Semtech Adds New Transceivers for ‘Complete Wireless IC Portfolio’

Semtech recently announced the release of two new members of the LR20XX family of long range, low power, multi-band LoRa transceivers. The two chips, the LR2022 and LR2012 transceivers, are pin and code-compatible with the full-featured original member of the family, the LR2021.

The LR2022 is positioned for multi-band, global terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks. The LR2012 rounds out the line with lower cost and lower power for traditional sub-GHz low-power wireless and LPWAN applications.

Semtech LR20XX block diagram

LoRa Plus is Semtech’s fourth generation mid-range spread-spectrum wireless platform. LoRa (long range) wireless radio technology is an Internet of things (IoT) physical layer (PHY) originally designed to transmit at 0.3 Kbps to 27 Kbps in the 3 to 10 mile range in open areas. Semtech’s LoRa Plus increases speeds to a maximum of 125 Kbps for LoRa applications and up to 2 Mbps for FSK. LoRa Plus working distance goes up to 30 miles line-of-sight.

Family Member Differences

The LR2012 starts with sub-GHz ISM bands for terrestrial and satellite applications. It leaves out features from the other two that may not be necessary in products with limited cost and power budgets. The LR2012 protocol set includes LoRaWAN, Wi-Sun, wireless M-Bus, and FSK.

Semtech LR20XX family member differences

The LR2022 adds Bluetooth LE PHY and legacy FSK support to the LR2012 feature set. While the 2012 stays in the sub-GHz, the 2022 adds 2.4GHz LoRa, 2.4GHz round trip time of flight (RTToF) distance measurement, and 2.4GHz fast long-range communications (FLRC) at 2.6 Mbps.

The LR2022 rounds out its transceiver capability with SATCOM S-band long range-frequency hopping spread spectrum (LR-FHSS). LR-FHSS utilizes low energy per bit and advanced frequency hopping to improve reliability in RF crowded or interference prone settings.

The already available LR2021 has all of the capability included in the other two variants and adds ZigBee, Z-Wave and Thread, which the other two do not. More information is available in the combined data sheet for the LR2012/LR2021/LR2022.

LR2021 block diagram—the most full featured of the family. (Click on image to enlarge).

The LR2021, LR2022, and LR2021 are backwards compatible with previous Semtech LoRa parts. All three come with multi-PHY compatibility for low power wireless using third party protocol stacks supporting LoRa up to 125 kbps, FSK, OOK and LR-FHSS modulations. The LR20XX receive section improves channel activity detection (CAD) and has multiple spreading factor (Multi-SF) receive capability. The three can be used as point to point or networked LoRaWAN configurations.

In addition, the three are global products with multi-region compatibility allowing for a single SKU to support customers world-wide. The chips and available development kits cover European 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz ISM bands, North American 915 MHz and 2.4 GHz ISM bands, and China/Asia 490 MHz and 2.4 GHz ISM bands.

Applications

The LoRa Plus chips are designed for homes in a wide-variety of wireless products. On the high-end, the LR20XX series have SATCOM reception capability combined with long-range (up to 30 miles line of sight) terrestrial operation making them suitable for IoT applications that require satellite downlink or gateway-based satellite uplink.

The LR2012 offers a lower cost solution by leaving off GHz protocols making it ideal for deployment as an asset tracker, meter reader interface, and sensor communications. The LR2022 and LR2021, with 2.4GHz support, are also suited for longer range IoT applications like smart agriculture, and longer range industrial automation. The LR2021, with ZigBee, Z-wave, and Thread, can be used in smart-home/smart-office applications that require broader protocol interoperability.

All images used courtesy of Semtech.