Belgium research centre and Japanese company come together for R&D in short radio tech

Fresh efforts are on to build an ultra-low power (ULP) short radio technolgy for smart homes and buildings by two companies in this field.

The Belgium-based Nanoelectronics research center imec/Holst Centre and MegaChips, a “fabless” company focusing on the development of system LSIs and products that incorporate original algorithms and architecture, have announced that they had signed a strategic partnership for joint R&D on such a ULP short radio technology.

megachips+imecgraphicThere is no longer any doubt that with the growth of mobile devices, the rapidly upcoming Internet of Things (IoT) sector, the market for connected devices will grow at a rapid pace in the coming years, with small, battery-operated sensors devices integrated everywhere—from homes and automobiles to human bodies. These will yield up to hundreds of sensors per person, supporting, and even augmenting daily lives.

By 2020, it is estimated that about 50 billion connected devices will be in use. These battery operated or energy-harvesting operated sensors will communicate with each other and with the Internet via small short range radios that consume little amount of power—not only when active but also in the stand-by mode—and at affordable cost for mass production. In professional applications such as smart factories, smart grid and smart buildings, ultra-low power wireless connectivity will enable maintenance free monitoring of infrastructure and resources.

The availability of reliable autonomous wireless sensor nodes opens up a huge potential for cost saving by avoiding down-time of machines in factories, or shortage of energy or other resources. Together, researchers from imec/Holst Centre and MegaChips will develop an ultra-low power multi-standard sub-GHz radio solution (compatible with ZigBee 900MHz and IEEE802.15.4g) on CMOS technology, achieving a transmit power two times lower than current state-of-the-art (60mW) and a receive power five to 10 times lower (6mW).

Said Harmke de Groot, Programme Director ULP Circuits and Devices at imec/Holst Centre, “Combining our partners’ know-how with our expertise in radio design and technology enables new innovative products for IoT while significantly shortening the time-to-market for our industrial partners”.

“This ultra-low power wireless chip project will become nucleus of our IoT strategy,” said Akira Takata, President and CEO of MegaChips Corporation. “We are going to lead the IoT market by combining our development capabilities of intelligent Sensor Hub and MEMS technology with imec’s most advanced RF technology.”

Incidentally, MegaChips Corporation is the first fabless company in Japan established in 1990. It is the only Japanese company ranked in the top 25 of “World-Wide Fab-less LSI makers. The word Fabless refers to the business methodology of outsourcing the manufacturing of silicon wafers, adopted by hundreds of semiconductor companies globally.

Graphic Credit:Pixteller
Image Credits: MegaChips/imec

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