WiFi IP deployed for healthcare and IoT devices

The licensor of signal processing IP for smarter, connected devices, Ceva, and HMicro, a wireless solutions firm developing integrated products for medical, industrial and the broad Internet of Things, has announced that HMicro has licensed and deployed CEVA’s RivieraWaves Sense WiFi IP in its WiPoint Wireless Technology platform.

The WiPoint platform was specifically designed to address the challenging requirements of wireless peripherals in healthcare and the broad IoT, particularly areas demanding industrial grade reliability. It integrates the RivieraWaves WiFi IP together with HMicro developed RF/analog and other technologies including Ultra WideBand (UWB) and Medical Band (MB) radios to form a power-optimized triple-mode hybrid radio based solution that seamlessly transitions between the three options as needed, maximizing link integrity and ensuring the lowest power option is chosen when more than one is available. The WiFi portion of the radio is optimized for excellent energy efficiency—days of continuous operation from a coin cell – enabling applications previously not feasible with WiFi. The WiPoint technology platform is already in design with leading medical equipment manufacturers developing wireless monitoring patches that sense patient vital signs and other metrics.

“At HMicro, we’re addressing the technical challenges of new IoT applications where many tens of devices in close proximity require data streaming of high integrity, simultaneously,” said Surendar Magar, CEO of HMicro. “CEVA’s silicon proven WiFi IP helped us immensely to deliver an outstanding solution offering great reliability and power efficiency at low cost in a very small footprint and allowed us to significantly simplify the design effort of the WiFi portion of our WiPoint SoC (system-on-chip).”

Aviv Malinovitch, vice president and general manager of CEVA’s Connectivity business unit, commented: “HMicro is bringing a unique approach to wireless communications for healthcare and IoT and is well positioned to capture the huge potential of these markets. We are delighted to partner with them for their WiFi requirements and look forward to continued success together.”

CEVA’s RivieraWaves WiFi IP family offers a comprehensive suite of platforms for embedding WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac into SoCs/ASSPs. Optimised implementations are available targeting a broad range of connected devices, including smartphones, wearables, consumer electronics, smart home, industrial and automotive applications.