www.realtek.com 
 
RTL8189EM-CG 
With SDIO INTERFACE 
SINGLE-CHIP IEEE 802.11b/g/n 1T1R WLAN  
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Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
(CONFIDENTIAL: Development Partners Only) 
Rev. 0.2 
2 Apr. 2014 
Track ID:  
DATASHEET 
No. 2, Innovation Road II, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan 
Tel.: +886-3-578-0211. Fax: +886-3-577-6047 
 
COPYRIGHT 
RTL8189EM 
Datasheet 
DISCLAIMER 
TRADEMARKS 
0.1 
0.2 
 
 
 
 
 
USING THIS DOCUMENT 
Realtek is a trademark of Realtek Semiconductor Corporation. Other names mentioned in this document are 
trademarks/registered trademarks of their respective owners. 
© 2012 Realtek  Semiconductor  Corp.  All  rights  reserved.  No  part  of  this  document  may  be  reproduced, 
transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form or by any 
means without the written permission of Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
Realtek provides this document “as is”, without warranty of any kind. Realtek may make improvements 
and/or changes in this document or in the product described in this document at any time. This document 
could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. 
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Though every effort has been made to ensure that this document is current and accurate, more information 
may have become available subsequent to the production of this guide. 
This  document  is  intended  for  the  software  engineer‟s  reference  and  provides  detailed  programming 
information. 
2014/04/02 
Modify GSPI PIN define 
2013/12/27 
Preliminary release 
REVISION HISTORY 
Revision 
Release Date 
Summary 
Single-Chip IEEE 802.11b/g/n 1T1R WLAN Controller 
with SDIO Interface 
 
ii 
Track ID: JATR-2265-11   Rev. 0.1 
 
Table of Contents 
RTL8189EM 
Datasheet 
6.  ELECTRICAL AND THERMAL CHARACTERISTICS ............................................................................................... 9 
5.  PIN DESCRIPTIONS .......................................................................................................................................................... 6 
4.  PIN ASSIGNMENTS ........................................................................................................................................................... 5 
4.1. 
PACKAGE IDENTIFICATION .............................................................................................................................................. 6 
3.  APPLICATION DIAGRAM ............................................................................................................................................... 5 
3.1. 
SINGLE-BAND 11N (1X1) SOLUTION ................................................................................................................................ 5 
2.  FEATURES .......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 
1.  GENERAL DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................................................................ 1 
5.1. 
SDIO INTERFACE ............................................................................................................................................................ 7 
5.2.  GSPI INTERFACE ............................................................................................................................................................. 7 
5.3. 
POWER PINS .................................................................................................................................................................... 7 
5.4.  RF INTERFACE................................................................................................................................................................. 8 
5.5.  LED INTERFACE .............................................................................................................................................................. 8 
5.6.  CLOCK AND OTHER PINS ................................................................................................................................................. 8 
6.1.  TEMPERATURE LIMIT RATINGS ....................................................................................................................................... 9 
6.2.  TEMPERATURE LIMIT RATINGS ....................................................................................................................................... 9 
6.3.  DC CHARACTERISTICS .................................................................................................................................................... 9 
6.3.1. 
Power  Supply Characteristics ............................................................................................................................... 9 
6.3.2.  Digital IO Pin DC Characteristics......................................................................................................................... 9 
6.4. 
IO CHARACTERISTICS .................................................................................................................................................... 10 
6.5.  AC CHARACTERISTICS .................................................................................................................................................. 10 
SDIO/GSPI Interface Characteristics .................................................................................................................. 10 
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6.5.1. 
7.  MECHANICAL DIMENSIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 15 
7.1.  MECHANICAL DIMENSIONS NOTES ................................................................................................................................ 16 
8.  ORDERING INFORMATION .......................................................................................................................................... 17 
 
Single-Chip IEEE 802.11b/g/n 1T1R WLAN Controller 
with SDIO Interface 
 
iii 
Track ID: JATR-2265-11   Rev. 0.1 
 
List of Tables 
RTL8189EM 
Datasheet 
TABLE 1.  SDIO INTERFACE ........................................................................................................................................................ 7 
TABLE 2.  GSPI INTERFACE ......................................................................................................................................................... 7 
TABLE 3.  POWER PINS ................................................................................................................................................................ 7 
TABLE 4.  RF INTERFACE............................................................................................................................................................. 8 
TABLE 5.  LED INTERFACE .......................................................................................................................................................... 8 
TABLE 6.  CLOCK AND OTHER PINS ............................................................................................................................................. 8 
TABLE 7.  TEMPERATURE LIMIT RATINGS ................................................................................................................................... 9 
TABLE 8.  TEMPERATURE LIMIT RATINGS ................................................................................................................................... 9 
TABLE 9.  DC CHARACTERISTICS ................................................................................................................................................ 9 
TABLE 10. 
3.3V GPIO DC CHARACTERISTICS .......................................................................................................................... 9 
2.8V GPIO DC CHARACTERISTICS .......................................................................................................................... 9 
TABLE 11. 
1.8V GPIO DC CHARACTERISTICS ........................................................................................................................ 10 
TABLE 12. 
SDIO INTERFACE TIMING PARAMETERS ............................................................................................................... 10 
TABLE 13.  
TABLE 14. 
SDIO INTERFACE POWER ON TIMING PARAMETERS ............................................................................................. 12 
SPI INTERFACE POWER ON TIMING PARAMETERS ................................................................................................. 14 
TABLE 15. 
TABLE 16. 
ORDERING INFORMATION ...................................................................................................................................... 17 
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FIGURE 1. SINGLE-BAND 11N (1X1) SOLUTION ............................................................................................................................... 5 
FIGURE 2. PIN ASSIGNMENTS .......................................................................................................................................................... 6 
FIGURE 3. SDIO INTERFACE TIMING ............................................................................................................................................. 10 
List of Figures 
 
 
 
 
Single-Chip IEEE 802.11b/g/n 1T1R WLAN Controller 
with SDIO Interface 
 
iv 
Track ID: JATR-2265-11   Rev. 0.1 
 
1.  General Description 
RTL8189EM 
Datasheet 
The  Realtek  RTL8189EM  is  a  highly  integrated  single-chip  802.11n  Wireless  LAN  (WLAN)  network 
SDIO  interface  (SDIO  1.1/  2.0  compliant)  controller.  It  is  a  WLAN  MAC,  a  1T1R  capable  WLAN 
baseband,  and  WLAN  RF  in  a  single  chip.  The  RTL8189EM  provides  a  complete  solution  for  a  high 
throughput performance integrated wireless LAN device. 
The  RTL8189EM  WLAN  baseband  implements  Orthogonal  Frequency  Division  Multiplexing  (OFDM) 
with 1 transmit and 1 receive path and is compatible with the IEEE 802.11n specification. Features include 
one spatial stream transmission, short guard interval (GI) of 400ns, spatial spreading, and transmission over 
20MHz and 40MHz bandwidth. 
For legacy compatibility, Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), Complementary Code Keying (CCK) 
and  OFDM  baseband  processing  are  included  to  support  all  IEEE  802.11b  and  802.11g  data  rates. 
Differential phase shift keying modulation schemes, DBPSK and DQPSK with data scrambling capability, 
are available, and CCK provides support for legacy data rates, with long or short preamble.  The high-speed 
FFT/IFFT  paths,  combined  with  BPSK,  QPSK,  16QAM,  and  64QAM  modulation  of  the  individual 
subcarriers and rate compatible punctured convolutional coding with coding rate of 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, and 5/6, 
provide higher data rates of 54Mbps and 150Mbps for IEEE 802.11g and 802.11n OFDM respectively. 
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The RTL8189EM WLAN Controller builds in an enhanced signal detector, an adaptive frequency domain 
equalizer, and a soft-decision Viterbi decoder to alleviate severe multi-path effects and mutual interference 
in the reception of multiple streams. Robust interference detection and suppression are provided to protect 
against Bluetooth, cordless phone, and microwave oven interference. 
The  RTL8189EM  WLAN  Controller  supports  fast  receiver  Automatic  Gain  Control  (AGC)  with 
synchronous and asynchronous control loops among antennas,  antenna  diversity  functions,  and  adaptive 
transmit power control function to obtain the better performance in the analog portions of the transceiver. 
Efficient  IQ-imbalance,  DC  offset,  phase  noise,  frequency  offset,  and  timing  offset  compensations  are 
provided for the radio frequency front-end. Selectable digital transmit and receive FIR filters are provided 
to meet transmit spectrum mask requirements and to reject adjacent channel interference, respectively. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Single-Chip IEEE 802.11b/g/n 1T1R WLAN Controller 
with SDIO Interface 
 
1 
Track ID: JATR-   Rev. 0.1 
 
RTL8189EM 
Datasheet 
The RTL8189EM WLAN MAC supports 802.11e for multimedia applications, 802.11i for security, and 
802.11n for enhanced MAC protocol efficiency. Using packet  aggregation techniques such as A-MPDU 
with BA and A-MSDU, protocol efficiency is significantly improved. Power saving mechanisms such as 
Legacy Power Save, and U-APSD, reduce the power wasted during idle time, and compensates for the extra 
power  required  to  transmit  OFDM.  The  RTL8189EM  provides  simple  legacy  and  20MHz/40MHz 
co-existence mechanisms to ensure backward and network compatibility. 
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Single-Chip IEEE 802.11b/g/n 1T1R WLAN Controller 
with SDIO Interface 
 
2 
Track ID: JATR-   Rev. 0.1 
 
2.  Features 
RTL8189EM 
Datasheet 
WLAN MAC Features 
  CMOS MAC, Baseband PHY, and RF in a 
  Power saving mechanism 
  Compatible with 802.11n specification 
  Channel management and co-existence 
  Transmit Opportunity (TXOP) Short 
band 
compatibility 
General 
  32-pin QFN 
  Low latency immediate High-Throughput 
Block Acknowledgement (HT-BA) 
  Frame aggregation for increased MAC 
efficiency (A-MSDU, A-MPDU) 
  150Mbps receive PHY rate and 150Mbps 
transmit PHY rate using 40MHz bandwidth 
  Backward compatible with 802.11b/g 
  Support Scan and Preferred Network 
devices while operating in 802.11n mode 
Offload 
  Complete 802.11n solution for 2.4GHz 
  PHY-level spoofing to enhance legacy 
Inter-Frame Space (SIFS) bursting for 
higher multimedia bandwidth 
single chip for 802.11b/g/n compatible 
WLAN 
  72.2Mbps receive PHY rate and 72.2Mbps 
transmit PHY rate using 20MHz bandwidth 
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64QAM modulation.  
Convolutional Coding Rate: 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 
and 5/6 
  Complies with SDIO 1.1/ 2.0 for WLAN 
 
IEEE 802.11n OFDM 
  802.11i (WPA, WPA2). Open, shared key, 
and pair-wise key authentication services 
  DSSS with DBPSK and DQPSK, CCK 
modulation with long and short preamble 
  20MHz and 40MHz bandwidth 
transmission 
Host Interface 
WLAN PHY Features 
WLAN 
Standards Supported 
  Maximum data rate 54Mbps in 802.11g and 
150Mbps in 802.11n 
  One Transmit and one Receive path (1T1R) 
 
 
IEEE 802.11b/g/n compatible WLAN 
IEEE 802.11e QoS Enhancement (WMM) 
with clock rate up to 50MHz 
  GSPI interface for configurable endian for 
  Short Guard Interval (400ns) 
  OFDM with BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, and 
Single-Chip IEEE 802.11b/g/n 1T1R WLAN Controller 
with SDIO Interface 
 
3 
Track ID: JATR-   Rev. 0.1 
 
RTL8189EM 
Datasheet 
  Switch diversity for DSSS/CCK 
  Fast receiver Automatic Gain Control 
(AGC) 
  Hardware antenna diversity in per packet 
base 
  Selectable receiver FIR filters 
 
  One configurable LED pins 
 
  General Purpose Input/Output (5 pins) 
  On-chip ADC and DAC 
Peripheral Interfaces 
  Programmable scaling in transmitter and 
receiver to trade quantization noise against 
increased probability of clipping 
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Single-Chip IEEE 802.11b/g/n 1T1R WLAN Controller 
with SDIO Interface 
 
4 
Track ID: JATR-   Rev. 0.1