A Challenger Appears: Why 2024 is the Year of Ultra-Wideband

Ultra-wideband (UWB) was once considered a niche but intriguing alternative to incumbent presence detection and tracking technologies, including radio-frequency identification (RFID), localization trackers and infrared sensors. Despite its unique advantages, the technology industry overlooked UWB until recently. Experts now project that UWB implementation will grow significantly, estimating UWB will have a higher compound annual growth rate (CAGR) than Wi-Fi or Bluetooth from 2023-2030, totaling 18 percent.

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NOVELDA scientific paper is accepted for presentation at the premier global forum for innovations in chip development, ISSCC.

NOVELDA scientific paper is accepted for presentation at the premier global forum for innovations in chip development, ISSCC.

NOVELDA will demonstrate the world’s lowest power Ultra-Wideband radar sensor

OSLO, Norway, January 31, 2024

The International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) is the foremost global forum for presentation of advances in solid-state circuits and systems-on-a-chip. The next conference, “ICs for a better world”, will be held between Feb 18-22, 2024, in San Francisco.

We are excited to announce that the NOVELDA scientific research paper “A 79.7μW Two-Transceiver Direct-RF 7.875GHz UWB Radar SoC in 40nm CMOS” is selected by the prestigious ISSCC which is well acknowledged by the IC community and sets high standards for paper admissions. ISSCC is considered as the world championship in integrated circuits (IC) research and design. NOVELDA’s participation is accompanied by companies like Google, Intel and Samsung, as well as by internationally respected research institutions like Stanford, MIT and Berkeley.

NOVELDA will present the paper in technical session 4.1 on February 19. The paper shows a fully integrated ultra-wideband radar, comprising two full transceiver chains, integrated clock generation, power management and CPU. The system employs direct-RF sampling, fast-startup crystal-less operation and single-antenna transceivers, crucial for smallest footprint, ultra-low power applications. NOVELDA will also participate in a live demo session in the evening of the same day (DS1), showcasing the radar sensor’s ultra-low power presence detection and tracking capabilities.

This research underscores the value of UWB radar as a new and valuable sensing modality, complementing secure ranging and low-latency data communications, further establishing UWB as the wireless technology of the future. NOVELDA continues to lead innovation in the field of UWB sensing, presenting world-class sensing performance through state-of-the-art advances in radio frequency (RF) front-end IP, signal processing and system design.

State-of-the-art UWB sensing is beneficial in numerous use cases, from saving lives by child presence detection in Automotive, to reducing energy in HVAC-systems for Building Automation.

I am immensely proud of our team and exceptionally satisfied with our technology innovation capabilities. Being accepted by ISSCC is a very strong recognition of the cutting-edge of NOVELDA technology.”

– Dag T. Wisland, CTO, NOVELDA

UWB ranging

UWB ranging

The best-known use of UWB today is probably connected with smart phones. Those of you who own an iPhone 11 or later have a UWB module in your phone that can communicate with other UWB radios through a standard protocol known as IEEE 802.15.4z.

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UWB sensing

Time of flight

Ultra-Wideband sensing is basically a radar that transmits electromagnetic pulses and listens for reflected echoes in much the same way as a traditional radar does. We can sense all objects inside a defined coverage area, but we are particularly good at detecting objects that move, even if the movement is very small.

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Understanding
Ultra-Wideband
(UWB) technology

Power spectral density

The Ultra-Wideband or UWB story started two decades ago with FCC opening up for new technological wireless opportunities. In this note we address UWB opportunities and constraints and point out the challenges of implementing
functional UWB technology.

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The challenge of robust human presence detection

Time of flight illustration

Discovering presence of a person regardless of light conditions, weather and type of clothing has been addressed in several ways without robust solutions. Robust discovery of human presence by the unavoidable and tiny chest movement due to respiration is now feasible with the NOVELDA UWB radar.

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