SAN JOSE, Calif. — Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (Woburn, Mass.) and Ember Corp. (Boston, Mass.) will combine their RF and controller devices to create a family of modules aimed at ZigBee wireless networks. The modules will target a wide range of industrial and consumer applications including smart energy meters.

Analysts said the new modules will extend the range previously offered by Ember's Zigbee products, making them better suited for uses such as smart meters. The duo faces a growing range of competitors including giants such as Texas Instruments and Freescale who support a broader range of protocols.

The new devices will be based on Skyworks' existing 8x8 mm Sky65336 and Sky65337 modules that integrate 2.4 GHz transceiver components including low noise amplifiers, harmonic filers and power amplifiers. The modules include baluns from Skyworks that provide differential ports to Ember's transceivers.

The new modules will sport Ember's Em250 or Em260 integrated Zigbee controllers. The controllers include IEEE 802.15.4 radios, microprocessors, memory and peripherals needed to support the full Zigbee Pro software stack provided by the company.

With transmit power at up to 20 dBm the modules can support the kinds of ranges required by smart meters, once a limiting factor for Zigbee, said Mareca Hatler, director of research at On World, a market watcher in San Diego.

"The SK6533x components fill out the Ember portfolio, enabling it to more easily compete with TI in providing extended range solutions, said Kirsten West, principal analyst at West Technology Research Solutions LLC (Mountain View, Calif.)

One downside, according to West, is the modules boost power consumption to hit the extended range.

"This will take them out of the realm of devices intended to operate for extended time on battery power or while powered by energy harvesting technologies," she said. "But since [many] devices for these applications will have access to mains power, the power consumption issue should not be a critical one," she added.

Bob Gohn, Ember's vice president of marketing, said the new modules will "dramatically reduce component size, cost and power consumption," over alternative devices, speaking in a press statement. The companies did not publish pricing for the modules.

"Skyworks' partnership with Ember accelerates our efforts in the energy management industry by more than doubling our addressable market for front-end modules," said Stan Swearingen, Skyworks' general manager of linear products.

The new modules face competition from "dozens of module makers today with 802.15.4 and ZigBee offerings," said Hatler.

While Ember has focused on Zigbee others also support protocols such as Wireless HART and the emerging 6LoWPAN standard for Internet protocol in sensor networks. Dave Culler, a UC Berkeley professor who developed the TinyOS software for sensor networks, is championing 6LoWPAN for running IPv6 over 802.15.4.

West forecasts the overall ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 market to grow at an annual rate of more than 117 percent from approximately 8.4 million units shipped in 2007 to as many as 516 million in 2012.

Hatler pegged ZigBee chipset annual growth at about 50 percent a year, accelerating to more than 100 percent per year over the next five years. Much of that growth will be driven by initiatives such as smart meters to conserve energy on the electric grid, she added.