Our industry-leading sub-GHz devices, which operate in the license-free ISM frequency bands from 315 MHz to 928 MHz, are designed for low-power applications. Consuming about 75% less power than Wi-Fi^®, sub-GHz is the ideal wireless technology for low-cost, robust and low-power sensor networks such as metering, smart home and smart city applications. 

Depending on your application’s requirements, we offer highly integrated sub-GHz transceivers, microcontroller (MCU)-based System-in-Package (SiP) solutions and fully certified sub-GHz module solutions that will help you get your product to market quickly. We offer support for IEEE^® 802.15.4 and proprietary wireless standards. Our advanced development boards, free software stacks and demo code make it easier than ever to start developing with our sub-GHz solutions. 

We make it easy to start developing with our Sub-GHz products using our free, proprietary software stacks and advanced development environments.

MiWi™ Networking Protocol

Our proprietary MiWi stack—a lightweight proprietary mesh networking solution for sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz applications—is ideal for low-cost embedded wireless connectivity for commercial and smart home networks.

The MiWi stack is available in Microchip Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE). This IDE gives you a seamless and easy-to-use environment for developing and debugging all AVR^® and SAM microcontroller applications. The MiWi mesh code is part of the Advanced Software Framework (ASF). Here are some links to other helpful resources:

• MiWi Protocol Quick Start Guide
• MiWi Software Design Guide
• MiWi Protocol Version Migration Guide

The MiWi protocol supports both the SAM R21 (2.4 GHz) and SAM R30 (Sub-GHz) in ASF.

6LoWPAN

We support the 6LoWPAN protocol stack which enables Internet connectivity with lower complexity at the network edge by providing a complete solution for wireless IP-mesh connectivity over 802.15.4 links in 2.4 GHz and sub-GHz frequency bands. The protocol stack and a wide selection of application examples are available in Microchip Studio as part of the Advanced Software Framework (ASF) extension.

The SAM R30 sub-GHz device supports 6LoWPAN and our partner Exegin provides the complete stack and tools.

Microchip Studio IDE

Microchip Studio IDE offers the following features for developing applications using our sub-GHz solutions:

• Write, compile and debug C/C++ on the SAM R30 module​
• ​Configure and test wireless design performance with Wireless Composer ​
• ​Display and capture runtime power data with Data Visualizer plug-in​
• ​Extensive software libraries including MiWi wireless protocol on the SAM R30 module and over 1,600 project examples​
• ​Full chip simulation for an accurate model of the Central Processing Unit (CPU), interrupts, peripherals and external stimuli

Wi-SUN Alliance^®

We are proud to be a member of the Wi-SUN (Wireless Smart Utility Networks) Alliance, which was formed to drive the adoption of smart utility networks.​ The Wi-SUN Alliance defines communications profiles that are based on the IEEE 802.15.4g, 802.15.4e, IPv6, 6LoWPAN and UDP standards.​ It also offers testing and certification to further ensure interoperability. Similar to the IEEE standard for Wi-Fi^®, it delivers harmonized operation of products from multiple suppliers.

The Wi-SUN Field Area Network (FAN) has been defined for smart cities​ to enable reliable mesh connectivity. It supports configurable power, bandwidth and node-count deployments​.

With multi-modulation and simultaneous dual-band operation, both the AT86RF215M and AT86RF215 802.15.4 sub-GHz transceivers are advanced Wi-SUN solutions.

Our partner Exegin provides the complete Wi-SUN stack and tools.