Samsung offers UWB chip for cm-level ranging, positioning

New Products | March 21, 2023

By Peter Clarke

Samsung Electronics has launched the Exynos Connect U100 ultrawideband (UWB) chipset for measuring distance and positioning with centimeter accuracy.

The U100 chip is intended for use in mobile, automotive and Internet of Things (IoT) devices where it can supplement satellite-based positioning systems

Samsung said that it would use the term ‘Exynos Connect’ when referring to its chips that consolidate short-range wireless communications technologies, such as UWB, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi that are essential in facilitating an increasingly hyper-connected world.

UWB is a short-range wireless communication technology that operates over a broad frequency spectrum, allowing for fast data transfers at low power.

Leveraging time of arrival (ToA) and 3D angle of arrival (AoA) measurements, Samsung’s Exynos Connect U100 provides an accuracy of single-digit centimeters and below five degrees angular precision. This makes the U100 suitable for tracking location in indoor environments where GPS is unavailable as well as for AR and VR applications that require real-time tracking of moving people.

Embedded memory

The U100 integrates radio frequency (RF), baseband, embedded Flash (eFlash) memory and power management IP into a single chip. It is also equipped with a scrambled timestamp sequence (STS) function and a secure hardware encryption engine to prevent external hacking.

Samsung’s Exynos Connect U100 has been certified by the FiRa Consortium, an industry-led non-profit organization that certifies UWB products for conformity to interoperability standards.

The U100 also complies with the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) Digital Key Release 3.0, a standard designed to store, authenticate and exchange digital keys for vehicles, enabling U100-equipped smartphones to securely communicate digital key information with vehicles.

Samsung did not state which process node it uses to manufacture the U100.