In this Tech Talk session, Alfredo Pérez Grovas, IoT Modules Product Manager for Silicon Labs, presented an overview of Silicon Labs’ Wi-Fi Solutions, including the RS9116 from our newly acquired family – Redpine Signals. Click here to watch the complete webinar and register now for future Tech Talks. Here are some key points from Alfredo’s session.

Redpine Signals is Now Part of Silicon Labs

Our recent acquisition of Redpine Signals added a valuable amount of technology and capability into our existing vault of expertise. The acquisition highlights the RS9116 family of chips, which comes from a line of three generations of wireless products from the previous RS9110 (Gen 1) and RS9113 (Gen 2).

Redpine Signals’ brings broad expertise in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth solutions with these products using the key technologies of ultra-low system power, multi-protocol (802.11, BT/BLE 5), and multi-threaded processors. These high-performance solutions come with an embedded wireless and networking software, along with multiple security levels, edge intelligence, and ultra-small form factor. All of these features are ideal for multiple target markets such as smart homes, fitness/wearables, healthcare, and industrial.

Expanding the Silicon Labs Wi-Fi Product Family

Our current portfolio of Wi-Fi solutions consists of two categories: Transceiver SoCs & Modules and Full-Network Co-processor SoCs & Modules. The former comprises our WF200/WFM200S and RS9116 n-Link, while the latter is our RS9116 WiseConnect.

The WF200/WFM200S module operates on 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi along with higher-level network and security stacks running on the host processor, either MCU or MPU. The RS9116 n-Link operates on 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi, as well as BT and BLE 5. This module also runs wireless, network, and security stacks on the host processor (MCU or MPU). The RS9116 WiseConnect runs wireless, network, and security stacks on the RS9116 while the application runs on the host processor (MCU).

IoT Application Examples of the RS9116

What can the RS9116 do to enable your IoT product development? As mentioned, the RS9116 has all the features that could serve multiple markets.

In the world of smart homes, RS9116 uses Wi-Fi communication for local and cloud control of different devices like locks, cameras, thermostats, and others. During installation, BLE communication is used to provision smart home devices to a home’s or site’s Wi-Fi network. This requirement is made possible through the built-in coexistence manager to manage Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE coexistence. The RS9116 also features low current consumption in ultra-low power mode for battery-operated smart home devices, which is ideal for power efficiency and long battery life.

Another area of application for the RS9116 is wearable devices. This application also features ultra-low power consumption for extended battery life. Still, it is slightly different than a typical smart home device because of the simultaneous multi-protocol communication requirements as follows:

• Heavy communications in 2.4 GHz ISM
• Wi-Fi connected to the cloud through AP with downloads, streaming, notifications, updates, etc.
• BT EDR wireless A2DP music streaming
• BLE peripheral connections to smartphones and tablets and central connections to sensors

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