The term “link budget“ defines range and robustness in a wireless system. The higher the link budget is, the better the range expected. Extra margins also ensure a robust wireless system design. Link budget is defined as the dynamic area between receiver sensitivity and transmitter output power. For example, a device with a receiver sensitivity of -100dBm and a transmitter output power of +3.5dBm, has a link budget of 103.5dB. Increased output power of 3dBm represents doubling the output power, which again translates to 1.4x increased range. Be aware, however, that increasing output power also increases power consumption in a system. This means that adding a power amplifier to a transceiver with poor receiver sensitivity will increase the link budget, but at the cost of power consumption. The ATmega128RFA1 radio transceiver offers industry-leading RX sensitivity and TX output power at a minimum of supply current. Device features such as antenna diversity support or external PA support can be used to further improve the robustness of a wireless system.