Top News Stories of the Week (29 Aug to 2 Sept 2016)

LTE Cat 4 Module Targets American, European, and Chinese Car Markets

Telit, has announced the addition of the LE920A4 LTE Cat 4 smart module to its portfolio of automotive-grade cellular IoT modules. The 150 Mbps product addresses automakers’ growing demand for high-speed mobile data connectivity to support applications like advanced diagnostics and infotainment, remote software updates; and is fully compliant to eCall and ERA GLONASS requirements for emerging, mandated European and Russian emergency call systems. The new module is available in variants compliant with regional regulatory and mobile carrier requirements for cars to be delivered to North American, European and Chinese markets.

The LE920A4 is sampling now, shipping later this year and concluding final carrier certifications Q1-2017. Click here to read more

Ericsson Introduces World's First 5G NR Radio

Ericsson is commercializing the world's first 5G NR radio for massive MIMO, with deployments planned for 2017. Together with their 5G Plug-Ins announced in June and their commercially available Radio System Baseband 5216, which currently powers their Radio Test Bed, they are the first to deliver all the components of a 5G access network.

By 2021, Ericsson forecasts' that 7.7 billion mobile broadband subscriptions and 1.5 billion cellular IoT devices will depend on mobile networks worldwide. Leading operators - who want to be frontrunners in the networked society - are already planning their 5G networks to meet these needs. Click here to read more

EDI CON USA Announces Dedicated RF Amplifier Design Track

EDI CON USA 2016, a conference that is being organized by Microwave Journal will be taking place in Boston from 20-22 September, 2016. The exhibition will host more than 138 exhibiting companies from the RF, microwave, and high-speed digital industries, including demonstration pods in the Signal Integrity Zone.

At EDICON USA there will be a dedicated RF Amplifier Design track. Click here to read more

Z-Wave Interoperability Layer Now Open to the Public

Z-Wave is one of the dominant technologies in the smart home space, with more than 50 million interoperable Z-Wave smart home devices worldwide. The Z-Wave interoperability layer has become the gold standard in smart home communication and is the basis of the successful Z-Wave ecosystem, where all products speak the same language and truly understand each other, allowing service providers and consumers to successfully mix and match any Z-Wave product from any Z-Wave partner.

Sigma Designs has announced that they are releasing the interoperability layer of the Z-Wave standard into the public domain. Click here to read more

Li-Fi Communication Module for Industry 4.0

A team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems in Dresden has developed a Li-Fi communication module that allows wireless networking of devices that are used in industrial production. The optical transmission technology not only facilitates the exchange of huge amounts of data, but also meets the high real-time characteristics of automation technology. The technology is intended to supplement or replace wired fieldbus or Ethernet systems prone to wear and tear.

Industrial 4.0 has already been introduced in many companies. In the future, processes in factories will be fully automated and manufacturing and logistics will become more computerized. Click here to read more

TI Adds Wi-Fi Capability to Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

Texas Instruments has introduced the first reference design that adds Wi-Fi connectivity to an electric vehicle (EV) charging station. Electric vehicle owners will now be able to remotely monitor and control the charging of their vehicles from just about anywhere with Wi-Fi, presenting dozens of potential use cases from home automation to checking the availability of nearby public charge points. Download the new EV Charging Station with Wi-Fi reference design.

Battery technology advancements and government regulations have resulted in a growing number of new electric vehicles around the world. Click here to read more

World’s First Wireless, Miniature Implantable Pain Relief Solution

Stimwave, a medical device manufacturer and independent research institute headquartered in South Florida, has achieved long-term success for hundreds of pain patients during the early adaptor rollout of the world’s first miniature wireless pain relief system. Embraced by pain specialists seeking non-opioid treatments, the drug-free, breakthrough remedy offers new hope to the more than 400 million people worldwide who suffer from chronic pain.

Every day in the U.S. an average of 120 people die as a result of drug overdose, more than from motor vehicle crashes, and another 6,700-plus are treated in emergency departments for the misuse or abuse of prescription pain medication. Click here to read more

Braidio Technology to Extend Battery Life of Wearable Devices by 100x

A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have introduced a new radio technology that allows small mobile devices to take advantage of battery power in larger devices nearby for communication.

Professor Deepak Ganesan and his graduate students at the College of Information and Computer Sciences, Pan Hu, Pengyu Zhang and Mohammad Rostami, have designed and are testing a prototype radio that could help extend the life of batteries in small, mass-market mobile devices such as fitness trackers and smartwatches. By using “energy offload” techniques they want to help make these devices smaller and lighter in the future. Click here to read more

Researchers Develop a New Way to Achieve Antenna Beam Steering

Antennas used in Radars are often required to rotate to provide a 360 degree view of the surroundings. Traditionally this is achived by physically rotating the antennas to provide a complete view. Over time physically rotating antennas were related by phased array antennas. Phased array antennas are flat panels made up of miniature transmitters that each emit fractions of an overall signal - every fraction varied so that it all adds up to a single linear beam in a particular direction. The antennas can modulate the direction of that overall beam by altering the electronic properties of each individual signal source.

However, packing multiple small-scale antennas into one surface adds up to costly and colossal devices overall, limiting their usefulness. Click here to read more

5G Handset Sales to Exceed 300 Million Devices by 2025

In a pair of related reports released by Strategy Analytics, the reality of 5G evolution is analyzed. The report, “5G Progress Review - Fragmentation Likely but Diversification Inevitable”, concludes significant work is needed to marry the appeal of a unified early 5G standard with the longer term need to support diverse market requirements. Leading operators such as NTT DoCoMo, SK Telecom, Verizon, AT&T and more cautious European operators are plotting very different 5G paths. The report, “Global 5G Handset Sales Forecast by Region”, predicts 5G commercial handset sales will begin in 2020 and exceed 300 million by 2025.

According to Strategy Analytics, 5G network plans have developed well in 2016, driving an ecosystem which will put 7% of mobile connections on 5G networks by 2025. Click here to read more

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Top News Stories of the Week (29 Aug to 2 Sept 2016)