ZILOG announces ZAURA RF AC power-switching relay reference design

USA & SWITZERLAND: Zilog, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IXYS Corp. and a pioneer supplier of application-specific, embedded microcontroller (MCU) system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for industrial, power management and consumer applications, introduced its new ZAURA Reference Design Platform to provide a location-independent digital wireless solution that targets the industry need for wireless connectivity for control, sensing and metering.

This reference design integrates Zilog’s ZAURA RF 868 MHz Wireless Module onto an AC power switching relay designed to showcase the features and performance of a relay-based switch with AC voltage zero-crossing detection to minimize surge currents. This reference design can be used as a basis for developing systems that can control different power installations.

On its own, without the ZAURA RF Wireless Module attached, the AC power switch functions as a demonstration board providing current to power the ZAURA RF Wireless Module and relay. The board, with the Module attached and controlled by a hand-held remote control device, enables RF communication to turn loads on and off.

If developers wish to develop RF remote control software, Zilog recommends purchasing the ZAURA RF Wireless 868 MHz Module Development Kit, because the hand-held ZAURA RF remote control device included with this reference design uses the same hardware and software libraries as this kit.

This AC Power Switching Relay with ZAURA Control reference design features a 90–240V AC RMS input voltage range, up to 10 amps of load current, less than 2mA of standby current at 120V AC when in an on or off state, and the 868 MHz ZAURA RF Wireless Module.
“Very little RF knowledge is required to use ZAURA because Zilog provides a complete development environment for controlling the various aspects of the ZAURA platform. This new RF platform helps to shorten your time to market for a wide range of wireless applications,” remarked Steve Darrough, Zilog’s VP of Marketing. “We have deployed it in wireless lighting control solutions that are based on our occupancy motion sensing products, to provide a totally wireless energy-saving lighting solution.”