Wireless & Communications

Texas Instruments (TI) has introduced a new member of its high performance sub-1 GHz radio frequency (RF) family providing connectivity for low-power wireless security, Smart Grid, industrial, healthcare, and home and building automation applications.

Radiometrix, a low power radio manufacturer, has launched the WFX2 radio Transceiver module for industrial applications requiring long range and high-reliability. The WFX2 offers fast switching together with +27dBm (500mW) RF power output and ETSI Category 1 (Class 1) receiver performance.

Tensilica has announced that it has joined the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry consortium dedicated to driving adoption of Wi-Fi and device interoperability. Tensilica, a leading IP supplier of multi-standard 3G/ LTE and LTE-Advanced modem cores and applications software has a number of customers using the Tensilica dataplane  processors (DPUs) for some of the older Wi-Fi standards.

As London hosts the Olympics, one of the biggest sporting events in its history, the capital’s new Eco-Routemaster hybrid buses will transport thousands of sports fans throughout the capital. These buses allow passengers to activate stop signals with their bodies as a source of energy using energy harvesting wireless technology from EnOcean.

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) has launched its latest Bluetooth low energy application software, the BLE-Stack 1.2, based on the Bluetooth v4.0 release. The BLE-Stack 1.2 is designed to drive Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready devices such as wearables—a market experiencing large growth as manufacturers take advantage of the increased numbers of Bluetooth v4.0-enabled smartphones and tablets.

In response to the growing requirement for high data rate wireless applications, Plextek has extended its test and measurement facilities to 75GHz capability. This growing demand includes increasing development activity at V-band (50 to 75GHz) and E-band (60 to 90GHz).

Anritsu has launched the Site Master S331L Cable and Antenna Analyzer, a new generation of rugged handheld field instrumentation that builds off the field-proven design and success of the Site Master to provide high-performance cable and antenna analysis quickly and accurately.

Available exclusively from specialist RF & Microwave distributor, Aspen Electronics, is a top quality range of high power directional couplers from IF Engineering. These compact devices are designed specifically to meet a wide range of RF applications where RF or microwave incident and reflected power needs to be sensed, sampled and measured with minimal disturbance to the transmission line.

NXP Semiconductors has introduced the BGU706x series of multi-stage base station LNAs with variable gain and featuring what the company says is the industry’s lowest noise figure of 0.9 dB for a receive chain in silicon. The architecture of the LNA is based on the integration of a very low-noise LNA with a bypass function followed by an analogue-controlled variable gain amplifier (VGA). These new low-noise amplifiers deliver high linearity, while saving up to 80 percent in component count.

TRaC Global, a UK-based testing compliance consultancy, has announced it has been approved as a Certified Test Laboratory by the Continua Health Alliance – the first in the United Kingdom to achieve that recognition. The announcement, made at the opening plenary of Continua Health Alliance’s Summit currently being in Berlin, means that TRaC is now the only test house in the world to have been approved by the Continua Health Alliance as well as the ZigBee Alliance and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group – the industry bodies promoting the two wireless technologies used by the Continua Health Alliance.