Cambridge, UK; San Jose, California, USA; and Jerusalem, Israel – To accelerate market adoption of location technologies in wearable devices and cameras, CSR plc and OriginGPS have announced a series of high-performance GNSS modules using CSR’s SiRFstarIV™ and SiRFstarV™ product lines.
The new modules are 70% smaller than current solutions and deliver a 30% reduction in Time To First Fix (TTFF), making them ideal for health and fitness trackers, sports watches, medical devices, wearable action cameras, and digital still cameras. All modules, including the newly released 7mm x 7mm Multi Spider (ORG4572) solution, integrate the LNA, SAW filter, TCXO, RTC crystal and RF shield.
“To accelerate market adoption of location technologies in wearable devices and cameras, manufacturers must minimise the embedded GNSS module size without compromising on performance, sensitivity, or power consumption,” says Anthony Murray, Senior Vice President, Business Group at CSR. “By leveraging CSR’s industry-leading GNSS solutions and collaborating with OriginGPS on module development we have achieved this objective.”
The OriginGPS modules offer unparalleled sensitivity resulting in shorter autonomous and aided TTFF, better navigation stability, and higher accuracy in harsh environmental conditions. In real-life testing of the module in camera applications, TTFF performance improves by over 30% compared to other solutions. The module also delivers TTFF results in less than one minute over 90% of the time (Cold Starts).
In addition to its small footprint, the GNSS module’s ultra-fast geo-tagging capability dramatically improves the consumer experience. The GNSS antenna module’s outstanding sensitivity and OriginGPS’ proprietary Noise Free Zone (NFZ™) technology for faster position fix and navigation stability provides geo-tagging availability even under challenging satellite signal conditions such as low signal areas, under dense foliage, in urban canyons, and during motion-based activities.
Battery life is considerably extended as a result of CSR’s breakthrough low power Push-to-Fix (PtF) technology, which rapidly establishes a valid position fix enabling the module to hibernate for longer periods of time. Push-to-Fix is an intelligent periodic low power mode that adaptively changes power depending on the operating environment and motion conditions. Advanced algorithms and a powerful on-chip DSP processor maintain high accuracy (QoS) while achieving the lowest power level possible for the given environmental and motion conditions.
“As the wearable technology and action camera markets continue to grow, we must ensure that our solution meets the market’s need for high performance and small form factor GNSS modules,” says Gal Jacobi, CEO of OriginGPS. “It is our privilege to partner with CSR and its excellent engineering team to meet the market’s need. CSR’s leading multifunction semiconductor platforms and OriginGPS’ miniaturised high performance modules create a unique value proposition for customers in these markets.”
