NEXT-GEN HIGH-PRECISION

LOW-POWER ULTRA-WIDEBAND
Imec pioneers ultra-wideband (UWB) impulse radio (IR) technology for next-generation products which
require secure distance bounding and high-precision, agile spatial awareness capabilities based on secure
and precise wireless distance measurement or 2D/3D localization. Imec’s ultra-low power (ULP) circuit
solutions offer 10x lower power consumption (<5mW Tx, <20mW Rx) than state-of-the-art products.
Advanced localization algorithms to achieve 2x improved accuracy in challenging environments (<6cm).
Based on imec’s >15-year R&D track record on UWB technology, imec offers partners a wide portfolio of
UWB hardware and software IP.

APPLICATIONS •

• Secure Access and Mobile Payments

• VR/AR Gaming

• Indoor Location and Asset Tracking

• Hospital 5.0

• Industrial Micro-location - Robotics, drones

Contactless payment
 OFFERING including imec algorithms and 3rd-party MAC / SW stack
(3rd party)
Imec’s UWB technology offering comprises a wide range
of available whitebox hardware and software IP, as well as • Expertise in RF/analog, digital design, system and
expertise in hardware (integrated circuit, PCB demonstrators, algorithm, protocol design, security & distance bounding
antenna) and software (system to physical-layer algorithm) against relay attacks, embedded software design for
design. partner’s custom UWB designs

• Whitebox system and application IP and demonstrators, • Expertise in antenna design – General purpose or custom
e.g., multi-anchor UWB localization demo, in-warehouse UWB antenna designs. Antenna array design for direction
drone-based inventory inspection demo finding / angle-of-arrival (AoA).

• Ranging (distance measurement) and direction • Imec participates in standardization bodies and industry
finding (DF) algorithms for improved multi-path consortia, e.g., IEEE, CCC, ETSI/FCC and others
resilience and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) versus line-
of-sight (LOS) detection to achieve best-in-class
performance. WORK WITH IMEC

• Advanced localization algorithms algorithms • ‘White box’ IP licensing and technology transfer, including
including neural networks for smart anchor product design support, of silicon IP (e.g., analog/RFIC
selection, particle filtering and sensor fusion circuit design schematics and layout, digital RTL design
techniques to achieve <6cm accuracy in challenging and testbenches), algorithms and system models as well
environments (2x improved in warehouse scenario), as demonstrators, HW/SW prototypes and measurement
using IMEC prototypes as well as commercially results.
available UWB chips.
• Insight partnerships – Gain early stage insights on latest
• Secure Distance Bounding (SDB) for prevention of technology developments via technology concept and
relay attacks prototype evaluation briefs.

• Whitebox silicon IP offering – analog and digital • Development on Demand (DoD) – Custom R&D for your
integrated circuit (IC) designs, layout databases and future product.
testbenches (40nm, 28nm) – of wireless transceivers and
building blocks

• Next-gen UWB transceiver – cm-accurate, ultra-low

power (<5mW Tx, <20mW Rx) and small area (<1mm2
for complete transceiver front-end including three
Rx)

• Supporting IEEE 802.15.4z UWB, basis for high-

impact industry consortia such as the Car
Connectivity Consortium (CCC) and Fine Ranging
(FIRA) Consortium

• Building blocks for UWB systems, e.g, RF front-end,

all-digital phase-locked-loops (ADPLL), wakeup
timers, timing references, analog-digital-converters
(ADCs), power management (PMU), digital baseband
(DBB)

• Access to proof-of-concept integrated circuit (IC)

implementations and ranging/direction finding & FLTR: 1 Circuits, 2 Algorithms, 3 Application demos (i.e., the drone) and 4 custom
localization (e.g., TWR and TDOA) demonstrators antenna designs.

CONTACT US
WWW.CONTACTIMEC.COM
Imec is a registered trademark for the activities of imec International (IMEC International, a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a “stichting van openbaar nut”), imec Belgium (IMEC vzw supported by the
Flemish Government), imec the Netherlands (Stichting IMEC Nederland), imec Taiwan (IMEC Taiwan Co.), imec China (IMEC Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.), imec India (IMEC India Private Limited), imec
San Francisco (IMEC Inc.) and imec Florida (IMEC USA Nanoelectronics Design Center Inc.).

imec • Kapeldreef 75 • 3001 Leuven • Belgium • www.imec-int.com