AN RFMD® APPLICATION NOTE RFSM6525EM357 Reference Design Overview The RFSM6525EM357 reference design is a partnership between RFMD and Ember presenting a complete 2.4GHz IEEE 802.15.4-2003-compliant radio transceiver solution. Ember presents a fully integrated system-on-chip (SoC) with 32-bit ARM® Cortex™-M3 microprocessor, flash memory, and RAM memory, delivering unmatched performance and EmberZNet PRO network protocol stack to designers of ZigBee-based systems. RFMD presents a family of world class front end modules (FEM) for efficient extended output power above 20dBm with harmonic filtering, diversity switch, and LNA option for "bypass mode" that perfectly mate with, and increases the link budget of the EM300 Series and EM200 Series System-on-Chips (SoCs). These front end modules include the RF6525, RF6535 and RF6515. This document briefly describes the RFSM6525EM357 reference design and how it is set up and configured for Engineering Evaluation of the RF6525 FEM using Ember’s nodetest application firmware, pre-flashed on the EM357 SoC. Snapshots of Tx and Rx data are included. Figure 1. Top and Bottom View of RFSM6525EM357 Reference Design RF MICRO DEVICES®, RFMD®, Optimum Technology Matching®, Enabling Wireless Connectivity™, PowerStar®, POLARIS™ TOTAL RADIO™ and UltimateBlue™ are trademarks of RFMD, LLC. BLUETOOTH is a trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc., U.S.A. and licensed for use by RFMD. All other trade names, trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2010, RF Micro Devices, Inc. AN110725 7628 Thorndike Road, Greensboro, NC 27409-9421 · For sales or technical support, contact RFMD at (+1) 336-678-5570 or [email protected]. 1 of 7 RFSM6525EM357 Reference Design Figure 2. Layout (Top View) Figure 3. Schematic Complete reference design files, including layout, schematic, BOM, and Gerber files are available from RFMD.com. AN110725 7628 Thorndike Road, Greensboro, NC 27409-9421 · For sales or technical support, contact RFMD at (+1) 336-678-5570 or [email protected]. 2 of 7 RFSM6525EM357 Reference Design Test Setup Evaluation and Configuration The RFSM6525EM357 reference design is evaluated on the Ember EM35X breakout board (EM35X-BBRD) using an RS-232 interface or USB interface with onboard RS-232 conversion. Power is provided using a USB supply, external supply, or external battery pack. Figure 4. RFSM6525EM357 Reference Design Using USB Interface and Power AN110725 7628 Thorndike Road, Greensboro, NC 27409-9421 · For sales or technical support, contact RFMD at (+1) 336-678-5570 or [email protected]. 3 of 7 RFSM6525EM357 Reference Design With the RFSM6525EM357 reference design powered and connected to a computer, a terminal emulator can establish communication with the appropriate RS-232 COM Port or USB interface, depending on which type of connection is in use. If you do not have the proper FTDI drivers installed, please go to www.ftdichip.com/FTDrivers.htm and install the drivers for your operating system. These drivers are needed to establish communication. Note that these drivers may have to be installed twice to ensure proper operation.After connection is established with that port, set field values as follows: Field Value Bits per Second 115,200 Data Bits 8 Parity none Stop Bits 1 Flow Control Hardware Press "Enter" to establish a response from the EM357 SoC. Configuration of the RF6525 FEM can then occur. Figure 5. RFSM6525EM357 Reference Design Response from Hyperterminal RF6525 Configuration with EM357 Using Node Test Application v1.0 At the prompt ">", the following commands are utilized to configure the RF6525 FEM for continuous transmit in channel 19 (as an example scenario) in the following order: Step Command 1 gpiocfg c 18944919 "Enter" 2 setchannel 13 "Enter" 3 settxpowmode 0 1 "Enter" 4 settxpower -e "Enter" 5 txtone "Enter" 6 e Description Note Configure GPIO "PC1" for RFMD FEM Default Antenna 1 Set Transmit Channel to 19 2.445GHz Configure EM357 extended mode Set EM357 Pout to -14dBm Transmit continuous carrier frequency Not required for configuration. Exit continuous transmit Steps 5 and 6 can be replaced with the following for a continuous stream of random symbols: Step Command 5 txStream "Enter" 6 e Description Note Transmit continuous stream of random symbols Exit continuous transmit Steps 5 and 6 can be replaced with the following for receive mode: Step Command 5 rx "Enter" 6 e AN110725 Description Note Receive Mode Exit continuous receive 7628 Thorndike Road, Greensboro, NC 27409-9421 · For sales or technical support, contact RFMD at (+1) 336-678-5570 or [email protected]. 4 of 7 RFSM6525EM357 Reference Design Additional Commands Select Antenna 2 or Antenna 1: Step Command Description gpioout c E5 "Enter" Select Antenna 2 gpioout c E7 "Enter" Select Antenna 1 Note Configure and Toggle LEDs: Step 1 Command gpiocfg b 91194491 "Enter" gpioout b 61 "Enter" AN110725 Description Configure GPIO "PB5" and "PB6" for LEDs Turn both LEDs off gpioout b 1 "Enter" Turn both LEDs on gpioout b 41 "Enter" Turn "PB5" LED on ("PB6" LED off) gpioout b 21 "Enter" Turn "PB6" LED on ("PB5" LED off) 7628 Thorndike Road, Greensboro, NC 27409-9421 · For sales or technical support, contact RFMD at (+1) 336-678-5570 or [email protected]. 5 of 7 RFSM6525EM357 Reference Design Radio Channels Channel # Command Frequency (GHz) 11 setchannel 0B "Enter" 2.405 12 setchannel 0C "Enter" 2.41 13 setchannel 0D "Enter" 2.415 14 setchannel 0E "Enter" 2.42 15 setchannel 0F "Enter" 2.425 16 setchannel 10 "Enter" 2.43 17 setchannel 11 "Enter" 2.435 18 setchannel 12 "Enter" 2.44 19 setchannel 13 "Enter" 2.445 20 setchannel 14 "Enter" 2.45 21 setchannel 15 "Enter" 2.455 22 setchannel 16 "Enter" 2.46 23 setchannel 17 "Enter" 2.465 24 setchannel 18 "Enter" 2.47 25 setchannel 19 "Enter" 2.475 26 setchannel 1A "Enter" 2.48 Transceiver Output AN110725 Power Out (dBm) Command -43 settxpower -2b "Enter" -26 settxpower -1a "Enter" -20 settxpower -14 "Enter" -17 settxpower -11 "Enter" -14 settxpower -e "Enter" -11 settxpower -b "Enter" -9 settxpower -9 "Enter" -8 settxpower -8 "Enter" -7 settxpower -7 "Enter" -6 settxpower -6 "Enter" -5 settxpower -5 "Enter" -4 settxpower -4 "Enter" -3 settxpower -3 "Enter" -2 settxpower -2 "Enter" -1 settxpower -1 "Enter" 0 settxpower 0 "Enter" 1 settxpower 1 "Enter" 2 settxpower 2 "Enter" 3 settxpower 3 "Enter" 4 settxpower 4 "Enter" 5 settxpower 5 "Enter" 6 settxpower 6 "Enter" 7 settxpower 7 "Enter" 8 settxpower 8 "Enter" 7628 Thorndike Road, Greensboro, NC 27409-9421 · For sales or technical support, contact RFMD at (+1) 336-678-5570 or [email protected]. 6 of 7 RFSM6525EM357 Reference Design Tx Data at 25°C MHz Channel TXVR Power (dBm) Output Power at Antenna (dBm) 2fo (dBm/MHz) 3fo (dBm/MHz) -50 -56.8 2405 11 -9 20.5 2410 12 -9 20.5 2415 13 -9 20.5 2420 14 -9 20.5 2425 15 -9 20.5 2430 16 -9 20.5 2435 17 -9 20.5 2440 18 -9 20.5 -48.6 -47.4 -48.6 -46.7 -49.6 -45.3 2445 19 -9 20.4 2450 20 -9 20.4 2455 21 -9 20.3 2460 22 -9 20.3 2465 23 -9 20.2 2470 24 -9 20.1 2475 25 -9 20 2480 26 -9 20 Rx Sensitivity Performance Rx Sensitivity Data AN110725 1% (PER) 20% (PER) 35% (PER) Channel 11 -104.5 -105.5 -106 Channel 19 -104.5 -105.5 -106 Channel 26 -104.5 -105.5 -106 7628 Thorndike Road, Greensboro, NC 27409-9421 · For sales or technical support, contact RFMD at (+1) 336-678-5570 or [email protected]. 7 of 7