Weartech-Comms / Bluetooth / Wireless Archives - Page 12 of 19

Bluetooth LE module goes where radios aren’t welcome

Thu, Jul 28, 2022

A Bluetooth 5 Low Energy module for applications deemed “radio-unfavourable” has been introduced by Panasonic.

The PAN1770 Bluetooth 5 Low Energy (LE) module includes a uFL connector which enables the use of an external antenna for use where difficult housing conditions shield radio waves.

“We have seen that in many devices or applications, radio waves emitted by the chip antenna can be blocked or reflected by the metallic housing, making it difficult to receive the radio signal from the outside”, commented Tomislav Tipura from Panasonic Industry Europe. Using the PAN1770 module, an external antenna can easily be attached via the uFL connector and thus redirect the radio waves outside the housing, he explained.

The module is based on Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF52840 single chip controller. It joins the PAN1780 Bluetooth 5 module from Panasonic.

Output power is up to 8dBm. The module is suitable for use in applications where a long range is required, due to the sensitivity of 95dBm at 1.0Mbits per second and -103dBm at 125kbits per second via the nRF52840 chip controller combined with the LE coded PHY, said Panasonic. Current consumption is just 4.8mA in Tx (at 0dBm), 4.8mA in Rx mode, 0.4 microA in system off mode and around 0.7 microA with RTC wake-up. These parameters make the module suitable for used in a battery-powered device.

It also includes a Cortex M4F processor, 256kbyte RAM and built-in 1.0Mbyte flash memory. The device can be used in standalone mode, eliminating the need for an external processor, while reducing complexity, lowering costs and saving space, said the company. The PAN1770 module also supports Type 2 near field communication (NFC A) for use in simplified pairing and payment systems, although an external antenna is required.

The module has a small footprint of 15.6 x 8.7 x 1.8mm. Maximum output power is 8dBm, configurable from -20dBm in 4.0dB steps and -40dBm in whisper mode. For 802.15.4 support, it has Matter, Zigbee and Thread, as well as up to 48 programmable general purpose I/Os and SPI, I2C, UART, PWM, ADC, NFC, USB2.0 interfaces.

http://industry.panasonic.eu

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Renesas’ SmartBond DA1470x SoCs are integrated for wireless connectivity

Wed, Jun 22, 2022

Renesas Electronics has announced the SmartBond DA1470x family of Bluetooth low energy (LE) integrated SoCs for wireless connectivity.

Renesas claimed the DA1470x family to be the only device in the Bluetooth LE space to integrate a power management unit, a hardware voice activity detector (VAD), a graphics processing unit (GPU) and Bluetooth LE connectivity all into a single chip.

This combined functionality provides smart IoT devices with advanced sensor and graphical capabilities and seamless, low power, always-on audio processing. The SoCs are suitable for wearables, such as smart watches and fitness trackers, glucose monitor readers and other consumer medical and healthcare devices, home appliances with displays, industrial automation and security systems, and Bluetooth consoles such as e-bikes and gaming equipment.

“The DA1470x family … enables developers to push the boundaries of connected consumer and industrial applications and future-proof their IoT products to fit the needs of multiple applications, while optimising their bill of materials,” commented Sean McGrath, vice president of the connectivity and audio business division in Renesas’ IoT, Industrial and Infrastructure business unit.

The high level of integration results in “significant cost savings” on the bill of materials (BoM), enabling cost-effective system solutions, according to the company. It also reduces component count on the PCB, enabling smaller form factor designs and freeing up space for additional components or larger batteries. With fewer components on the PCB, the reliability of the system improves, it claimed, delivering a further reduction in the total cost of goods sold (COGS) of the end product.

The wireless SoCs feature a multi core system – with an Arm Cortex-M33 processor as the main application core and Cortex -M0+ as the sensor node controller.

An integrated 2D GPU and display controller supports DPI, JDI parallel, DBI and single / dual / quad serial peripheral interfaces (SPIs) and there is a configurable Mac supporting Bluetooth LE 5.2 and proprietary 2.4GHz protocols.

An integrated 720mA JEITA-compliant USB charger supports rechargeable Li-ion / Li-Po batteries, while an integrated low quiescent current SIMO DC/DC converter of the PMU supplies internal system and external components.

Low power hardware VAD enables seamless and always-on audio processing.

The DA1470x family consists of four new devices, all of which are in mass production and available now.

The DA14706 has already been used in the Xiaomi Mi band 7 wearable activity tracker with a 1.62-inch, 192×490 Amoled display, 120 sports modes and a 15-day battery life for typical use.

The DA1470x family will be demonstrated at Embedded World (21-23 June) in Nuremberg, Germany, at Booth Hall 1-234.

A provider of microcontrollers, Renesas combines its expertise in embedded processing, analogue, power and connectivity to deliver complete semiconductor solutions. These combinations accelerate time to market for automotive, industrial, infrastructure and IoT applications.

http://www.renesas.com

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Integrated listener for NFC wireless charging cuts board footprint by more than half

Wed, Jun 22, 2022

Panthronics has released early samples of what it claimed to be the industry’s first fully integrated NFC wireless charging listener device, the PTX30W.

The single chip PTX30W integrates an efficient rectifier, NFC tag, battery charger and power management as well as protocol handling. The NFC tag supports bidirectional data communication in NFC Type A mode. This enables the transfer of data between the charging cradle and the device under charge, such as the battery’s state of charge or fault indicators, as well as enabling firmware upgrades of both devices.

The PTX30W will work in tandem with an NFC poller such as the Panthronics PTX130W in a charging cradle. It harvests power wirelessly without the need for a microcontroller in the listener device.

It replaces four discrete components with a single chip and occupies less than half the board footprint, to save space in products such as medical sensors, fitness trackers, smart watches, earbuds, hearing aids, smart glasses, smart rings and styluses, said Panthronics.

The PTX30W runs an NFC forum-derived wireless charging protocol that supports power negotiation. This means that the PTX30W will simplify product development, said the company, as it can operate in standalone wireless charging mode with no need for an external microcontroller to run NFC wireless charging operations.

When paired with the Panthronics PTX130W, the NFC poller with the industry’s highest power output, the PTX30W can harvest up to 1W of power for fast charging of lithium-ion batteries, the company claimed.

Mark Dickson, chief marketing officer of Panthronics, said: “NFC wireless charging … operates via a small antenna and supports wireless communication as well as power transfer. Now with the development of the integrated PTX30W, Panthronics is offering device manufacturers a roadmap to even more space savings as well as a simpler system design for faster time-to-market.”

The PTX30W is sampling now to alpha customers. Customer samples will be generally available on the full release of the product later in 2022. Panthronics is presenting the PTX30W prototype demonstration kit at Embedded World (21-23 June) in Nuremberg, Germany, in Hall 1-139.

Founded in 2014, Panthronics is a semiconductor product company headquartered in Graz, Austria. It develops differentiated wireless solutions from the ground up for security and power applications.

http://www.panthronics.com

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Infineon combines Airoc Wi-Fi / Bluetooth in Nvidia Jetson for edge AI

Mon, May 30, 2022

Airoc Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity provides Wi-Fi 6 / 6E and low power wi-Fi 5 connectivity to Nvidia’s Jetson system on modules (SoMs) for developers to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) -enabled edge devices.

AI at the edge devices require reliable and instant Wi-Fi cloud connectivity for lifecycle management functions like deploying AI models through over the air (OTA) updates.

“In congested network environments, AI devices often encounter disconnections or low-data throughput, leading to poor user experience, explained Infineon. The Airoc Wi-Fi family delivers low latency, robust connectivity and high data throughput streaming, said Sivaram Trikutam, vice president, Wi-Fi product line at Infineon.

The Wi-Fi will be used for AI applications which require real time blending effects from live action to computer-generated images or videos, such as gaming and AR / VR (augmented reality / virtual reality) in industry applications. In these applications, high-throughput and low-latency wireless transmissions are critical and require simultaneous processing and streaming of data. Infineon said its Wi-Fi 6E solution, operating in the 6.0 to 7.0GHz band, minimises latency and prevents interruptions due to congested wireless networks. This is combined with the fast processing power of the Nvidia Jetson platform for AI-enabled devices in, for example, robotics, smart cities, healthcare, industrial, retail, energy and agriculture where processing in the cloud is blended with edge processing.

The Airoc CYW4373, CYW5459x and CYW5557x are available to design now. The Nvidia Jetson compute platform is claimed to be the leading AI at the edge compute platform with over one million developers. With pre-trained AI models, developer software development kits and support for cloud-native technologies across the full Jetson line up, intelligent machine manufacturers and AI developers can build and deploy software defined features on embedded and edge devices.

http://www.infineon.com

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Bluetooth LE module goes where radios aren’t welcome

Renesas’ SmartBond DA1470x SoCs are integrated for wireless connectivity

Integrated listener for NFC wireless charging cuts board footprint by more than half

Infineon combines Airoc Wi-Fi / Bluetooth in Nvidia Jetson for edge AI

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