Anaren, Inc. has introduced a family of four Anaren Integrated Radio (AIR) modules designed to help OEMs develop products that wirelessly communicate in compliance with the ZigBee standard. Based on the Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) CC2530 low-power RF SoC (which operates using TI’s Z-Stack firmware), the new family of modules is bundled with AIR Support for ZigBee – a total solution that includes AIR-ZNP firmware (including 30+ code examples), pre-certification to applicable global, regulatory standards, and development tools like the company’s BoosterPack for TI MSP430 and Stellaris LaunchPad development kits.

Features of Anaren’s new AIR module family for ZigBee standard applications (part number A2530x24xxx) include: minimal RF engineering and ZigBee experience necessary; easy programmability; integral or connectorized antenna; pre-certified to FCC/IC, compliant with ETSI; choice of range extender or non-range extender modules; small footprint; 2.4-GHz IEEE 802.15.4 compliant RF transceiver (TI’s CC2530); wide input voltage range; 100 percent RF tested in production; low current consumption; a microcontroller featuring high-performance and low-power 8051 core with code prefetch and 256 KB in-system programmable flash and 8 KB RAM with retention in all power modes. The module is preloaded with the company’s AIR-ZNP firmware based on the TI Z-Stack for ZigBee and support for SPI and UART communication plus a driver library for MSP430 and Stellaris MCUs.