GreenPeak Technologies, the industry leading smart home semi-conductor/system company, recently announced a new addition to its smart home portfolio with the launch of a reference design for a low cost Passive Infra-Red (PIR) sensor with outstanding performance.

The reference design of the PIR motion detector can enable application developers to quickly build a ZigBee-enabled motion sensor that is ready to be produced with GreenPeak’s qualified ODMs and can be integrated in smart home applications like home monitoring, senior lifestyle, smart HVAC or smart lighting.

“The motion detector is one of the corner stones of many Smart Home applications,” says Cees Links, CEO of GreenPeak. “Our engineers have optimized the reference design to combine the three features that really matter in a PIR sensor: long battery life, low cost and full room coverage. We leave it up to the application developers to create the exciting applications around it that truly make our lives more comfortable and safe.”

The reference design is based on GreenPeak’s GP490 ZigBee communication chip and uses the patented antenna diversity mechanism for enhanced wireless range and full home coverage.

The motion sensor’s range detection, optimized with advanced signal processing, provides enhanced detection performance for full room coverage, as required in multiple Smart Home applications. This motion detector is capable of disregarding motion caused by pets, eliminating false alarms.

The optimized reference design allows a market price below 10$ and makes it a very attractive solution for a wide range of applications.

Requiring minimal integration efforts, the reference design includes all required tools and examples to implement a ZigBee PIR motion sensor application. An example motion sensor application, including the ZigBee stack and all necessary application specific components is included. Software Development tools (IDE, debugger) and a set of user manuals and application notes are included as well. To assist during the HW development, GreenPeak provides a set of reference layout and schematic files.

The PIR sensor kit is the first reference design kit from the new GreenPeak portfolio of sensor design kits for the smart home. In the near future, other design kits will be available for door/windows sensors, leakage detectors and temperature sensors.