RF&WirelessBlog

Bluetooth LE SoC saves 33% power

TI has launched a Bluetooth low energy SoC at CES that it says offers a 33% reduction in power consumption compared to the company’s previous generation devices, when transmitting at 1 milliwatt output power, while maintaining robust RF performance. The new SoC is aimed at Bluetooth Smart sensor applications for consumer medical, sports and fitness, security, entertainment and home automation and enables the design of low power sensor devices that can operate for >1 year on a coin cell battery.

‘World's first’ Bluetooth low energy mouse and keyboard combo demonstrated at CES

Nordic Semiconductor says its nRFready µBlue Desktop is the world's first fully functional reference design for a Bluetooth low energy (or Bluetooth Smart as Bluetooth low energy devices and sensors will now be marketed to consumers) wireless mouse and keyboard combination.
Working with a laptop with built-in support for Bluetooth Smart devices and running a developer preview of Windows 8, this reference design delivers over a year of battery lifetime for the mouse and up to 10 years for the keyboard from a single pair of AA batteries.

Nordic enhances radio with upgraded Bluetooth stack and better power performance

Nordic Semiconductor has revised its nRF8001 Bluetooth 4.0 low energy radio to extend the devices’ power saving performance and upgrade its Bluetooth core stack. The revision - which will be called the nRF8001 'Build D' and is already sampling to selected leading customers - is fully drop-in compatible (hardware and software) with the current Nordic nRF8001 (Build C) ensuring a smooth migration path for existing customers. The new power saving features and enhanced Bluetooth stack are easily accessible through an expanded Application Controller Interface (ACI) command set that can be used by extending existing application code.

Two-microphone wireless audio ref design launched for consumer gaming and home karaoke

Nordic Semiconductor and digital audio converter specialist AKM Semiconductor have collaborated on the nRFready Microphone reference design kit that provides a complete two-microphone audio streaming solution. The kit is based on the recently announced Nordic nRF2460 2.4GHz mono audio streamer and AKM ADC/DAC audio converters. Nordic says the solution delivers crystal clear, wireless 16-bit uncompressed audio with less than 22ms latency, excellent co-existence performance, over 100-hours of battery lifetime from two AA batteries, and a total BoM that supports competitive consumer product pricing.

Nordic signs up Mouser worldwide

Nordic Semiconductor has signed a global distribution deal with Mouser. With immediate effect, Mouser will now supply Nordic's entire range of 2.4GHz and 433/869/915MHz ISM band solutions including the the nRF24LE1 and nRF24LU1+, nRF2460 Audio Streamer, nRF905/nRF9E5 Multiband ICs, ANT nRF24AP2 Series, Bluetooth low energy µBlue nRF8001, and various supporting reference designs, development tools, and design kits.

IMEC Technology Forum: ECG patch combines an ultralow-power ECG SoC with Bluetooth Low Energy

IMEC and the Holst Centre have developed an innovative body patch that integrates an ultra-low power electrocardiogram (ECG) chip and a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radio. The patch fuses power-efficient electronics and standardised communication, opening new perspectives for long-term monitoring in health, wellness and medical applications.

IMEC Technology Forum: Impulse-radio UWB radio succesfully developed

At the IMEC Technology Forum earlier this week, Kathleen Philips presented the results of a project to create an impulse radio that uses the ultra wide band spectrum. Philips foresees this technology, which uses minimal power, will be used in wireless headphones of the future. The IMEC- and Holst Centre-developed impulse radio operates in the 6-10GHz band, extends a smartphone’s battery life by 3x compared to a comparable Bluetooth solution and does not suffer from fading or interference.

Mouser highlights new Bluetooth RF modules

Panasonic Electronic Components’ Bluetooth RF modules, PAN1317 and PAN1327, are now available from Mouser. The modules feature Dynastream's dual-mode Area Network Technology (ANT+) software protocol and Bluetooth v4.0 connectivity. Mouser says this combination creates a low cost, ultra-low power wireless networking solution for short range applications.

Nordic Semi and Broadcom collaborate on Bluetooth low energy proximity fob prototype for mobile device security

Nordic Semiconductor says successful tests prove its prototype design for a small, low-cost Bluetooth low energy proximity fob is communicating wirelessly with Broadcom’s BCM4330, the industry’s first combo chip solution certified to the Bluetooth 4.0 standard. The prototype fob design demonstrates the interoperability between Bluetooth low energy chips and Bluetooth v4.0 devices. Adherence to the Bluetooth v4.0 specification ensures that devices from different providers such as Broadcom and Nordic communicate seamlessly.

WiLAN sues wireless industry leaders for patent infringement

Canadian company WiLAN has announced today that it has commenced litigation against a long list of companies that use Bluetooth technology in their products, including Apple, Intel, Dell, Sony, TI, LG, Toshiba, Motorola, Acer, and a string of other well-known names. WiLAN claims that by making and/or selling products enabled with Bluetooth connectivity – including cellular handsets and notebook computers – these companies are infringing a 1996 US patent owned by WiLAN that relates to band plan assignment for frequency-hopping systems.

WiLAN will be represented in this action in the Eastern District of Texas by McKool Smith, the law firm that last month led a successful patent infringement case by VirnetX against Microsoft.