CIE Components in Electronics
Future Electronics, founded in 1968 by company president Robert Miller and now a world-class leader and innovator in the distribution and marketing of electronics components, has announced that it has signed a worldwide franchise distribution agreement with Decawave, the manufacturer of highly accurate, low-cost, low-power indoor positioning ICs and modules.
Under the agreement, which is effective immediately, Future Electronics is stocking production volumes of Decawave’s DW1000 wireless transceiver, an IEEE802.15.4-2011 Ultra-Wideband (UWB)-compliant device, and the DWM1000 module, which is based on the transceiver. Design engineers can also order the EVK1000 and TREK1000 Evaluation Kits from stock from any Future Electronics branch or from www.FutureElectronics.com.
Today, position data in applications with no or limited access to satellite positioning system signals can be calculated by triangulating Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signals, but the precision of such measurements is limited to more than 1m, and the software required to implement the system is extremely complex. Future Electronics is expecting a high level of interest in Decawave’s DW1000 and DWM1000 products because they provide a ready-made solution for indoor positioning that is much more precise and accurate than the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth-based alternatives: the Decawave system’s raw positioning output is accurate to ±10cm in three dimensions.
Fabricated in a standard CMOS process, the DW1000 and DWM1000 are attractively priced. In addition, the devices’ low power consumption, comparable to that of a Bluetooth Low Energy transceiver, means that the Decawave solution is suitable for use in wearable and Internet of Things (IoT) devices and in portable and battery-powered products.
Decawave technology is already in use in industrial, automotive and consumer applications. Future Electronics expects customers to find many novel uses for the ultra-accurate Decawave indoor positioning technology, including in:
· asset tracking in factories and hospitals
· autonomous vehicle guidance in factories and warehouses
· safety curtains around hazardous equipment
· drones
· guidance and position tracking for shoppers in retail stores
Future Electronics is ready to support customers in integrating Decawave’s technology into end product designs, providing specialist applications engineering support, product demonstrations and sales of evaluation kits.
Mickael Viot, vice-president of marketing at Decawave, said: “Decawave’s technology is proven in the marketplace. It is far more accurate than other technologies, and can be implemented in system designs at low cost and with low power consumption.
“Now this new partnership with Future Electronics will give Decawave access to a very wide customer base in the industrial, medical, automotive, consumer and other markets, and we expect to see a very big ramp-up in the rate of adoption of our breakthrough technology.”
