Microchip announces a family of highly integrated LoRa® System-in-Packages (SiPs) featuring a low-power 32-bit microcontroller, a sub-1 GHz LoRa RF transceiver, and a software stack. The combination of long-range wireless connectivity and low power consumption aims to accelerate the development of LoRa-based connected solutions.The SAM R34/35 SiPs are supported by certified reference designs and have proven compatibility with leading LoRaWAN™ gateway and network vendors, significantly simplifying the entire hardware, software, and support development process. The devices also offer the lowest standby power consumption on the market, extending battery life in remote IoT nodes.
LoRa terminal devices typically remain in standby mode for extended periods and are only activated sporadically to transmit small data packets. SAM R34 devices, incorporating the ultra-low-power SAM L21 microcontroller based on the Arm® Cortex®-M0+, consume as little as 790 nA in standby mode, significantly reducing power consumption and extending battery life in end-user applications. The SAM R34/35 family is characterized by its high level of integration within a compact 6 x 6 mm package, making it ideal for a wide range of long-range, low-power IoT applications that demand a small form factor and long battery life.
Along with its very low power consumption, the simplified development process allows developers to accelerate their designs by combining their application code and Microchip's LoRaWAN stack, as well as rapidly prototype using the ATSAMR34-XPRO development board (DM320111), which is supported by the Atmel Studio 7 software development kit. The development board is
certified by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Industry Canada (IC), and the Radio Equipment Directive (RED), so developers can be confident that their designs will meet regulatory requirements in different countries.
LoRa technology has been designed to enable low-power applications to communicate over longer distances than Zigbee®, Wi-Fi®, and Bluetooth® using the open LoRaWAN protocol. It is ideal for various applications such as smart cities, agricultural monitoring, and supply chain tracking, as it allows for the creation of flexible IoT networks that can operate in both urban and rural environments. According to the LoRa Alliance™, the number of LoRaWAN operators has doubled from 40 to 80 in the last 12 months, and LoRaWAN networks are being actively deployed in more than 100 countries.
The SAM R34/35 family features Microchip's LoRaWAN stack support and a certified, tested chip package, enabling customers to accelerate RF application design with reduced risk. With worldwide LoRaWAN compatibility between 862 and 1020 MHz, developers can use a single version in multiple countries, simplifying the design process and reducing inventory. The SAM R34/35 family supports both Class A and Class C devices, as well as proprietary point-to-point connections.
Microchip's LoRa SAM R34/35 family is available in six different device versions, giving developers the flexibility to choose the best combination of memory and peripherals for their end application. SAM R34 devices are supplied in a 64-pin TFBGA package, while SAM R35 devices are supplied without a USB interface.
