Hardware : Design

When performing RF compliance testing on your Ember-enabled design, some test houses may require information about the analog frequencies inherent in the design, so that they can check for the presence of harmonics or any other unwanted noise products of these oscillating signals.

To aid customers in supplying this information to test houses, a listing of the frequencies used by each chipset (or typical components from its corresponding reference designs) is shown below, along with a brief description of where the signal originates or what its purpose is.

Yes, the EM250 and EM260 will operate at potentials slightly above 3.6V. However, the lifetime of the chip will degrade as voltage potential increases above 3.6V. This is due to the fact that voltage is an acceleration factor in the mechanisms that cause silicon chips to fail. For optimal lifetime of the IC, the VDD_PADS potential should be kept below 3.6V. Lithium Thionyl Chloride batteries are usually rated above 3.6V (3.65V to 3.7V), but it will only be at this potential for a short period of time. This means the lifetime degradation will be minimal.

SIF_LOADB refers to the nSIF_LOAD line used for programming/debugging the EM2xx IC via the 10-pin InSight Port interface. As this line is active-low, it should typically be idling at a high logic level. If the programming utilities (em2xx_load or EM2UsbLoad) detect that the line is idling at a low level (not above the VDD_PADS threshold for high logic) before he programming mode is engaged, they will trigger an error to indicate that the line was in an unexpected state.

This kind of problem usually indicates a hardware issue.

First check that the PA is actually enabled via the emberSetTxPowerMode() command or the MFG_PHY_CONFIG manufacturing token. More information about this can be found in the FAQs referenced at the bottom of this article.

Assuming that the PA is properly enabled, your range may still not be optimal, and here’s why:

While enabling a PA on one side may produce some marginally better performance, generally having PAs on both sides of the link is recommended, especially if the PA-equipped device does not also have an LNA (or something similar) to boost reception.