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Notice the acronym uwb

THE NEXT WIRELESS REVOLUTION

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Everything you need
to know about UWB wireless technology

UWB stands for Ultra-Wideband which is predicted to become as common as Bluetooth.

UWB will become ubiquitous, make surroundings context aware and increase wireless interaction between human beings and objects in our everyday lives.

Today UWB is used in everything from laptops, mobile phones, baby calls, sleep monitors and in lights and air-conditioning. Soon you will find the technology in your car to ensure that your kid or dog is not accidentally left behind and in prison cells UWB can confirm that the inmate is breathing and healthy. Smart speakers will be able to direct the sound to where people are in the room, and your laptop can even tell you if you are about to become ill.

Follow the development of UWB and be amazed by the possibilities.

Floor plan illustration

UWB sensing will enhance everyday objects to react to your movements and intentions.

Everything you need
to know about UWB wireless technology

UWB stands for Ultra-Wideband which is predicted to become as common as Bluetooth.

Floor plan illustration

UWB sensing will enhance everyday objects to react to your movements and intentions.

UWB will become ubiquitous, make surroundings context aware and increase wireless interaction between human beings and objects in our everyday lives.

Today UWB is used in everything from laptops, mobile phones, baby calls, sleep monitors and in lights and air-conditioning. Soon you will find the technology in your car to ensure that your kid or dog is not accidentally left behind and in prison cells UWB can confirm that the inmate is breathing and healthy. Smart speakers will be able to direct the sound to where people are in the room, and your laptop can even tell you if you are about to become ill.

Follow the development of UWB and be amazed by the possibilities.

NOVELDA tech stories

The challenge of robust human presence detection

Robust discovery of human presence by the unavoidable and tiny chest movement due to respiration is now feasible.

Read more

Understanding Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology

In this note we address UWB opportunities and constraints and point out the challenges of implementing functional UWB technology.

Read more

Featuring NOVELDA radar technology

We pinpoint some of the challenging endeavours during the development of the NOVELDA UWB radar technology.

Read more

UWB is used to sense and locate people and objects, and to transmit data

Like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, UWB is a low-power, short-range, wireless technology that operates through radio waves.

It is used to sense objects and people, to transmit data with short latency and to give information about the location of an object or a person. UWB technology is defined in the frequency range of the radio spectrum from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz and has a wide channel bandwidth of 500 MHz or higher.

Power spectral density

Unique advantages

The short pulses and fine time resolution available in UWB systems give some unique advantages and opportunities related to the ability to determine distance based on time of flight.

In communication systems, the fact that the pulses travel at the speed of light, which cannot be exceeded, opens the possibility of providing cryptographically secure range limitation by exchanging pulse sequences that are only sent once.

This means that for instance payment transactions and car access systems can be protected against attacks.

The UWB sensor can decide how far it wants to see, and the zone can be configured firmly. As a result, you can select good sensitivity inside the zone while rejecting large objects outside the zone. Even an elephant walking close to the zone will not be detected.

Short pulses and fine resolution in time enables a system to evaluate the response from the closest objects before the response from objects further out has reached the receiver.

UWB based distance measurement is much less prone to interference from multipath signals than for instance Bluetooth based systems, and thus UWB has advantages compared to Bluetooth in indoor environments.

Precise distance measurement can be a benefit in applications offering functionality based on location. This can take place in two ways, either by a radar that measures the distance to a passive target, or by two UWB communication radios measuring the distance between each other.

This feature of the technology can be used for indoor navigation and in asset tracking.

Many dozens of UWB devices can operate in the same small physical space at the same time.

The sequence of positive and negative pulses is chosen so that the intended recipient can easily filter it out of the noise while not being disturbed by transmissions of other sequences or other parts of the same sequence. This is due to the cross correlation and auto correlation properties of the chosen sequences.

Since each pulse is very short it will only look like slightly increased background noise to other users of the same spectrum. The pulses are bi-phase coded, meaning that they are either in phase or 180 degrees out of phase with other pulses from the same transmitter.

Time of flight

What is the difference
between UWB sensing and
UWB ranging?

UWB sensing

Accurate and robust detection based on object reflection with a single chip UWB radar sensor.

Learn about UWB sensing

UWB ranging

Accurate and secure distance measurement with multiple chips in a two-way communication between devices.

Learn about UWB ranging
NOVELDA UWB Proximity sensor

The UWB sensing expert

Our groundbreaking and patented UWB sensing technology is unique, and we experience strong interest from leading global tech companies such as Lenovo, the world’s largest PC manufacturer.

NOVELDA UWB Sensors:

  • NOVELDA UWB Presence Sensor
  • NOVELDA UWB Occupancy Sensor
  • NOVELDA UWB Proximity Sensor
Read more here
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A technology on the rise

The global UWB market is forecast to reach more than 1.8 billion units by 2030. UWB is a technology that is growing fast, and NOVELDA is one of the leading companies in this field with our groundbreaking UWB sensing solution.

TSR (Techno System Research) is predicting the total market to reach more than 1.8 billion units in 2030.
Get the full report here.
Stacked bar diagram, showing UWB is on the rise

Key contributor in setting a new standard

As a global leader in UWB sensing NOVELDA is a key contributor in the 
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) task group that will define the new global standard for UWB sensing and ranging, IEEE 802.15.4ab.

The goal is to ensure co-existence and interoperability across vendors. 
Other project members are among the most renowned tech companies in the world.

Collaborators

UWB Alliance
IEEE
Fira