Microchip has announced the addition of its LoRa technology product line-the new RN2903 wireless modem works with North American Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) and is FCC certified for use in the 915MHz band.
The RN2903 modem is designed as an effective way to add remote LoRaWAN network capabilities to any embedded design by integrating the proven LoRaWANT protocol stack and LoRa radio and embedded antenna matching circuits running on a low-power PIC microcontroller.
Driven by the LoRa Alliance, LoRa technology can achieve a range of up to 10 miles and a battery life of 10 years. The technology is targeted at low data rate and low duty cycle applications such as energy metering, location tracking, utility infrastructure monitoring and control, smart cities and agriculture. Although used primarily for the uplink of sensor data, two-way communication allows real-time confirmation of mission-critical data and downlink control of remote actuator nodes.
The RN2903's design is easy to adopt, which minimizes R & D investment and speeds time to market. The company said that any embedded system can control a simple ASCII-over-UART interface, even the smallest 8-pin PIC12 MCU, and the embedded antenna matching circuit and FCC modular certification require very little expertise in radio .
