AMICCOM released a new Sub-1GHz direct-sequence spread-spectrum RF transceiver chip in March 2020, named A7119. The A7119’s RF core follows the A7159’s RF with low receiving current, however, the maximum transmit power reduces to 12.6dBm and the current consumption is only 32mA, which is more suitable for low power applications. The operation mode of A7119 is similar to A7159, the external MCU can control the RF mode through the SPI interface and accesses the built-in FIFO. The supported data rate is 2Kbps ~ 250Kbps. The modulation scheme can be FSK, GFSK or DSSS. A7119 supports license-free ISM Band applications below 1GHz, such as the 868MHz band used in Europe, the 433.92MHz used in Europe, America and Asia, and the 915MHz allowed in the United States and Taiwan.

The most advantage of A7119 is its excellent RF characteristics. In 433MHz frequency band, A7119 has high sensitivity (-116.5dBm @ 10Kbps @ 433MHz FSK), low receiving current (3.8mA) and 10dBm PA output (current 26mA). With the DSSS mode enabled, the receiving sensitivity can be further reduced (-121dBm @ 10K chip rate @ 433MHz DSSS), and the 433MHz Link-budget can reach 131dB. In addition to long-distance transmission capabilities, the built-in RSSI of the A7119 can help software engineers detect clean channels for transmitting. The chip’s internal Auto Calibration mechanism is used to overcome the variation of the semiconductor process and can work stably in various environments. AFC function can avoid the sensitivity degradation caused by RF frequency offset.

There are many applications suitable for A7119, such as AMR wireless automatic meter reading (wireless heat meters, gas meters, etc.), long-distance two-way car alarms, industrial controllers, energy management for smart buildings, home automation. Especially it’s suitable for applications that are powered by battery and require a long life cycle. About power management, A7119 supports Deep sleep mode, Sleep, Idle mode and WOR (Wake On RX), which supports periodically Sleep to RX mode to listen incoming packets without MCU interaction to extend battery lifetime. Deep Sleep mode switches off all circuitry except SPI (wake-up purpose) with only 50nA consumption. Overall, A7119 is very easy-to-use to simplify system development and cost.

Supply and packaging
A7119 is available in a QFN4x4 24L package, and is now available from AMICCOM and its authorized distributors. Welcome to request IC samples and development kits and start development work.