At electronica 2022, Renesas Electronics Corp. announced that it has expanded its low-power WAN product line as part of its strategy to deliver connectivity devices for smart cities, smart homes, medical devices, and industrial applications, including a new Cat-1 and NB-IoT wireless module. The company also shared its product roadmap for Wi-Fi, based on technology from its acquisition of Celeno, and announced sampling of its 2 × 2 Wi-Fi/BLE combo chip.
The new RYZ024A wireless module supports Cat-M1 and NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) internet connectivity without requiring a gateway. It claims lowest power mode operation, consuming 1 µA while in power savings mode, which is significantly less than competing products, said the company.
(Source: Renesas Electronics)
The RYZ024A supports extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) and offers an extended voltage range from 2.2 V to 5.5 V, which makes it suited for battery-powered applications. The module provides two power amplifier output levels: 20 dBm (decibel-milliwatts) and 23 dBm to ensure coverage at the cellular network’s edge as well as deep indoor environments.
Similar to its predecessor, the RYZ014A module, the RYZ024A offers Cat-M1 wireless connection capability, but adds the option to integrate NB-IoT. “While Cat-M1 and NB-IoT are both Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technologies, NB-IoT uses only a portion of the available spectrum, making it more power efficient and therefore extending the operational life of battery-powered systems,” said Renesas. “NB-IoT also offers excellent coverage depth, including underground and in enclosed spaces.”
The RYZ024A is being developed in collaboration with Sequans and will be fully tested and certified to work with all major radio frequency regulatory specifications defined by organizations such as the Global Certification Forum (GFC) and the PCS Type Certification Review Board (PTCRB). This will ensure compliance with regulatory and carrier-specific requirements so that engineers can immediately start building IoT systems for leading carriers in North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe, said Renesas.
Renesas said the RYZ024A module will reduce the PCB size by 60 percent and cut development time by up to 90 percent, when compared to conventional chipset-based designs, with full hardware and software support to integrate the RA or RX family of MCUs.
In addition to the RF certifications to speed up design, Renesas also offers an evaluation kit and software stack. The RYZ024A module is available today with Cat-M1 firmware and will be software upgradeable to support dual mode (Cat-M1 and NB-IoT) next year. Renesas plans to offer a Pmod expansion kit to easily connect to Renesas MCUs. The kit will include a fully certified RYZ024A module, LTE antenna, SIM card, and quick start guide including a software upgrade.
As part of its Winning Combinations reference designs, Renesas has developed the “Solar Powered Location Tracker” solution, which is a modular asset tracking solution with flexible wireless options. It incorporates a central MCU (RA2L1) together with complimentary Renesas products such as power ICs, communication modules for Wi-Fi (DA16600MOD), and a Cat-M1 and NB-IoT module (RYZ024A).
Renesas also announced its Wi-Fi roadmap to complement its industrial and IoT products. Renesas is leveraging the technology of its recent acquisition of Celeno last year to develop a range of Wi-Fi-client and access point applications for Wi-Fi 6/6E and Wi-Fi 7. Target applications include home networking, IoT, industrial, and consumer multimedia devices.
(Source: Renesas Electronics)
Wi-Fi 7 is expected to launch in 2024 with early adoption in mobile phones, computers, and networking devices, followed by IoT, industrial, and consumer multimedia applications, said Renesas. “In the 6 GHz band, Wi-Fi 7 would more than the double the maximum speed and will increase speeds in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band by as much as 30 percent.” Other benefits include improved network reliability, latency, and user experience.
The company said it is now shipping production volumes of its high-performance Wi-Fi 6E access point solutions with its CL8000 family. It also is sampling a highly integrated, 2 × 2 Wi-Fi/BLE combo chip supporting Wi-Fi 6E tri-band switchable radio (6 GHz, 5 GHz, and 2.4 GHz), 160-MHz channel bandwidth, and up to 2.4 Gbits/s data link speed. The low-latency, secure chipset includes Bluetooth and BLE 5.2 support, targeting multimedia streaming applications, IoT gateways, and cloud connected devices.
Renesas is also developing a Wi-Fi 6E chipset with unique, patented Wi-Fi Doppler Imaging technology. It depicts the range and doppler signature of people and objects using standard Wi-Fi signals, eliminating the need for multiple cameras or sensors in home environments and commercial buildings, said the company. The combined connectivity and sensing chip is expected to be in production in the next 18 months.
A new Quick-Connect Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth Low Energy 5.2 module also will be released for IoT applications that need a high bandwidth Wi-Fi 6 Client with 2 × 2 MIMO.
Renesas offers a range of Winning Combinations that combine Wi-Fi 6 and 6E chipsets. These include applications from a High Throughput Wi-Fi 6 Router for home gateways to a Wireless IEEE 1588 Solution for 5G networks. More are under development, including a video IP phone, smart home security terminal, and expansion of the Renesas Quick-Connect IoT Platform to include a Wi-Fi 6 USB stick.
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