ON Semiconductor's low-power asset tags bring 5-year battery life to industrial asset management

ON Semiconductor’s Low-Power Asset Tags Bring Unmatched 5-Year Battery Life to Industrial Asset Management

Bluetooth Low Energy Technology Enables Design Platform to Provide Quuppa® Real-Time Location Services (RTLS)

September 16, 2021 - ON Semiconductor, a leader in smart power and smart sensing technologies, has released a new system solution to overcome the main challenges associated with developing asset tracking tags. Battery life has always been a major obstacle to the use of asset tags, especially in the industrial field where reducing maintenance work and related costs is a primary concern. The RSL10 asset tag provides an unprecedented and industry-leading battery life of up to five years. Until now, the conventional battery life of asset tracking tags or beacons has been only one year or a few months.

This transformative battery life is achieved through low power consumption and firmware-level improvements in the RSL10 Bluetooth 5 radio SoC. In addition to the RSL10, the platform has a three-axis accelerometer and environmental sensors (motion, pressure and temperature) that provide actionable data and insights about the environment, condition and orientation of the asset. Each sensor is powered by a dedicated MOSFET load switch, controlled by the RSL10. This design controls the power consumption of the entire system on a per-sensor basis, reducing overall power consumption. Other features of the platform include a low-cost antenna and matching circuit optimized for Bluetooth low energy transmission, a multi-purpose dome switch and a 10-pin debugger that can be removed as needed for the application.

RSL10 was recently selected for indoor location beacons that track and monitor hospital equipment, providing actionable insights for healthcare providers. The beacon was developed by Blyott, one of the IoT solution providers, and Tatwah, one of the market leaders in Bluetooth low energy tags and beacons. Blyott selected Tatwah's RSL10-based beacons because of their small size, ultra-low power consumption, and IP67 tags that meet stringent disinfection requirements.

“ON Semiconductor provided us with an ideal hardware platform to develop Bluetooth-based RTLS solutions,” said Gery Pollett, CEO and co-founder of Blyott. “The RSL10 enables us to meet the challenging requirements of the healthcare industry. We were impressed by the power efficiency of the RSL10 radio.”

The RSL10 asset tag offers a complete set of development tools, including support for multi-protocol wireless with Bluetooth low energy connectivity and Quuppa Intelligent Locating System™ Real-Time Location Services (RTLS). In the CMSIS-Pack included with the evaluation board, ON Semiconductor has developed a custom application that demonstrates the platform’s ultra-low power features and capabilities in asset tracking use cases.

“Next-generation Bluetooth Low Energy tags powered by the RSL10 will enable Quuppa’s partners to leverage highly accurate, sensor-based location data with unprecedented battery life,” said Santtu Pulli, Senior Account Manager at Quuppa. “This enables use cases that were previously out of reach due to high costs. Real-time asset visibility and associated productivity optimization will become one of the key competitive advantages for companies in manufacturing, warehousing and logistics. This is just the beginning – the possibilities are endless!”

For availability of the RSL10 Asset Tags, please contact your local ON Semiconductor sales support.

About ON Semiconductor

ON Semiconductor is driving disruptive innovation to help build a better future. The company focuses on the automotive and industrial end markets and is accelerating the transformation of major trends, including automotive electronic functions and safety, sustainable energy grids, industrial automation, and 5G and cloud infrastructure. With a highly differentiated innovative product portfolio, ON Semiconductor creates intelligent power and sensing technologies to solve the world's most complex challenges and lead the creation of a safer, cleaner and smarter world.