LTE Cat.1 is gaining momentum, ASR1606 chip from ASR Technology helps customers reach new market heights

As the global demand for mobile data services continues to increase, the 2G/3G network migration process is accelerating. At present, most of the demand has shifted to LPWA and LTE Cat.1 technologies , and the number of modules based on LTE Cat.1 will surge in the next few years. According to Counterpoint Research's analysis report, it is expected that by 2030, global cellular IoT module shipments will exceed 1.2 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 12% , among which LTE Cat.1 is the second fastest growing technology after 5G.

LTE Cat.1 has evolved from being the new favorite of the industry to a new highland in the medium- and low-speed IoT market. As a global mainstream IoT communication solution provider, ASR Technology has begun to deploy Cat.1 since its inception, and has continuously designed new products based on the needs of the IoT market. From the mass production of the first-generation Cat.1 product ASR1601 in 2019 to the birth of the third-generation Cat.1 chip ASR1606 in 2021, the company has continuously expanded the boundaries of the IoT market and its products have radiated the world. At present, in the fields of mobile payment, asset tracking, sharing economy, wearable devices, industrial IoT, smart cities, etc., ASR Cat.1 chips have achieved remarkable performance, and their market share continues to increase. 

According to statistics from Counterpoint Research, as of the fourth quarter of 2021, Aojie Technology has jumped to third place in the global cellular IoT chip market, and its cumulative Cat.1 product chip shipments have exceeded 100 million. It has not only become a leader in the domestic Cat.1 market, but also has been advancing rapidly in the overseas Cat.1 market. At present, overseas customers such as Thales and Telit have achieved mass production of products based on ASR Cat.1 chips. With the rise of Cat.1, terminal devices for specific application scenarios of the Internet of Things have put forward higher requirements on the cost, power consumption, communication latency and other capabilities of cellular communication chips. Based on this, Aojie Technology has deeply cultivated Cat.1 technology and continued to iterate its products according to the development of the Internet of Things market. In the fourth quarter of 2021, it launched the third-generation Cat.1 chip ASR1606, which can be said to be the finishing touch of the LTE Cat.1 market. 

The ASR160x series is one of the representative products in the cellular IoT market. As a new generation member of the series, ASR1606 not only provides more abundant peripheral interfaces for IoT application scenarios, but also optimizes chip integration, overall performance and storage space based on compatibility and inheritance of the ASR160x series software baseline and advantages.

▲ASR1606 LTE Cat.1 chip

High integration reduces customer costs

ASR1606 adopts the advanced and mature 22nm process technology , integrating CPU, Modem communication unit, RF, Codec audio unit, PSRAM & Flash storage unit and PMU on a single chip SoC, which greatly improves the chip integration. The high integration allows the size of Cat.1 module to be the same as that of 2G module, which makes it easier for clients to replace 2G with 4G, and the replacement cost will be greatly reduced.

Powerful software and hardware empowerment upgrades customer experience

Equipped with a Cortex-R5 processor with a main frequency of 624MHz , the ASR1606 can provide powerful processing performance for medium and low-speed application scenarios and devices running low-power RTOS systems. Its modem adopts FDD/TDD LTE modulation and supports VoLTE, which can bring users high-quality data transmission and 4G voice call experience. 

ASR1606 can adapt to a wide range of software application environments due to its support for PPP, RNDIS and ECM external dial-up protocols. In addition, the chip also provides a variety of peripheral interfaces such as GPIO, UART, SDIO, IIC, USB, PWM, SSP and Embedded Touchscreen Controller, which can provide a strong technical guarantee for the expansion of IoT terminal products.    

Flexible and diverse combination solutions help customers innovate their products

ASR1606 inherits the memory advantages of the previous generation products, adopts an optional memory solution, and further optimizes the memory management solution. It provides two configurations: built-in 8MB PSRAM+8MB QSPI Flash and 4MB PSRAM+4MB QSPI Flash . Customers can choose according to their own needs, and customer customized development will become more flexible. 

As the application boundaries of IoT devices continue to extend, it has gradually become an industry trend for products to be given more functions, and Cat.1+Bluetooth/Cat.1+GPS product solutions are in the ascendant. Aojie Technology has self-developed Cat.1, WiFi, BT/BLE, and GPS chips of various types, which can provide complete solutions for such application scenarios. As long as the terminal products using ASR1606 are directly equipped with Aojie's self-developed ASR5801 BT chip, the Bluetooth function of the product can be expanded. For terminal products with positioning function requirements, ASR1606 can be integrated with Aojie's self-developed ASR5311 GPS chip to achieve integration on a single module. This integration of multiple products does not need to consider adaptation and compatibility issues, which can greatly save customers' development time and cost, shorten the interaction delay between devices, achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement of customers' products, and promote product innovation. 

芯片在PPA及可配置性上的优化显著，使得ASR1606的综合优势进一步提升，在LTE Cat.1市场极具竞争力。该款芯片可适用于移动支付、资产追踪、共享经济、两轮车、工业物联网、BMS、环境监测、智慧城市等领域。一经推出，就备受业界广泛关注，吸引了产业链各方的快速布局并加速推进基于该芯片的新产品上市以抢占市场先机。 

At present, many companies such as Quectel, Fibocom, SIMCom, Yike Communication, Gosuncn IoT, Ailink Technology, Foxconn, Qijun IoT, China Mobile IoT, Lingling Intelligent Technology, Jiulian Technology, Waterward, Tianyu Information, and Gumi Everything Technology have equipped their Cat.1 modules and products with the ASR1606 chip . As more and more new products based on ASR1606 enter the large-scale mass production stage, customers will realize more application landing in a wide range of IoT scenarios. Aojie Technology is willing to work with industry partners to open up a broad IoT market space and empower the intelligent field of thousands of industries.