TN100

The TN100 transceiver is a highly integrated mixed signal chip that uses the wireless communication technology CSS (chirp spread spectrum) developed by Nanotron Technologies. With its unique ranging capability, TN100 can measure the link distance between two nodes. Thus, TN100 supports location awareness applications including location based services (LBS) and asset tracking (2D/3D RTLS). Ranging is performed during regular data communication and does not require additional infrastructure, power, and/or bandwidth. For an even better ranging accuracy, a high precision mode is provided. SDS-TWR algorithm (symmetrical double-sided two-way ranging) allows superior accuracy even with the use of low cost crystals for the oscillators. The TN100 transceiver IC is designed to build up robust, short distance wireless networks operating in the 2.45 GHz ISM band with extremely low power consumption over a wide range of operating temperatures.

The TN100 supports 7-frequency channels with 3 non-overlapping channels. This provides support for multiple physically independent networks and improved coexistence performance with existing 2.4 GHz wireless technologies. Data rates are selectable between 31.25 kbps and 2 Mbps. Due to the chip's unique chirp pulse, adjustment of the antenna is not critical. This significantly simplifies the system's installation and maintenance ("pick-andplace").

The TN100 transceiver includes a sophisticated MAC controller with CSMA/CA and TDMA support as well as forward error correction (FEC) and 128-bit hardware encryption. It also provides scrambling, automatic address matching, and packet retransmission, thus minimizing the requirements for microcontroller and software. Through its high-speed standard SPI interface, the TN100 can be interfaced with a wide range of external micro-controllers. It includes a 4 kbits frame buffer which allows even very slow microcontrollers to work with the transceiver. This means that several receive and transmit frames can be stored simultaneously in the buffers. This solution eliminates the problems of different peak data rates between air and microcontroller interfaces.