Maximum efficiency at minimum power consumption: New options for integrating RFicient® receivers

iis.fraunhofer.de, Feb. 24, 2025 – 

Erlangen, Germany: The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS is now offering an even simpler way to use RFicient®, its ultra-low-power wireless receiver: now, in addition to development services and IPs, customers can also order evaluation kits, cost-effective breakout boards, and individual chips. The particularly energy-efficient technology combines ultra-low energy consumption with extremely fast response times – a unique combination resulting in reliable IoT and tracking solutions that last longer. Fraunhofer IIS is presenting the evaluation kit, breakout board, and individual chip options at embedded world in Nuremberg from March 11 to 13, 2025.

Wireless communication always faces one main problem: efficient energy consumption. Standard receivers require a lot of power, so they have to be switched off briefly on a regular basis, leading to long response times. Alternatively, the receivers can remain active, but this drastically shortens the battery life. This is a particular concern for battery-powered applications that nevertheless require fast response times, such as IoT sensors or asset tracking.

RFicient® technology – highly efficient, extremely fast, sustainable

Fraunhofer IIS's wireless receiver resolves this conflict between energy consumption and response time: the RFicient®-Technology works with an extremely low power consumption of less than 5 µW, while also enabling a fast response time of less than 32 ms. Selective wake-up and group addressing make it possible to target which systems to activate, but without unnecessary energy consumption. Reception takes place on the 433 MHz, 868 MHz, 915 MHz, and 2.4 GHz frequency bands, which means that RFicient® can be used worldwide.

Expanding the product portfolio for faster development

In addition to development services, hardware solutions are now also directly available. Manufacturers of IoT and sensor network solutions can choose from a complete evaluation kit, breakout boards for simple tests, or individual chips. These can be purchased from the High-Performance Center Electronic Systems store, LZE GmbH, as well as the EBV Elektronik GmbH catalog.

The evaluation kit provides a comprehensive test environment with a preconfigured transmitter and receiver module, plus user-friendly software for easy customization of the chip settings. This allows companies to directly evaluate the technology's performance and test its suitability for specific applications – without any additional development effort.

Breakout boards offer a compact and inexpensive alternative for cost-conscious users and experienced developers. Featuring the RFicient® chip on a base board for direct control, these boards provide greater flexibility regarding integration, but require additional expertise and external hardware, such as microcontrollers, for activation.

Click here to read more...

 Back