March 20, 2015, Seoul – NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ: NXPI) announced the JN 5169 wireless microcontroller, a best-in-class low-power and long-range solution, and a ZigBee LightLink certified smart home and smart lighting management solution. The solution includes Home Automation and GreenPower software stacks, and is the industry's first certified NFC option, enabling intuitive system access with a single tap. The +10dBm power amplifier integrated into the JN5169 chip provides a communication range twice as wide as that of existing NXP smart home solutions.

This solution can be utilized in various home and industrial environments by connecting to 250 nodes. Equipped with Zigbee 3.0 and Thread support, the JN5169 features a new software development toolchain that can reduce code volume by 15% and provides various debugging functions. The intuitive one-touch communication function using NFC enables secure pairing without leaking network information to nearby networks, thereby significantly reducing the risk of hacking.

To support JN5169, NXP announced new design standards for white light, intensity-controlled white light, and RGB(W) color lamps. These new standards reduce smart lighting costs by up to 25%. OTA software upgrades are also possible using 512 kB of embedded flash memory. This eliminates the need for expensive external flash memory, thereby reducing costs. The standard design of the lamp includes wireless switches, remote controllers, wall panels, sensors, smart plugs, gateways, and control functions via cloud services provided by NXP and its ecosystem partners.

Jacob van der Pol, Business Development Manager for RF Connectivity Solutions at NXP, stated, “Home automation is one of the leading sectors in the Internet of Things market. As these devices become increasingly mainstream, customers are seeking solutions that are cheaper, easier to use, more robust, and safer.” He added, “To meet this demand, NXP has launched a universal solution applicable across the smart lighting and home automation markets. We believe this will allow us to outperform competitors in terms of convenience, reliability, and cost.” "The JN5169 demonstrates that NXP is a leader not only in smart lighting and home automation but also in innovation itself," the company stated.

The main functions of JN5169 are as follows.

 With a receiving current of only 14mA, the standby power consumption of the light bulb is reduced to a groundbreaking level of 100mW.

 The transmission current value is only 20mA at +10dBm, which is up to 40% lower than other products, thus maximizing the battery life of the wireless node.

 Based on innovative circuit design and software technology, a low-cost 85°C crystal can be used in small light bulbs instead of an expensive 125°C dedicated crystal.

The newly developed JN5169 is already being adopted by leading smart lighting companies such as TCP and Leedarson.

According to David Geraci, Product Manager for Connected Lighting at TCP in Aurora, USA, “NXP has long been an important partner for the company in the field of telecommunications lighting products.” “With the new JN5169 wireless microcontroller-based standard design introduced by NXP, TCP will be able to make its network lighting products more user-friendly and high-performing, and thus continue to maintain its leading position in the U.S. telecommunications lighting market,” he said.

Joe Zhou, Strategic Marketing Manager at Lidason in Xiamen, China, said, “Lidason has been developing smart bulbs based on NXP’s standard designs since 2011. With the unique capabilities of the NXP5169 Zigbee chip, Lidason has been able to provide customers with more eco-friendly and attractive solutions by realizing communication range, efficiency, and standby power reduction for the company’s smart lighting portfolio.”