Qorvo at CES 2020: Innovative Solutions for 5G, IoT, Wi-Fi 6 and V2X

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Qorvo at CES 2020: Innovative Solutions for 5G, IoT, Wi-Fi 6 and V2X [Copy link]

We can’t help but get excited about the evolution of transportation and the new technology that surrounds it. Innovative use cases around electric mobility
(cars, motorcycles, electronic bicycles) and in the form of “future mobility” – even drone-like flying taxis were on display. While the concept of self-driving cars seems to have transitioned to the new normal, cars remain the focus throughout the show floor. Qualcomm featured an autonomous driving controller and telematics control unit (TCU) that enable “car-to-cloud” as well as vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity over a cellular 5G network (V-V2X).

Cell-V2X (C-V2X) was also highlighted at the Samsung booth, with displays of its TCU prototype and live demonstrations of the safety benefits between the car and its surroundings.

Intelligent, connected car

Samsung demonstrated a 5G telematics system controlled by the Exynos AutoT 5123 for intelligent, connected cars.

Robotics
In robotics, we’ve seen everything from “pet entertainment” gadgets (e.g., Samsung Ballie) to industrial and home security robots, home cleaning robots, and even walking humanoid robots with simulated emotions. Advances in this area are being driven by the fusion of multiple sensing modalities and the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to the robots themselves. One of the most interesting robots is the autonomous “sensing robot” that moves through large areas such as server farms to observe status (temperature, error displays, read displays) or warehouses to assist in inventory management (visually inspect shelves, read barcodes, scan RFIDs). The most impressive robot demonstration was Omron’s ping pong playing robot, showcasing state-of-the-art perception, computation, and actuation technologies.

UBTECH's AIMBOT

robot had a strong presence at CES. Ubtech's AIMBOT is an autonomous indoor surveillance robot used for intelligent inspection of all data centers from inventory management to security assurance.

Smart Homes Get Smarter
With the new year, the number of smart home products announced at the show seems to have quadrupled compared to the previous year, showing a trend of adoption and demand in households around the world. In several pavilions, visitors witnessed first-hand advanced technologies centered around security, control, sensing, remote access to the home or the devices inside it. The possibilities for smart homes seem endless, and we had the impression that only creativity is the limit here. For example, Kohler displayed a smart faucet that was configured via Alexa to dispense the desired amount of water at the desired temperature on command.

What does the Qorvo Showcase do?
CES is an important venue for Qorvo because we feature many of the technologies that drive innovation in consumer electronics. This year, we made major announcements related to 5G, IoT, Wi-Fi 6 and automotive – many of which will continue to drive technological advancements in connecting the world.

Smart Homes
The possibilities for smart home products seem endless. Qorvo made several announcements about new products that support new use cases in the connected home. They include:

Qorvo's transceiver chips enable all low-power, open-standard smart home technologies to operate simultaneously

We announced the QPG 7015M transceiver, a system-on-chip that allows multiple protocols and applications for smart home devices to communicate over a wider range. The integration of multi-protocol support ensures that IoT designers do not have to sacrifice device size and appearance to achieve protocol concurrency and high performance.

For the first time in the industry, an IFEM is designed to be Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) system, providing reliable whole-home coverage.
Wi-Fi 6 is gaining rapid momentum and new Qorvo products are helping to make it a reality. The new QPF 7219 IFEM combines Qorvo’s advanced BAW filtering technology with its unique EdgeBoost—or flat power—capability to nearly double Wi-Fi range and triple capacity to handle more devices. With more than 50 billion connected wireless devices worldwide by 2022—as predicted by the Wi-Fi Alliance—the QPF 7219 helps make that a reality. It opens up the full 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi bandwidth, making it available throughout the smart home, and offers more FCC-compliant coverage than any competing product. The compact size and added EdgeBoost resolve interference, improve efficiency and reduce size—all while increasing speed, extending coverage and connecting more devices.

Qorvo edgeBoost Infographic

Corvo EdgeBuster provides unique flat power capability, maximizing capacity and range by increasing output power in channels near the band edge.

World's Smallest, Highest-Performing Wi-Fi 6 Solution with Seamless IoT Integration
Continuing the trend of Wi-Fi 6 and IoT, Qorvo announced support for seamless integration with a new kit. The QPK 8642 kit advances Qorvo's concept of a smart, connected home with a pod in every room, where the challenge is to keep pace with the demands of the evolving connectivity market. The kit includes the QPQ 1903, QPQ 1904 and QPF 4551 (all 5 GHz) and the new QPF 7219 (2.4 GHz) Wi-Fi filters, as well as the new QPG 7015M IoT transceiver.

By combining these features, designers can gain the performance of capacity and coverage, as well as Zigbee, Thread and Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity, while minimizing cross-radio interference in the connected home.

To achieve a truly connected smart home, an enhanced “pod in every room” design is the best way to implement this distributed Wi-Fi architecture with IoT communications. Because each pod acts as a wireless access point, each access point will support both Wi-Fi and IoT standards. This includes the increased Wi-Fi needs of the home, as well as Zigbee, Thread, and Bluetooth devices.

Qorvo expands cellular IoT portfolio to support NB-IoT and LTE-M cellular standards
NB-IoT and LTE-M are two established mobile technologies that have gained widespread attention and adoption. To this end, Qorvo announced the addition of two RF front-end (RFFE) modules to support NB-IoT and LTE-M cellular standards, enabling our customers to design connectivity for a large number of devices worldwide, including applications that were previously not feasible. We have collaborated with Nordic Semiconductor to develop cellular IoT solutions using Qorvo's RFFE modules, which offer high integration and minimize the size and power consumption of critical battery-driven devices.

Driving Innovation for Connected Cars
Announcements from companies large and small at CES reinforced the idea that connected cars are quickly becoming mainstream. Qorvo is also working to advance this goal and made two announcements related to automotive applications. They include:

V2X Full Range of Products
Qorvo's new, complete V2X front-end solution enables reliable vehicle-to-everything (V2X) connectivity in telematics control units (TCUs) and antennas. It includes the first Band 47/Wi-Fi bulk acoustic wave (BAW) coexistence filter, which enables Wi-Fi to coexist with the V2X 5.9 GHz band - a capability that is key to establishing a reliable link between the vehicle and its surroundings.

Qorvo Connected Car - V2X, V2V, V2I, V2P and V2N

New power management IC allows fast in-car phone charging.
With the release of the ACT4751M, we expand our portfolio of products for fast in-car charging of phones, tablets and laptops. This is the industry’s first USB-C Type-C buck regulator IC that complies with fast charger applications and meets all power requirements for USB fast charger applications, including the Power Delivery 3.0 Programmable Power Supply (USB PD3.0PPS) specification.

Expanding Wi-Fi 6e, 6 GHz Spectrum
In addition to our product and solution announcements, we are also announcing our support for Wi-Fi 6e. As a member of the Wi-Fi Alliance, Qorvo fully supports its efforts to simplify and enable the 6 GHz spectrum. At CES, we announced our support for the Wi-Fi Alliance's efforts to advance the discussion and implementation of Wi-Fi-6e – extending Wi-Fi 6 to the 6 GHz band. As we have done in the past, we will continue to develop innovative technologies to help customers realize all the benefits of this spectrum expansion.