Pricing and Availability

The EZRadioPRO family is available now in 20-pin QFN packages, and pricing ranges from $1.31 to $2.91 USD in quantities of 10K. The C8051F9xx family is available now in compact 24-pin, 4- x 4-mm QFN, 5- x 5-mm, 32-pin QFN and 7- x 7-mm, 32-pin LQFP packages with pricing starting at $1.99 USD in quantities of 10K. Development kits and samples are available for purchase at www.silabs.com.

Silicon Laboratories Inc.

Silicon Laboratories is an industry leader in the innovation of high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs. Developed by a world-class engineering team with unsurpassed expertise in mixed-signal design, Silicon Labs’ diverse portfolio of highly integrated, easy-to-use products offers customers significant advantages in performance, size and power consumption. These patented solutions serve a broad set of markets and applications including consumer, communications, computing, industrial and automotive.

Headquartered in Austin, TX, Silicon Labs is a global enterprise with operations, sales and design activities worldwide. The company is committed to contributing to our customers’ success by recruiting the highest quality talent to create industry-changing innovations. For more information about Silicon Labs, please visit www.silabs.com.

Cautionary Language

This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on Silicon Laboratories’ current expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. For a discussion of factors that could impact Silicon Laboratories' financial results and cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Silicon Laboratories’ filings with the SEC. Silicon Laboratories disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Note to editors: EZRadioPRO, C8051F9xx, Silicon Laboratories, Silicon Labs, the “S” symbol, the Silicon Laboratories logo and the Silicon Labs logo are trademarks of Silicon Laboratories Inc. All other product names noted herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.

Source: Silicon Laboratories Inc.

Silicon Laboratories Inc.
Lindsey Starnes, 512-532-5349
lindsey.starnes@silabs.com