By Mikko Nurmimäki, Senior Marketing Manager, Silicon Labs – guest blogger
Nearly half of the global IoT device unit growth is estimated to consist of low-power Wi-Fi devices. Device manufacturers are challenged by complicated RF designs and regulatory certifications, which slow down time to market and increase development costs for new Wi-Fi products. Silicon Labs’ SiWx917Y Wireless Module – based on the ultra-low-power SiWx917M Wi-Fi 6 IC – features an integrated antenna (or RF pin) as well as regulatory certifications, accelerating product launch by up to multiple months and reducing development costs materially.
The opportunity: Billions of IoT devices
The number of IoT devices is expected to reach 29 billion by 2030, growing by two billion units every year. Based on market data from Omdia, Silicon Labs estimates that the number of low-power Wi-Fi IoT devices for smart home, home security, building automation, industrial IoT, smart appliances, and other segments increases by up to one billion units yearly, constituting approximately half of total yearly IoT unit growth. Of all available wireless options, Wi-Fi is becoming the fastest-growing connectivity technology in IoT, driven by Wi-Fi 6 as the ‘energy-friendly’ version of the world’s most ubiquitous wireless technology.
The challenge: Time-to-market and design complexity
At the same time, competition in the wireless end-device market is fierce. Device makers want to launch new innovative products quickly to gain the first-mover advantage and win customers. As the wireless IoT race intensifies, device makers are challenged with complicated RF design and regulatory certifications, which slow down time to market and increase development costs.
RF design process: Months & months of development
The RF design process of a typical Wi-Fi device can be divided into four stages:
- The antenna and RF design stage includes a bill of materials, schematics, layout, and simulation. This stage can generally take about a month to complete.
- Based on the RF design, the antenna is developed through multiple iterations and samples, including optimization, tweaking, testing, and validation. Depending on the design complexity, this development stage can take up to four months.
- Golden sample: Producing the final golden sample and characterisation can take up to a month.
- Certification: Wi-Fi devices must be certified to comply with the RF regulations of the target markets, such as (in the US) those of the FCC. Most geographic regions have their own standards and certification processes, which increases overall efforts and costs. This stage includes separate lab testing and official paperwork for each wireless protocol (typically Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy) and region. This can take up to three months or more.
Altogether the RF design process—including development and RF certification—can take many months or even a year, slowing down product launches, revenue flows, and the financial break even of product programs. The truth is that RF design process can have a significant impact on both OPEX and CAPEX of companies developing IoT solutions.
The highly specialized skills to complete antenna designs, system development and guide an organization through the numerous regulations and certifications – combined with the expense of design tool licenses, test instruments, and anechoic chambers – can further drive up product development costs. Slow development schedules and high costs often have a negative impacts on product ROI.
Solution: Wireless modules gets you there faster & at lower cost
The solution is obvious: Skip the in-house RF design process entirely and instead apply wireless modules. For example: Silicon Labs SiWx917Y Wireless Modules provide IoT device makers with ultra-low-power, high-performance Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth LE 5.4 connectivity supporting Matter, robust security, an extensive set of peripherals, and an Arm Cortex-M4 application processor subsystem with integrated antenna (or RF pin) as well as worldwide regulatory RF certifications.
The SiWx917Y Wireless Modules also host multiple additional features, such as a 40 MHz oscillator, band-pass filter, antenna-matching network capacitors, and EMC shielding. To save valuable time and costs, the SiWx917Y Wireless Module is certified for several RF regulatory regimes worldwide, such as CE (Europe), UKCA (United Kingdom), FCC (North America), ISED (Canada), MIC (Japan), and other standards.
Benefits for Wi-Fi device makers: Speed up launch by up to 9 months
The SiWx917Y Wireless Module provides device makers with a faster and more cost-efficient way to launch Wi-Fi products compared to starting with an integrated circuit. Thanks to its integrated antenna and worldwide RF regulatory certifications the SiWx917Y Wireless Module can accelerate product launch by up to nine months and materially reduce development and certification costs. This empowers manufacturers to launch products earlier, reduce time to break even, and increase the product’s profitability and return on investment (ROI).
The SiWx917Y Wireless Module is integrated in such a way that it simplifies the bill of materials (BoM), saves space on the host PCB, reduces sourcing costs and risks for Wi-Fi device makers, and enables them to avoid costs related to hiring RF expert resources, buying external design services, and investing in RF instruments, equipment, and facilities.
Availability: SiWx917Y Wireless Module available for sampling today
The SiWx917Y Wireless Module is currently available for sampling, and device makers and manufacturers can solicit early access. The SiWx917Y Wireless Module will be available for general availability in 2H 2024. Go to the SiWx917Y module home page to learn more about the product and early access program. Note that the SiWx917M SoC – upon which the modules are based – is a market proven IC solution, which is already shipping in volumes.
The product includes three variants for different operational modes:
- The SoC mode provides full wireless MCU capability with an Arm processor core dedicated to running all IoT application functionalities and a rich set of ultra-low-power peripherals.
- The Network Co-processor (NCP) mode works in unison with a companion MCU host. The Wi-Fi and TCP/IP stacks run in the SiWx917Y module & the customer application is run on a separate MCU.
- Radio Co-processor (RCP) mode is a transceiver option executing Wi-Fi drivers on a separate host while the module offers Wi-Fi connectivity.
Wi-Fi device manufacturers can now request early access to the SiWx917Y Wireless Module (GA will be in 2H 2024). Go to this link to file an early access request.
/Mikko
