Renesas is already delivering production volumes of high-performance Wi-Fi 6E access point solutions with its CL8000 family. And the Japanese semiconductor multinational is also sampling a powerful, highly integrated, 2x2 Wi-Fi/BLE combo chip supporting Wi-Fi 6E tri-band switchable radio (6GHz, 5GHz & 2.4GHz), 160MHz channel bandwidth and up to 2.4Gbps Data Link Speed. The new low-latency, highly secure chipset includes Bluetooth and BLE 5.2 support, and addresses multimedia streaming applications, IoT gateways and cloud connected devices.
Renesas is also developing a Wi-Fi 6E chipset with unique, patented Wi-Fi Doppler Imaging technology. This Wi-Fi Radar technology depicts the range and doppler signature of people and objects using standard Wi-Fi signals. It eliminates the need for multiple cameras or sensors in home environments and commercial buildings. For example, it can be used to detect the presence and location of people in a room to redirect and optimize air-conditioning flows, saving on energy costs. Another application example could be to optimize a multiroom audio system across the home with presence and position detection. The combined connectivity and sensing chip is currently scheduled for production in the next 18 months.
Wi-Fi 7, also known as Extremely High Throughput (EHT), is the next big thing happening in wireless networks. The new technology will deliver significantly faster throughput by employing faster modulations and double the bandwidth. In the 6GHz band, Wi-Fi 7 would more than the double the maximum speed and will increase speeds in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz band by as much as 30 percent. More importantly, some prominent features of Wi-Fi 7 will improve network reliability, latency and user experience. For example, by delivering Multi Link Operation, devices would monitor multiple links across different bands and provide consolidated operation to optimize interference and retransmission avoidance. Users will benefit from more reliable networks and from lower and more predictable latency.
Wi-Fi 7 is expected to launch in 2024 with early adoption in mobile phones, computers and networking devices. Broader adoption in industrial and consumer multimedia applications will follow. Renesas’ Wi-Fi 7 offerings will include solutions for home networking, IoT, industrial and consumer multimedia devices.
"Many recent developments are converging to create an era of market revolution in residential and enterprise Wi-Fi," says Andrew Spivey, Industry Analyst at ABI Research. "Driven by a desire to take advantage of the new 6GHz spectrum, which offers the prospect of greatly improved throughput and latency as well as reduced congestion on legacy bands, penetration of 6GHz into Wi-Fi devices will rise rapidly in coming years. Meanwhile, the flourishing of new forms of Wi-Fi value added services such as Wi-Fi motion detection and the adoption of Wi-Fi 7 access points will accelerate following the protocols standardization in 2024, and just two years later, most 6GHz enabled access point shipments will be supporting Wi-Fi 7."
"Renesas can now offer truly differentiated Wi-Fi solutions that provide maximum performance, security and cost-competitiveness in combination with our industry-leading MCU and MPU offerings," says Gilad Rozen, Celeno CEO and Vice President of Wi-Fi Connectivity in Renesas’ IoT and Infrastructure Business Unit. "Our customers are pleased with the direction we have chosen, and we are confident that we will deliver the right products for the market at the right time."
"In the past year, we have completed three acquisitions that significantly augment our ability to sustainably provide intelligence from the cloud to the endpoint," adds Sailesh Chittipeddi, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the IoT and Infrastructure Business Unit of Renesas. "With Wi-Fi solutions from Celeno, low-power connectivity solutions from Dialog and embedded AI solutions from Reality AI added to our industry-leading embedded computing, analog and sensor portfolio, Renesas now offers customers complete, end-to-end solutions that are second to none."
In addition, a new Quick-Connect Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth Low Energy 5.2 module will be released for home and connected applications that need a high bandwidth, high performance Wi-Fi 6 Client with 2x2 MIMO. This fully integrated, RF-qualified module will feature a flexible footprint with both PCIe and USB interfaces, saving engineering time and streamlining procurement for faster time-to-market.
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