STMicroelectronics' ZigBee solution integrates a 2.4GHz IEEE 802.15.4-compliant radio transceiver and a state-of-the-art 16-bit microprocessor with EmberZNet software stack.

The SN250 is a power-efficient chip that includes comprehensive, hardware-supported, network-level debugging features for easy application development.

The SN250's embedded EmberZNet software stack was developed by ST's strategic partner for ZigBee technology, Ember Corporation. It is field-upgradeable and optimized for long battery life, a low external component count and a reliable, proven, industry-standard networking solution.

The integrated transceiver of the SN250 provides performance above and beyond those specified in IEEE 802.15.4. A transmission (TX) Boost mode offers up to 5dBm increase in output power to deliver an increased communication range. Receiver (RX) sensitivity in Boost mode is -98dBm. A flexible antenna interface enables easy antenna connection, with or without an external power amplifier.

The power-efficient 16-bit RISC-core processor includes 128-kbytes of embedded Flash and 5 kbytes of SRAM, plus a hardware encryption engine (AES 128) with true random number generator. A wide range of peripherals—including two serial controllers with DMA (I2C master, SPI master/slave, and UART), two 16-bit all-purpose timers, one 16-bit sleep timer, a watchdog timer, and power-on-reset circuitry—allow for fully-featured application designs with few additional devices.

The SN250 is available in sample quantities now, in a 7mm x 7mm QFN48 package, with volume production planned for October 2006. It is priced at $5.00 in volumes of 5,000 units.

More information is available at www.st.com.