Universal Scientific Industrial (USI), a leading global electronics designer and manufacturer, has announced that it has teamed up with Broadcom, to deliver wireless SiP (System in Package) solutions for the Wi-Fi 6E market. USI is a key partner of Broadcom in the field of Wi-Fi communication modules and is leveraging its cutting edge miniaturization technology with Broadcom's BCM4389, the world's first Wi-Fi 6E chip, to develop the WM-BAX-BM-62 SiP module.
The WM-BAX-BM-62 SiP is a high-performance module with a small footprint designed to meet the ever-increasing consumer needs for miniaturization, mobility, and efficient data transmission speeds. Samples of the module are scheduled to be provided to leading smartphone brands for evaluation and testing this quarter and to other customers early next year.
An increasing number of smart devices are shrinking in size and Wi-Fi connectivity has become a default feature, driving the industry to grow exponentially with each introduction of the next generation Wi-Fi standard. Wi-Fi 6's spectrum of application has gradually expanded from smartphones and miniaturized wearable devices to a diverse market segment that requires high degrees of reliability and technological iterations, such as automobile, industrial, and cloud computing applications.
Wi-Fi 6 features technologies such as MU-MIMO and OFDMA (orthogonal frequency-division multiple access) that provide seamless and faster data transmission. Wi-Fi 6E will extend next-generation wireless connections in the 6 GHz band, alleviating many of the Wi-Fi congestion problems with greater and cleaner bandwidth. Broadcom announced the BCM4389 Wi-Fi 6E chip for mobile devices in February 2020.
The BCM4389 chip is equipped with a host of capabilities including OFDMA modulation technique that helps to shorten the transmission delay when multiple devices are connected at the same time, 1024-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) that improves the efficiency and traffic of wireless transmission, with both the downloading speed and the coverage enhanced multiple times to reach the GHz level, and TWT (Target Wake Time) that enables a significant improvement of power efficiency.
Wi-Fi 6E can utilize up to 7 super-wide 160 MHz channels in 6 GHz band for faster Wi-Fi speeds and latency reduction. BCM4389 is also compatible with the latest Bluetooth 5.1 MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output), which reduces pairing time and enables automatic adjustment of Bluetooth output power. Together with beamforming, the chip ensures a seamless connection and efficient performance for any connected Bluetooth devices.
In recent years, USI's patented manufacturing processes and continuous material cost savings have enabled the company to apply its miniaturization technology on a wide portfolio of SiP modules designed to reduce power consumption and improve product performance. USI's solutions help simplify and increase the reliability of customers' product design, resulting in accelerated time-to-market and reduction in development costs. The WM-BAX-BM-62 SiP wireless module is a thin and lightweight high-performance system module. During its development process, a double-sided conformal shielding technique is applied, which further demonstrates USI's unique miniaturization capability.
Wi-Fi 6E is expected to be first adopted in smartphones and consumer devices and extended later to enterprise and industry applications. The Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem is dependent on the joint efforts by chipmakers and equipment manufacturers, and USI's development of the WM-BAX-BM-62 SiP wireless module is a strategic step to secure a foothold in the Wi-Fi 6E market, providing more options to help customers develop Wi-Fi 6E devices.
Click here to read more about Wi-Fi 6E.
