Morse Micro Tailors Its Second-Gen Wi-Fi HaLow Modules for the American Market: Meet the MM8108-M20

Internet of Things (IoT) specialist Morse Micro has announced a new Wi-Fi HaLow module, the MM8108-M20 — offering 902–928MHz band coverage with up to 8MHz channel width in a compact low-power package — and featuring an on-board high-power amplifier supporting up to 28.5dBm transmission power.

"The MM8108-M20 is more than a new module – it's another accelerator for the Wi-Fi HaLow ecosystem," claims Morse Micro co-founder and chief executive officer Michael De Nil of the company's latest launch. "By making our second-generation silicon available in a high-power, integration-ready form factor, we’re helping module partners, OEMs [Original Equipment Manufacturers] and other embedded product teams move faster, reduce development complexity and bring long-range IoT products to market with greater confidence."

Wi-Fi HaLow, more properly known as IEEE 802.11ah, is designed to expand the Wi-Fi standard into the sub-gigahertz band, providing lower throughput in exchange for increasing maximum range and reducing power draw for both transmission and reception. The standard is also designed to work better in busy radio environments, grouping stations together to reduce contention for bandwidth — making it ideal for sensor networks.

The latest in Morse Micro's second-generation MM8108 Wi-Fi HaLow family, the new MM8108-M20 is specifically tuned for the North American market, the company says: a surface acoustic wave filter has been tailored for the 902-928MHz North American industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band, while the on-board high-power amplifier is good up to 28.5dBm transmission power. There's support for 1MHz, 2MHz, 4MHz, and 8MHz channel widths — though not the top-end 16MHz width supported by Wi-Fi HaLow — allowing for up to a peak 43.3Mb/s throughput, and the whole module is pre-certified for drop-in use with USB 2.0 High Speed, SecureDigital Input Output (SDIO) 2.0, and SPI connectivity.

The MM8108-M20 is now sampling, Morse Micro says, to "certified module partners," with pricing and general availability yet to be announced. More information on the MM8108 family is available on the Morse Micro website.