power consumption Zigbee

Hello All,

I am trying to find out how much power does each individual circuit
element consume in a low power radio. I know generally that power
amplifier and frequency synthesizer consume most of power. However I
want some concrete numbers. I tried looking at data sheets of some
radios like CC2420 but they dont specify the numbers.

If anyone can point out some link/paper/tutorial etc, it would be of
great help.

regards
ashutosh

>Hello All,
>
>I am trying to find out how much power does each individual circuit
>element consume in a low power radio. I know generally that power
>amplifier and frequency synthesizer consume most of power. However I
>want some concrete numbers. I tried looking at data sheets of some
>radios like CC2420 but they dont specify the numbers.
>
>If anyone can point out some link/paper/tutorial etc, it would be of
>great help.

Try looking at the current consumption in receive mode and transmit mode
for some of these low power radio devices - the pure radio devices, rather
than the SoCs, where quite a bit of consumption might be for the MCU part
of the chip. The consumption in receive mode is often a little higher than
in transmit mode. The reason? The signal processing for receive is much
more complex than the signal processing for transmit, so it takes more
current. Add in the small current required by the tiny PAs in these chips,
and the overall consumption for transmit and receive is not a lot
different.

Steve

ashu wrote:

> Hello All,
> 
> I am trying to find out how much power does each individual circuit
> element consume in a low power radio. I know generally that power
> amplifier and frequency synthesizer consume most of power.

Not necessarily, providing duty cycle and other factors.

>  However I
> want some concrete numbers. I tried looking at data sheets of some
> radios like CC2420 but they dont specify the numbers.
> 
> If anyone can point out some link/paper/tutorial etc, it would be of
> great help.

All depends on particular module. Very approximately, you can expect 
something like 40..50mA for transmit and 20..30mA for receive (3.3V supply).

Vladimir Vassilevsky
DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultant
http://www.abvolt.com