Advanced testing and validation are services designed to help customers get innovative IoT products to market faster

Granite River Labs (GRL), a global leader in engineering services and test automation solutions for digital connectivity and charging technologies, and professional market access services, has certified the new RT58X SoC developed by broadband wireless RF chip pioneer, Rafael Micro, as fully compliant with the Matter 1.0 standard. The RT58X is the first Matter chip solution to be certified at GRL’s Taipei facility, which was one of the first third-party labs in the world to be accredited by the Connectivity Standards Alliance to provide validation testing services for the new Matter 1.0 standard.

Matter is an IPv6-based connectivity protocol built on established wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Thread and Ethernet. Described by the CSA as “the foundation for connected things,” Matter enables compatible smart home devices and systems to connect seamlessly, securely and reliably. As an authorized test lab, ATL, GRL’s Matter services cover hardware solutions, from smart home speakers and smart TVs to light bulbs and switches. GRL also verifies the software used in Matter devices.

Rafael Micro’s RT58X solution is based on an advanced RF communication system with powerful ARM® cotex-M3 MCU that allows it to operate with different communication protocols. In addition to the Matter 1.0 standard, it supports both 2.4GHz and Sub-GHz RF and multi-protocol IEEE802.15.1/IEEE 802.15.4 MAC. The device also accommodates Bluetooth Low Energy® (Bluetooth Low Energy) and the Thread low-power and low-latency wireless mesh networking protocol.

The embedded 2MB of flash memory and 204KB of SRAM support Matter protocol version remote update over the air, making the RT58X suitable for the latest Matter smart home devices and Matter Border Router applications, such as smart home appliances and home security network applications.

“Ranked in the world’s top three for high frequency broadband RF IC design house, and with shipments surpassing Japanese and Korean competitors, Rafael Micro is constantly innovating to create new high-quality technology for the world,”  said Ken Li, co-President of Rafael Micro. “GRL’s advanced testing and validation services are a perfect fit with our creative philosophy, and played a key role in getting the new RT58X IC tested, certified and ready for customers as quickly as possible.”

“GRL was pleased to be one of the first labs authorized by the Connection Standards Alliance to help ensure products comply with Matter 1.0 specifications. We are doubly delighted to announce Rafael Micro’s RT58X as the first Matter device to be certified at our recently expanded Taipei facility,” said Vamshi Kandalla, Chief Strategy Officer for GRL. “GRL is committed to providing professional certification testing services and technical consulting to help more IoT products pass increasingly rigorous testing specifications and compatibility requirements.”

CSA website link: RT58X – CSA-IOT

About Rafael Microelectronics, Inc.

Rafael Micro is a fabless IC design company in Taiwan that focuses on high-end broadband RF technology and continues to extend its core technology to digital and high-speed optical communications. Its products include TV RF IC, STB RF IC, modulator chip, satellite broadcast LNB, optical communication IC and BLE 5.1/5.2 and Sub-GHz IoT communication chips. Rafael Micro’s product lines performance, quality and engineering services quality have been highly recognized by customers. For more information please visit website: http://www.rafaelmicro.com/

Rafael Micro, with RF IC design as its core competence, launched the world’s most advanced dual band 2.4GHz/ Sub-GHz multiple protocol SoC RT582 for the Internet of Things (IOT) communication market. The RT582 integrates advanced Arm® Cortex-M3 MCU with dual band 2.4GHz RF with embedded multi-protocol MAC for Bluetooth 5.1/5.2, Zigbee® 3.0, Matter and Thread applications.

RT582 comes with embedded 1MB Flash and 204KB of RAM for latest Matter applications which is supported by major ecosystem players like Google, Apple and Facebook. RT582 facilitates development of Matter end products that support Thread, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth protocols. Matter is a new high level protocol designed to provide cross vendors interoperable, reliable, secure connectivity and networks for IOT market. Matter simplifies product development and the end-user experience by providing a unified connectivity standard for a wide range of smart home and commercial applications. including Smart speaker, LED bulbs, door locks, commercial lighting and access control.

RT582 has -114 dBm sensitivity (1% PER) @ 50 kbps O-QPSK DSSS and built-in 20dbm output power. In a noisy frequency band, it has outstanding noise immunity performance regardless of the transmission speed. Rich IO support and high performance ADC provide the high flexibility for different application requirement.

RT582 comes with 4×4 QFN IC packages, and complete software porting, customization services and operating system support.

Rafael Micro CEO Ted Sun said, ” Matter is a new IP based open standard protocol that can ensure cross brand device interoperability and reduce costs through a partner ecosystem, true interoperability between products, and flexibility in hardware selection. Many leading companies are actively supporting this new standard. With these advantages and other features, it provides a reliable, low-power, cost-effective choice for Matter based networks that expand the range, improve indoor penetration, and extended battery life.”

Update to date Matter ecosystems including Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit and Google. In addition to Matter protocol support, RT582 also suitable for Zigbee-Direct applications which used Bluetooth to interface with mobile phones running specific APPs while control and managed IOT devices connected by Zigbee® based mesh network.

About Rafael Micro

Rafael Micro is a fabless IC design company in Taiwan that focuses on high-end broadband RF technology and continues to extend its core technology to digital and high-speed optical communications. Its products include TV RF IC, STB RF IC, modulator chip, satellite broadcast LNB, optical communication IC and BLE 5.1/5.2 and Sub-GHz IoT communication chips. Rafael Micro’s product lines performance, quality and engineering services quality have been highly recognized by customers. For more information please visit website: http://www.rafaelmicro.com/

Key words: Bluetooth, Zigbee Direct, Matter, Mesh, Thread

Rafael Micro launches the “RT5 dual-band multi-protocol IOT platform” which leads the industry through CSA official certification in line with the industry’s mainstream Zigbee standards. Formerly known as the Zigbee Alliance, the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) is an international organization created and maintained by hundreds of businesses around the world that provides open global standards for the Internet of Things (IoT). From Zigbee, the Alliance’s founding technology to Matter, its latest IPv6 IoT-based standard, the Alliance is committed to coordinating the development of IoT applications. The “RT5 dual-band multi-protocol IoT platform” is a design based on Rafael Micro’s software expertise and system experience. Through complete certification it provides the industry’s entire set of open mainstream IoT solutions leading global IoT users towards a more convenient world of internet connectivity.

Rafael Micro’s “RT5 dual-band multi-protocol IoT platform” is a complete IoT solution that controls the operation of IoT connectivity protocols in a variety of mainstream microcontrollers (MCUs). Rafael Micro also offers Bluetooth® Low Energy 5.0 / 5.1 / 5.2, Zigbee 3.0 and dual-band 2.4GHz/Sub-GHz RF hardware subsystems. The industry’s mainstream MCUs can be closely integrated with Rafael Micro wireless subsystems through standard SPI interfaces resulting in efficient control of MAC layer, network layer and application layer functions. Flexible configuration of wireless subsystems provides IoT devices with a wide range of data link control options.

“We are pleased to provide certified ZigBee wireless communication systems to MCU/SoC manufacturers and IoT solution providers that require wireless connectivity solutions on our strong Bluetooth® Low Energy platform foundation” said Ted Sun, CEO of Rafael Micro. “We provide our customers with low power, cost-effective and uniquely featured solutions for their wireless IoT products. ”

Rafael Micro’s “RT5 dual-band multi-protocol IoT platform” supports network protocols such as ZigBee3.0, Thread, BLE5.x, and the first generation supports ultra-low-power high-performance ARM® Cortex®-M0/3/4 microcontrollers. Together with the RT569 subsystem hardware platform it can expand support for 2.4GHz/Sub-1GHz dual-band multi-protocol applications. The RT569 series features a Bluetooth® Low Energy 5.1/5.2 low-power transceiver and a transceiver that meets IEEE 802.15.4 standards. This controller has ultra-low current consumption in wireless reception and transmit modes, and its low power mode allows the use of coin battery power.

Over-the-air (OTA) software update is also available through the serial interface.

With the rapid development of Internet of Things technology, traditional methods of manual control, detection and sampling no longer satisfy the daily needs of work and life. More intelligent and automated ways bring more convenience to logistics and factory management. In this evolution, wireless communication technology is a key element as it can solve problems of remote control, remote monitoring and data acquisition. The “RT5 dual-band multi-protocol IoT platform” supports ZigBee, Bluetooth® and other mainstream communication standards that will be used more widely in a variety of work and life scenarios.

Rafael Micro RT5 certification information: https://zigbeealliance.org/zigbee_products/rt5-multi-standard-platform/

About Rafael Micro

Rafael Micro is a fabless IC design company in Taiwan that focuses on high-end broadband RF technology and continues to extend its core technology to digital and high-speed optical communications. Its products include TV RF chips, STB RF chips, modulator chips, satellite broadcast LNB chips, optical communication chips and Bluetooth® 5.0 Low Energy and Sub-GHz IoT communication chips. Rafael Micro’s product lines performance, quality and engineering services capability have been highly recognized by customers. For more information please visit our website: https://www.rafaelmicro.com/

Key words: Zigbee, Sub-GHz, Mesh, IoT

(HsinChu, Taiwan) — Rafael Microelectronics has launched a 10G Trans-Impedance Amplifier (TIA) chip for the high-speed optical communication market, which complies with the mainstream standards of telecommunications such as 10G SFP+, 10G EPON, XG/XGS PON, etc. With the emergence of 5G mobile communications, cloud data centers, and home office trends, which drive huge demand for network bandwidth, governments, telecom operators and data centers in various countries are stepping up efforts to promote larger bandwidth optical communication networks, which will not only expand the use of enterprise optical fibers. The optical network has spread to applications such as fiber to the building (FTTB), 5G front-haul and large data center cloud networks. 

The optical fiber module is an important device for realizing the conversion of optical signals and electrical signals in the optical communication system. TIA is the basic component for manufacturing optical devices. The device production process first manufactures optical lasers, photo detectors and other components into optical devices, and then encapsulates the optical devices into an optical module. The optical module mainly includes two parts: transmitting and receiving. The transmitting signal in the module is composed of a laser, a driver, etc.; the receiving signal is composed of an optical receiver with a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) and a photodetector (APD or PD), a limiting amplifier, etc. An optical receiver with a trans-impedance amplifier converts the received optical signal into a voltage signal and provides it to a limiting amplifier, and outputs data after being amplified by the limiting amplifier. 

The TIA trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) chip launched by Macro Microelectronics includes the following products:

(1) RT112 10G APD TIA: supports APD TO-CAN/ROSA applications; the chip supports 5Gbps~12.8Gbps, uses 3.3V, and the sensitivity is -33dBm (BER 10E-3) in the case of 10Gbps communication. The main feature of the product is high gain (Typical value 6K), high bandwidth and high reliability, mainly used in 10G SONET/SDH and 10G PON optical receivers.

(2) RT114 10G PIN TIA: supports PIN PD TO-CAN/ROSA applications; the chip supports 1Gbps~10Gbps, uses 3.3V, and the sensitivity is -26dBm (BER 10E-3) under 10Gbps communication. This high-sensitivity TIA with 2.5Gbps PIN PD can replace 2.5Gbps APD+TIA, which can greatly reduce ONU cost and power consumption.The RT112/114 series of chips adopt TSMC’s advanced CMOS process, which has the advantages of low power consumption and high reliability. It has ultra-high receiving sensitivity and trans-impedance gain, and can match various PD/APD optical receivers on the market. 

Ted Sun, Chief Executive Officer of Rafael Micro, said, “In the 5G era, consumers will be able to experience high-speed and massive Internet services, including remote office, telemedicine, 4K/8K video, virtual reality (VR), and autonomous safe driving. PON has become the main technology of fiber-to-the-building telecommunication networks. EPON and GPON are generally adopted by telecom operators around the world. 10G PON technology is a PON standard promoted by the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Department (ITU-T). With established PON specifications and maturity of equipment, global telecom operators have upgraded and adopted 10 GPON technology in response to new services and increased demand for bandwidth.” 

High-frequency technology capability has always been the competitive advantage of Macro Microelectronics. The series has passed the third-party certification laboratory reliability verification and fully meets the 2000hrs stress reliability requirement. The series of products have been in mass production, providing the best 10Gbps communication solutions for equipment manufacturers. 

About Rafael Microelectronics, Inc.

Rafael Microelectronics is a Taiwan fabless IC design company with broadband RF design as its core technology. Products include 4K/8K UHD TV silicon tuners, set-top box STB RF tuners, satellite LNB down-converters, HDMI, DP, USB optical transceivers and Bluetooth, Sub-GHz RF transceivers for IOT market.More information available at company website: http://www.rafaelmicro.com/ 

Contact: Cashew Chen cashew.chen@rafaelmicro.com

Rafael Micro, with RF IC design as its core technology, launched the Bluetooth 5.0 low-power (BLE 5.0) wireless transceiver RT568 for the Internet of Things (IOT) communication market. Its design is based on a simplified standard SPI interface and a main chip or a microprocessor (MCU), which can flexibly execute standard software or customer-specific software applications.

Due to the low power and reliability unique to the Bluetooth standard, related technologies have begun to expand into a variety of applications. With a simple one-click pairing between products, data communication or voice transmission can be performed. The Bluetooth Alliance has more than 20,000 members. Most mobile devices are equipped with Bluetooth. With the advent of the 5G Internet of Things era, many smart home products (such as smart light bulbs) also introduced Bluetooth technology to make Bluetooth applications more omnipresent.

Rafael Micro CEO Ted Sun said, “RT 568 is a highly customizable Bluetooth low-power 5.0 chip. The standard communication software includes Link Layer, Stack and Profiles, which are mainly executed in the microprocessor selected by the customer.” Customers can also choose to execute the protocol software developed by themselves for special applications. In this way, the RT568 becomes a highly customizable wireless RF transceiver decoupled from the main chip.

RT568 has -96dbm high sensitivity and built-in 10dbm output power. In the noisy 2.4GHz frequency band, it has outstanding anti-noise performance regardless of the transmission speed of 2Mb / s or 1Mb / s. At present, RT568 provides KGD (Known Good Die) and 3×3 QFN20 IC packages, and provides software porting, customized services and operating system support. Customers can also choose a third-party BLE software protocol stack or BLE network firmware which is connected to the RT568 through the HCI interface.

RT568 BLE chip can provide the connectivity function for a embedded 32bit MCU / SOC at the lowest cost. Not only the main technical indicators are better than major market competitors, but the PCB area required is also greatly reduced. RT568 will be a new cost-effective option in the industry to improve the system performance of IOT communication.

About Rafael Micro

Rafael Micro is a fabless IC design company in Taiwan that focuses on high-end broadband RF technology and continues to extend its core technology to digital and high-speed optical communications. Its products include TV RF chips, STB RF IC, modulator chip, satellite broadcast LNB, optical communication chip and BLE 5.0 and Sub-GHz IoT communication chip. Rafael Micro’s product lines performance, quality and engineering services quality have been highly recognized by customers.

For more information please visit website: http://www.rafaelmicro.com/