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Thanks to Verizon’s 5G marketing campaigns, there’s a boatload of confusion about what ultra-wideband (UWB) is and why it matters. Those of us fortunate enough to work around UWB technology and products would never confuse it for a 5G data plan, but let’s quickly bust a few UWB myths for everyone else.
UWB is not:
Now, a little more about what UWB is:
Read on to learn more about what UWB technology is and how we might use it in the future.
While UWB technology has been around since the 1990s, it was Apple that raised the curtain on UWB in 2019 by incorporating the U1 chip into the iPhone 11. The “U” in U1 stands for UWB. While initially used for “spatial awareness” of other U1-equipped iPhone 11s and enabling Apple’s AirDrop feature, UWB is now also being used for the precise location of AirTags and for a smooth hand-off between phone and speaker in a HomePod mini.
Because UWB is small, inexpensive, and consumes very little power, it can be easily integrated into many “able” products—wearables, hearables, portables, hugables, valuables—so we can remember exactly where we left them. UWB not only brings us closer to the things we care about, but it helps many people stay safely distanced from others during COVID-19. KINEXON’s SafeTag wearables are helping the NBA, NCAA, NFL, and MLB stay safe from COVID exposure by using UWB to keep athletes healthy and safely distanced as they practice and train.
Another feature of UWB is its strong security, a “key” reason why the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) sees mobile devices becoming true digital keys for cars. CCC’s Digital Key combines Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and UWB to enable passive keyless access and engine start without ever taking your smartphone out of your pocket or purse. After authenticating the Digital Key between a vehicle and a smartphone over a short-range BLE connection, a secure ranging session with UWB enables the vehicle to perform secure and accurate distance measurement to localize the mobile device. Voila, your smartphone is now your car key. Now, even I would have trouble locking myself out of the car!
UWB operates in a frequency range between 3.1 and 10.6GHz, so it won’t interfere with Wi-Fi®, Bluetooth, GPS, or other popular wireless formats. Unlike other wireless technologies, UWB doesn’t use amplitude or frequency modulation. Instead, UWB sends short sequences of narrow pulses across a wide bandwidth to obtain precise location information. Capable of fast 2ns pulses to reach tens of Megabit-per-second data rates across wide bandwidth (more than 500MHz), UWB is highly immune to reflected signal (multi-path) interference and noise. This means UWB not only peacefully coexists in a home buzzing with myriad tech gadgets, it enables a truly smart home where a person’s preferences for lighting, temperature, music, and entertainment follow them through the house. You can see an example of how that works in Qorvo’s The Future is Ultra-Wideband video.
In addition to remote access to our cars and homes, UWB will enable many new applications in the connected home, indoor navigation, contactless payment, factory automation, and other use cases. The biggest challenge with UWB will be figuring what to do with the 5,000 hours of our lives no longer spent searching for lost things around the house. That should be just enough time to binge-watch the 20+ seasons of Law & Order I missed!
UWB technology enables secure low-power, low-latency data communication, and precise distance/location measurements. Consuming very little power and operating in a frequency range between 3.1GHz and 10.6GHz, UWB supports secure communication across smart devices without disrupting wireless protocols such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.
The accuracy advantages of UWB are clear. UWB is very capable of measuring distance and location with a precision of 5 to10 centimeters. In contrast, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and other narrowband radio standards only provide accuracy within meters. Moreover, because UWB radio pulses are extremely short, multi-path effects typically won’t overlap with the true signal and, therefore, do not damage its integrity and strength.
Since its introduction, UWB continues to evolve to meet the needs of a more interconnected world—including helping to safely distance during COVID and authenticating digital keys for remote access. Looking ahead, UWB is expected to play a critical role in a wide range of applications such as indoor navigation, contactless payment, factory automation, and ones we have yet to imagine.
The article was previously published on Microwave Journal’s website and Qorvo's blog.
Brent Dietz, Qorvo Director of Corporate Communications Brent has seen a lot of engineering and technology during 30+ years in the tech industry. His primary role is making geek-speak understandable to the non-geek public, reporters, and nontechnical analysts. It's challenging—simplifying without distorting—and it helps to have a sense of humor. Brent does, which he shares with readers from time to time.