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Agilent Technologies Introduces Industryıs Smallest Infrared Transceiver for Next-Generation Ultra-Thin PDAs and Cell Phones
Breakthrough 1.6 mm Height Package Opens Up IR Connectivity and Financial Management Applications to Even Smaller and Lighter Handheld Products
| The manufacturer says . . . | ChipCenter's Paul O'Shea says . . . |
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Agilent Technologies introduced the industryıs smallest, low power serial infrared transceiver. The Agilent HSDL-3208 transceiver is enclosed in a breakthrough 1.6 mm package and provides optimum characteristics for slim portable information appliances such as 2.5 G and 3 G wireless handsets, PDAs and e-wallets. It features an extended link distance up to 50 cm and is ideally suited for Infrared for Financial Messaging (IrFM) ıpoint and payı applications. "Agilentıs new, smaller IR transceiver makes it easier to incorporate IrFM capability into any portable device," said Kee Hane Ngoh, operations manager of Agilentıs Infrared Products Operation. "The IrFM point and pay profile is designed to enable users to perform wireless financial transactions between a mobile device such as a cell phone or PDA and a point-of-sale terminal or ATM equipped with an IR port. It supports the use of most financial instruments, including credit and debit cards, while providing digital receipts. The application is already in trials in Japan and Korea, and at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where students can use the infrared port on their mobile phones to make purchases on campus." The Agilent HSDL-3208 meets the Infrared Data Association (IrDA) IrDA-IrMC version 1.4 specification for low power serial infrared mode at 2.4 kb/s to 115 Kb/s data rates. The transceiver can also operate at an extended link distances of up to 50 cm, exceeding the Infrared Data Association low-power link specification of 20 cm to 30 cm. The HSDL-3208 is ideal for power-sensitive handheld devices, providing low shutdown current of 1 nanoamperes (nA) to help extend battery life. It provides guaranteed temperature performance at a supply voltage ranging from 2.7 V to 3.6 V, and over a temperature range of ı25 C to +85 C. Other features include excellent EMI performance, even without a shield, and LED stuck-high protection to eliminate the need for shutting down and resetting the handheld device. The transceiver is supplied in the industryıs smallest profile package at 1.6 mm (height) by 7.0 mm (width) by 2.8 mm (depth). It is IEC 825-Class 1 eye safe.
Agilent Semiconductor Products Group Tel: 800 235 0312, Email: semiconductorsupport@agilent.com.
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The HSDL-3208 is one of the smallest SIR transceivers on the market. It has the lowest height, 1.6 mm. This height reduction is critical to mobile phone makers because there is so little room in portable devices such as cell phones. The 2 mm height is what the phone manufacturers need to keep their phones within their design restrictions. In Asia, for example, the phones are very slim and quickly moving to color LCDs. The move to color presents a challenge for phone manufacturers because the color LCDs are typically larger than non-color, leaving less space for other components in the design. Agilent saw this trend and developed the HSDL-3208 transceiver to accommodate this push and fit into the next generation of color display cell phones. Currently, Agilent may be the only IR transceiver player below the critical 2 mm height but I suspect others are busily working on their own redesigns. In addition to the advantage offered by the reduced height, the HSDL-3208 offers another stellar improvement - it only consumes 1 nA of shutdown current. For mobile devices thatıs an important factor for extending battery life. By comparison, competitive products consume between 5 nA and 100 nA. The HSDL-3208 is even a significant improvement from the previous SIR transceiver from Agilent, the HSDL3203, which has a shutdown current of 10 nA. The company wouldnıt give away any details about how they achieved this 10 X improvement other than to say it was a refinement mainly in the IC design. Regardless of how it was done it will meet the needs of the upcoming generations of power efficient and color portable devices including cell phones, PDAs and e-wallets. The HSDL-3208 is an ultra-small, low cost, infrared transceiver module that provides the interface between logic and infrared (IR) signals for through-air, serial, half-duplex IR data links. Itıs compliant to Infrared Data Association (IrDA) Physical Layer Specifications version 1.4 Low Power, from 9.6 kbit/s to 115.2 kbit/s with extended link distance. Additionally, it is IEC 825-Class 1 eye safe, meaning it doesnıt require a warning label because it doesnıt put out enough power to damage your eyes. The HSDL-3208 transceiver module will effectively operate "nose to nose" with two transceivers practically touching, making it ideal for secure data transfer applications by preventing the interception of the infrared signal. Yet, the device module will also operate at distances of up 50 cm (well beyond the 30 cm requirement) and withstand noisy environments using noise cancellation techniques. Infrared technology is already in laptops and notebooks so the next logical market is mobile device such as the cell phone and the PDA. Agilentıs research suggests that infrared data communications with portable devices will bring the IrDA technology to the next stage of acceptance. One is financial messaging and another is remote control, where you can program your phone or PDA to perform remote functions such as controlling your TV or even your air conditioning/heating units. Other possibilities already being implemented include personal data interchange (phone to phone) downloads from PDA/phone to a printer, access to the internet from laptop or PDA, financial transactions, and even consumer services such as downloading coupons for product sales. The Agilent HSDL-3208 is currently available through Agilentıs direct sales channel for volume orders and through Agilentıs global distribution partners.
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