
SmartRF
CC2420
of security even with a low-cost 8 bit
controller.
Low cost systems
As the
CC2420
provides 250 kbps multi-
channel performance without any external
filters, a very low cost system can be
made.
A differential antenna will eliminate the
need for a balun, and the DC biasing can
be achieved in the antenna topology.
Battery operated systems
In low power applications, the
CC2420
should be powered down when not being
active. Extremely low power consumption
may be achieved when disabling also the
voltage
regulator.
reprogramming of the register and RAM
configuration.
This
will
require
BER / PER measurements
CC2420
includes test modes where data is
received infinitely and output to pins
(
RX_MODE
2, see page 38). This mode
may be used for Bit Error Rate (BER)
measurements. However, the following
actions must be taken to do such a
measurement:
A preamble and SFD sequence
must be used, even if pseudo
random data is transmitted, since
receiving the DSSS modulated
signal
requires
synchronisation,
synchronisation like e.g. in 2FSK
systems. The
SYNCWORD
may be
set to another value to fit to the
measurement setup if necessary.
symbol
not
bit
The data transmitted over air must
be spread according to [1] and the
description on page 22. This
means that the transmitter used
during measurements must be
able to do spreading of the bit
data to chip data. Remember that
the
chip
sequence transmitted by
the test setup is not the same as
the
bit
sequence, which is output
by
CC2420
.
When operating at or below the
sensitivity limit,
CC2420
may lose
symbol synchronisation in infinite
receive mode. A new SFD and
restart of the receiver may be
required
to
synchronisation.
re-gain
In
communication is based on packets. The
sensitivity limit specified by [1] is based on
Packet Error Rate (PER) measurements
instead of BER. This is a more accurate
measurement of the true RF performance
since it mirrors the way the actual system
operates.
an
IEEE
802.15.4
system,
all
Chipcon recommends performing PER
measurements
instead
measurements
to
performance of IEEE 802.15.4 systems.
To do PER measurements, the following
may be used as a guideline:
of
BER
the
evaluate
A valid preamble, SFD and length
field must be used for each
packet.
The PSDU (see Figure 16 on
page 34) length should be 20
bytes for sensitivity measurements
as specified by [1].
The sensitivity limit specified by [1]
is the RF level resulting in a 1%
PER. The packet sample space
for a given measurement must
then be >> 100 to have a
sufficiently large sample space.
E.g. at least 1000 packets should
be
used
to
sensitivity.
measure
the
The data transmitted over air must
be spread according to [1] and the
description on page 22. Pre-
generated packets may be used,
although [1] requires that the PER
is averaged over random PSDU
data.
The
CC2420
receive FIFO may be
used to buffer data received
during PER measurements, since
it is able to buffer up to 128 bytes.
The
control register should be set to
MDMCTRL1.CORR_THR
Chipcon AS
SmartRF
CC2420 Preliminary Datasheet (rev 1.2), 2004-06-09
Page 57 of 87