Switzerland Power Efficient Tender

Ublox a global provider of leading positioning and wireless communication technologies and services has confirmed that its Bluetooth 5 modules are being built into wearable devices that are helping to combat the global COVID-19 pandemic. Available as either a wristband or a pendant the TDS50 has been developed by Electronic Precepts to present a highly-effective track and trace solution with data being directly stored on the device then periodically sent to a web server. In addition through the social distancing function that is also featured wearers are given visual and vibrational alerts if another TDS-50 wearer comes within a 2 meter distance of them for over 45 seconds. The device can be used anywhere from schools to businesses or airport settings.The TDS-50 units needed a compact form factor to make them comfortable for the user to wear. They also had to support ultra-low power operation with the ability to deliver passive scanning for social distancing purposes over a period of up to 240 hours. Consequently the wireless communication module specified had to meet both of these key criteria fully. Given the immediacy of the COVID crisis it was crucial as well that the solution could be brought to market very rapidly - with the constituent RF electronics being quick and simple to incorporate into the design and having all the necessary standards approvals in place.The ublox ANNA-B112 proved itself to have all the attributes needed. With dimensions of just 6.5mm x 6.5mm x 1.2mm this space-saving highly-integrated and pre-approved system-in-package SiP is optimized for situations where a swift turnaround is mandated. It is based on Nordics nRF52832 chip-level Bluetooth technology with a 64MHz Arm Cortex-M4 processing resource plus 512kB of embedded flash memory. Supporting 1.4Mbits data rates it is highly suited to wearables applications and does not impact heavily on battery reserves.ublox were able to satisfy all our expectations with the ANNA-B112 module allowing us to bring our track and trace device to market within a very short timeframe while also addressing the stringent space and power constraints that had been set states Jeff Singer CEO of Electronic Precepts. Over ten thousand TDS-50 units have already been shipped and demand is ramping up every day. We see huge potential for it in schools businesses and theme parks as well as within airport environments. This collaboration with Electronic Precepts gives us a valuable opportunity to highlight all of the key elements that make ublox technology so appealing to numerous industry sectors adds Carl Bellanca Head of Sales for ublox Americas. It underlines our ability to provide cutting-edge wireless solutions that have all the necessary processing and data storage capabilities while also taking up minimal space and drawing only a relatively small amount of power.