China’s Shenzhen Giant Microelectronics Company Limited (GiantSemi), a global supplier of wireless SoC (system-on-chip) with R&D operations in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, has announced at MWC 2024 what it calls an industry-leading GT1500 UWB (ultra-wideband) SoC for ranging, positioning and wireless connectivity applications.
UWB technology enables ubiquitous fast and accurate ranging and positioning capabilities either indoors or outdoors, independent of networking infrastructure coverage. In addition to its ranging capability, UWB provides energy-efficient wireless connectivity at configurable data rates, creating new use cases with mobile phones, wearable devices, digital keys, tags and trackers, enabling new consumer-oriented and commercial applications in areas such as access control, smart payments, smart homes and smart cities.
GiantSemi says its GT1500 is the world's smallest UWB single-chip SoC housed in a low-profile package requiring minimal footprint of 9mm2. GT1500 is a single-chip standard platform UWB solution comprises of four receiver channels – combining RF, analogue and baseband functions, tightly integrated with an embedded MCU to perform control and protocols processing, all in a single device.
GT1500 is described as ideally suited for space-constrained wearable and IoT product applications. It reduces 3D AoA design complexity, component counts and product BoM costs. This compact device allows close antenna placement, thus improving signal reception and overall UWB performance. In addition, GT1500 prolongs the battery life of an UWB always-on tag compared to similar products operating with a 235mAh battery such as CR2032. The longer-lasting battery life of GT1500 significantly enhances user experiences for UWB always-on applications.
GT1500 has been certified by the UWB-focused FiRa Consortium. It also complies with the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) Digital Key Release 3.0.
