UWB, also known as Ultra Wide Band, primarily utilizes Time of Flight (ToF) to achieve precise measurements and is a highly promising short-range wireless communication technology.

The carrying capacity is expected to exceed one million vehicles, and UWB is accelerating its penetration into the automotive industry

Since the 1960s, UWB technology has been using ultra wide baseband pulses with extremely wide spectra for communication, mainly used in military radar, positioning, and low interception/detection rate communication systems. In February 2002, with the approval of the Federal Communications Commission, UWB technology began to move from military to civilian use. Subsequently, under the spontaneous drive of the market, research on UWB chips continued to advance.

The industrial field can be considered as the earliest To B application of UWB in China, and currently has a good foundation in the fields of factory workshops, industrial robots, mining, warehousing and logistics. Among them, factories and coal mines can use UWB to achieve precise positioning of personnel and materials, thereby improving safety and operational efficiency; UWB tags can track forklifts and tools for real-time monitoring of work progress, thereby helping to improve the efficiency of their workflow.

Although UWB has many advantages such as high data transmission rate, strong anti-interference ability, low power consumption, precise positioning, strong penetration ability, safety and reliability, and has been widely used in military and industrial industries, it has never had much presence in the daily learning, work, and life of ordinary people. Until 2019, with the entry of consumer electronics leader Apple, UWB gradually moved from the B-end to the mass C-end market.

At present, in the consumer electronics market, Apple's U1 chip with UWB transceiver has been embedded in devices such as iPhone, AppleWatch, iPad, and AirTag, becoming a standard feature in multiple flagship series products. And manufacturers such as Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Meizu, OPPO, etc. have followed suit and also developed and launched a series of products equipped with UWB technology to the market, which has continuously strengthened the connection between UWB technology and the lives of ordinary people.

The main application scenarios of ultra wideband technology

Source: Network

Pang Zhihua, director of product scheme of Newcore Technology, said: UWB is not really a new communication technology. Its biggest feature is ultra wideband. Its entire bandwidth is 500 MHz, which is several times higher than 1 MHz of Bluetooth technology and 20 MHz of WiFi technology. In addition, it also has strong indoor positioning, data transmission, and radar capabilities, as well as multiple advantages such as communication, perception, and security. It has become one of the best solutions for high-precision indoor positioning in industrial, consumer electronics, and other fields.

In recent years, with the continuous evolution of automotive intelligence, UWB technology has gradually begun to penetrate the fields of digital keys, biometric radar, kick radar, and autonomous valet parking (AVP) in smart cars, relying on core advantages such as high positioning accuracy, good safety, and good user experience. Up to now, the industry has included foreign brands such as BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, and Cadillac, as well as domestic domestic brands such as Xiaopeng, Great Wall, and BYD, which have started to equip multiple models with UWB digital keys.

The digital car key is currently the largest application scenario of UWB in new energy vehicles. According to different distances, it can be divided into four different areas: number recognition area, welcome area, lockdown area, and driving area. Among them, the distance of the digital recognition area is 10-20 meters (adjustable), at which UWB can achieve precise positioning and system activation; The distance between the welcome area is 3-10 meters (adjustable), and after reaching this distance, the lights will turn on and the welcome lights will light up; The distance of the lock zone is 1-3 meters (adjustable), within which the car can automatically unlock; And when it comes to the driving area, UWB can achieve one click start.

Pang Zhihua said, of course, in addition to digital keys, UWB has also begun to be used in sub scenarios such as vehicle search, foot kick radar, in car living monitoring, intelligent payment, road network control, automatic charging stations, automatic parking, parking lot navigation, smart transportation, and intelligent cockpit entertainment systems. It can be foreseen that with the continuous development of technology, UWB will further penetrate into more diverse cutting-edge applications such as wireless car charging, 6DoF based car XR, L4 level autonomous driving, and even autonomous driving in the future.

Driven by giants such as Apple, Samsung, Volkswagen, and BYD, UWB shipments have continued to grow in recent years, and the market size has gradually exploded. According to market research firm ABI Market Research, the UWB market size was $105 million in 2023 and is expected to reach $1.313 billion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of 65.7% during the period. In the automotive market, it is predicted that the market size will maintain a compound growth rate of 54% on the basis of $33 million in 2023, and will reach $286 million by 2028.

In terms of competitive landscape, the main players of UWB in the global market include Apple, NXP, QORVO, etc. Among them, Qorvo acquired Decawave for $400 million in 2020 to enter the UWB chip field. Currently, it leads the B-end UWB market that needs to be positioned, including factories, coal mines, semiconductor enterprises, etc. Its main product is the DW series; The supply of UWB in the mobile phone industry is mainly from two suppliers, NXP and QORVO, while Apple develops and uses it independently; In the field of automotive grade UWB chips, NXP currently dominates, with its main product being Trimension? Series. What is its latest Trimen? NCJ29D6 is a fully integrated single-chip pulse wireless ultra wideband low energy transceiver IC, which can be used in fields such as safety car access control, child presence detection, intrusion warning, gesture recognition, etc. In addition, traditional automotive giants such as STMicroelectronics, Infineon, and Renesas have also increased their UWB layout and have made some progress in recent years; In the Chinese market, although the UWB chip design field started relatively late, it is currently accelerating its rise due to its good market and industry chain advantages.

Currently, although UWB is superior to Bluetooth and Wi Fi in many aspects such as high security, low power consumption, high bandwidth, and bidirectional communication, it has been well received in many applications. However, due to low industry usage, UWB's product prices are still high, and market promotion is still difficult. The current market perception is that UWB technology is excellent, but the product is too expensive.

Regarding this, Pang Zhihua pointed out that the main reason why UWB prices are relatively high now is that the industrial chain has not yet been established. With the continuous evolution of semiconductor process technology and the continuous rise of Chinese UWB manufacturers in the context of international trade frictions, the shipment volume of UWB will continue to increase, and the rapid growth of shipment volume will greatly drive cost reduction, thereby driving the popularization of UWB in mid to low-end equipment.

From the development trend of UWB in the automotive industry, in August 2020, EEE released the IEE 802.15.4z 2020 UWB industry standard, opening the door for UWB to be applied in high security scenarios such as automobiles and payments; In July 2021, the CCC Alliance released the Automotive Digital Key 3.0 specification, which clarified that the third-generation digital key is an interconnection solution based on UWB/BLE (Bluetooth)+NFC. The launch of the 3.0 specification is equivalent to announcing the official opening of the era of UWB technology in vehicle applications; With the promotion of mass-produced models by major automakers such as NIO, Great Wall, Land Rover, and BMW, 2022 has been recognized as the first year of UWB key entry.

Data source: compiled by Octopus Core

According to industry forecasts, the number of vehicle terminals loaded with UWB will still be less than 5% in 2023. However, with the gradual increase of UWB penetration rate in the future, it is expected that passenger car UWB will achieve a front-end loading capacity of over one million by 2024, account for 15% of the total automotive market by 2025, and grow to 23.3% by 2027.

Newricon's UWB technology is globally leading and is expected to accelerate development

Newchip Technology was founded in 2016 and is committed to becoming a leader in the field of wireless communication chips, providing core precision positioning wireless communication technology products and services for applications such as smartphones, automotive electronics, smart homes/wearable devices, and the Internet of Things, in order to improve the communication, positioning, and life experience of end users.

From 2020 to 2022, Newcore successively completed angel rounds worth tens of millions of RMB, Pre-A rounds worth nearly 100 million RMB, and A-round financing worth 200 million RMB, represented by Bay Area Asset Management, China Science and Technology Innovation, Goer Group, China Science and Technology Investment Promotion, China Science and Technology Innovation, and Langma Peak Venture Capital. These rounds were mainly used for the productization research and development of UWB chips and systems, as well as market expansion. The company has experienced rapid development.

At present, Newricon has developed the industry-leading UrsaMajor Ursa series positioning and communication system chip in the UWB field, which is in a leading position globally in terms of positioning accuracy and measurement range.

According to the company, the Ursa Major "Big Bear" series of chips have the characteristics of high performance, high integration, and low power consumption, and can be widely used in various scenarios and product applications such as smartphones, smart cars, smart homes, and wearable devices. In September 2022, the company's first generation Ursa Major product was released, which was the first to achieve the maximum 1.3G access bandwidth and 4G high sampling rate. For the first time, it achieved a positioning accuracy of 1cm, a ranging range of over 100 meters, a 1-degree angle measurement accuracy, 3D positioning, etc., marking a breakthrough for Newricon in UWB from 0 to 1; In August 2023, the company released the second generation of the Big Bear series chips. Compared to 1.0, the distance measurement accuracy of the Ursa Major 2.0 chip has been improved from 1 centimeter to 0.5 centimeters, and the design of three channels of reception has increased the stability standard deviation of single point angle measurement from 1 degree to 0.5 degrees, while achieving full space angle measurement and positioning. In addition, the Newricon 2.0 UWB chip continues to support a large bandwidth of 1.3GHz, and has achieved improvements in signal and RF performance.

Application scenarios of Nuryson Ursamajor's "Big Bear" series chips

Source: Newricon

Pang Zhihua pointed out that Newricon is committed to leading high-precision spatial perception positioning technology, providing a better experience for positioning life. Since its establishment, the company has continuously carried out positive research and development of UWB chips from the most basic underlying architecture, gradually improving chip performance and leading technology. As of now, the company's Ursa Major UWB series chips not only lead peers in terms of ranging accuracy, ranging range, angle measurement accuracy and FoV, full ecological and full mode support, radar function, data transmission function, and multipath resistance, but also have the most product layout width and quantity in the industry.

Specifically, Newricon has released three series of UWB chip products, including the 700 series for automotive electronics, the 600 series for diversified IoT devices, and the 800 series for smart core devices such as smartphones and AR/MR, to meet the diverse needs of different customers in different markets.

Among them, the 800 series chips perfectly meet the needs of smartphone products, with various functional features such as high integration, high reliability, small-sized SiP packaging, and customizability; The 600 series products meet various product application needs with rich and diverse product definitions, and can be widely used in various IoT intelligent products such as positioning tags, smart speakers, and whole house home devices; The 700 series chips have high safety and reliability in professional vehicle design, packaging, process, and quality control. They can be applied in many scenarios such as digital car keys, live detection, kick radar, audio and video transmission and interaction of intelligent devices in the car.

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Current mass-produced products and future plans of Newricon UWB chips

Source: Newricon

The 700 series products mainly include NRT81750 and NRT81730. Among them, NRT81750 is one of the first products of Nuryson Ursamajor UWB SoC for the automotive electronics 700 series, and it is the only UWB automotive specification chip with three independent receiving channels. In addition to the high reliability and stability shared by automotive chips, this chip also has many advantages such as high integration and performance RF front-end, high-precision safe positioning and ranging, radar function and high-speed data transmission function, full compatibility with universal protocols, multi technology collaboration, and ultra-low power design. Thanks to its multi-channel and multi antenna design, the NRT81750 not only enables better full space angle measurement and supports cost-effective single anchor or reduced anchor digital car key solutions, but also leads the international mainstream competitors in terms of angle measurement accuracy and radar sensitivity, both in mass production and upcoming production. At present, the product has achieved mass production, and many car factory projects are being orderly promoted.

Pang Zhihua said.

It is worth emphasizing that although there are many manufacturers in the industry that produce UWB chips, due to technological barriers, there are still very few global manufacturers that can produce automotive UWB chips and have already started mass production.

Prior to this, only a few international major manufacturers' UWB chips had passed the vehicle certification, and there was still a hurdle for domestic UWB chips to truly enter the automotive market. Newricon took the lead in this step and achieved a breakthrough in domestic UWB automotive chips Pang Zhihua said, "Compared with mainstream European and American chip manufacturers, our products have a ranging accuracy of 0.5-1cm, while international manufacturers have a range of 3-10cm. In terms of angle measurement accuracy, our products have a range of 0.5-1 °, far better than international manufacturers' 3-10 °. In terms of ranging range, our products have a maximum range of over 300m, while international manufacturers mainly focus on 30-50m.". In addition, our product also outperforms our competitors in terms of angle measurement range and data transmission rate. Overall, in the UWB track, Newricon products currently have a leading advantage on a global scale.

Pang Zhihua said.

Although UWB technology is not as common in application as Wi Fi or Bluetooth, with its accelerated entry into the automotive market as a digital key, it undoubtedly provides new momentum for its market development.

As a leading domestic and even global UWB chip enterprise, Newricon has completed 0-1 validation in the automotive market. With the mass production of the first generation products of the 700 series and the accelerated research and iteration of the second generation products, it is expected that the company will create its own space in the era dividend of the new energy vehicle market in the future.

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