Wireless solutions must provide functionality at minimal cost. Sometimes, standards-based solutions, such as Bluetooth and Zigbee chip sets, offer excessive data-handling capability for certain applications, such as in remote-control devices. But the CYWUSB6934 WirelessUWB™ LS radio system on a chip (SoC) from Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (San Jose, CA) provides an ideal balance between data rate and price, offering data throughput to 62.5 kb/s at 2.4 GHz for a host of low-cost wireless Universal Serial Bus (USB) applications, including in wireless computer mice, keyboards, joysticks, and game controllers.

The CYWUSB6934 WirelessUWB™ LS radio SoC is an integrated circuit (IC) that incorporates dual direct-sequence-spread-spectrum (DSSS) baseband circuits, 2.4-GHz radio transmitter and receiver, Gaussian frequency-shift-keying (GFSK) modulator and demodulator, data serializer/deserializer (SERDES) circuitry, and an on-board frequency synthesizer (see figure). The chip features a fully synchronous SPI slave interface for connection to the central processing unit (CPU) of a target application.

The CYWUSB6934 can connect directly to a USB controller or any standard 8-b microcontroller with an SPI interface. The 2.4-GHz code-division-multiple-access (CDMA) radio transceiver IC employs a reconfigurable baseband section with three operating modes: series, dual-independent, and parallel modes.

The 2.4-GHz transceiver features transmit power of 0 dBm and receiver sensitivity of −90 dBm, which translates into a usable range of better than 10 m. The radio chip is also available as a transmit-only version as model CYWUSB6932. The devices are designed for power supplies of +2.7 to +3.6 VDC. Current consumption is typically 58 mA in receive mode and typically 62 mA in transmit mode; both devices have typical standby current of 1 µA, supporting long battery operating lifetimes.

Both ICs are supplied in 28-lead exposed-paddle SOIC housings, and will also be offered in a 56QFN, 8 × 8-mm package for space-constrained applications. A development kit (model CY3632 WirelessUSB LS), is also complete. P&A: $1.95 (transmit-only model CYWUSB6932), $2.20 [transceiver model CYWUSB6934] (100,000 qty.), and $495.00 (development kit). Cypress Semiconductor Corp., 3901 North First St., San Jose, CA 95134; (408) 943-2600, FAX: (408) 943-6841, Internet: www.cypress.com.