Atmel First to Achieve Certification for ZigBee Light Link, Golden Units for Lighting Reference Implementation

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML), a leader in microcontroller (MCU) and touch solutions, today announced it is one of the first companies to achieve ZigBee® Certified product status using ZigBee Light Link™ Certification, a new industry standard to accelerate the design of easy-to-use consumer lighting and control products that will give consumers the ability to wirelessly control their LED fixtures, light bulbs, timers, remotes and switches within their homes.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120530/SF15228LOGO)

With this reference implementation for ZigBee Light Link, Atmel has achieved 'golden unit' status, making it the benchmark against which future ZigBee Certified products designed to this standard will be tested. Widely known for its superior RF performance and extremely low power consumption, the ATmega128RFA1 wireless MCU serves as an ideal hardware platform for the ZigBee Light Link Golden Units.

Designed to allow engineers the ability to manage multiple lighting devices on a single network, this reference design integrates Atmel's ATmega128RFA1 wireless MCUs on a RF4CE-EK evaluation kit with ZigBee Light Link profile software stack ported onto the system. The ATmega128RFA1 offers the industry's lowest power consumption at 12.5mA in active receive mode, combined with receiver sensitivity at -101dBm. The ZigBee Light Link reference implementation can also be used seamlessly with Atmel's LED drivers for color-mixing, system management and advanced dimming in commercial, industrial or architectural solid-state lighting applications.

"Atmel continues to deliver leading-edge, innovative ZigBee Certified devices for the latest standards," said Ryan Maley, vice president of strategy at the ZigBee Alliance. "We are excited to work with companies such as Atmel and help them deliver products that will enable a new and efficient lighting experience using ZigBee."

ZigBee Light Link provides a global standard for interoperable and very easy-to-use consumer lighting and control products. In addition, the standard allows consumers to change lighting remotely to reflect ambiance, task or season, all while managing energy use and making their homes greener. There are a number of industry advantages, including single platform control of multiple devices, including lamps, switches, dimmers, timers and remote controls. The standard also enables the lighting control platforms to control up to 255 devices.

"The need to manage all your lighting requirements on one control panel is becoming increasingly more popular," said Oyvind Strom, sr. director of wireless solutions, Atmel Corporation. "ZigBee Light Link addresses this requirement by enabling end users to control lighting, color and dimming for improved comfort, energy savings and convenience. With Atmel's latest ZigBee Certified products and software stacks, designers are able to develop these innovative lighting products to address the end users' needs."

Pricing and Availability

Atmel's ZigBee Light Link Profile (software stack) is available now free of charge at: http://www.atmel.com/tools/bitcloudprofilesuite-zigbeepropublicprofile.aspx. Pricing for the RF4CE-EK evaluation kit is US $479.

ZigBee: Control your world

ZigBee offers green and global wireless standards connecting the widest range of devices to work together intelligently and help you control your world. The ZigBee Alliance is an open, non-profit association of approximately 400 members driving development of innovative, reliable and easy-to-use ZigBee standards. The Alliance promotes worldwide adoption of ZigBee as the leading wirelessly networked, sensing and control standard for use in consumer, commercial and industrial areas. For more information, visit: www.ZigBee.org. 

About Atmel

Atmel Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, capacitive touch solutions, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions focused on industrial, consumer, communications, computing and automotive markets.

© 2012 Atmel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Atmel®, Atmel logo and combinations thereof, AVR®, and others are registered trademarks or trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other terms and product names may be trademarks of others.

Press Contact
Agnes Toan, PR Manager
Tel: (+1) 408-487-2963; Email: [email protected] 

SOURCE Atmel Corporation