Sigfox certified wireless SoC

Alpha Micro has announced the availability of two SoC wireless transceivers from AXSEM for use with the Sigfox low power cellular network. The Sigfox network is being deployed across 60 countries in the next five years, aimed at providing global cellular network connectivity for low bandwidth IoT applications.

The AX-Sigfox and AX-Sigfox-API devices comprise an AXSEM 8052 MCU and an AXSEM AX5043 wireless transceiver, and are certified as being Class 0 'Sigfox Ready', meaning they are available for immediate operation as a Sigfox node.

For straightforward IoT applications where the designer wishes to implement a single-chip solution and save the cost of a host MCU, such as a thermostat or actuator, the AX-Sigfox-API IC is said to provide the solution. The SoC has 64kByte of flash memory of which 32kByte is available for a user application.

Sleep current of either device is down to 950nA up to 45mA when transmitting at 14dBm output power. The receiver has a sensitivity of -129dBm measured at a data rate of 600bps with a power consumption of 10mA. The supply voltage can be in the range of 1.8 to 3.6Vdc.