Ultra-compact, cost-effective LoRaWAN module capable of supporting a wide range of sensors

Mouser is now stocking the Type ABZ LoRa module from Murata. The innovative Type ABZ LoRa module is a compact low-power wide area network (LPWAN) wireless module that supports the LoRaWAN long-range wireless protocol and is designed to help increase the adoption of the LoRaWAN platform and make it the standard for LPWANs that support low-power IoT applications. The module is a small, cost-effective LoRaWAN module capable of supporting a wide range of sensors through 18 GPIOs. The module includes a Semtech SX1276 ultralong range spread spectrum wireless transceiver and a STMicro STM32L0 series ARM Cortex-M0+ 32 bit microcontroller, with communication via UART, SPI, or I2C interfaces. The microcontroller includes 192kBytes of flash and 20kBytes of RAM, offering enough memory to embed customer applications and host other modulation stacks. The microcontroller also offers an optional STSAFE secure element to enhance the network security capabilities. The module features pre-certified radio regulatory approvals for operating in the 868MHz and 915MHz ISM spectrum in most geographical regions of the world. The device’s normal output power is +14dBm but a PA boost function can be selected to increase RF output to +20dBm for long-range applications. The module also integrates a temperature-compensated crystal oscillator (TCXO) with robust low-drift thermal characteristics to provide an accurate clock source for the Semtech transceiver. The module measures just 12.5mm × 11.6mm × 1.76mm and is housed in a metal shielded package. Typical applications for the module include smart metering, wearables, tracking, M2M communication, and IoT edge nodes.