UWB Technology
UWB in iPhone, Apple Watch, and Against COVID-19: Everything You Need to Know About the Technology
With the increasing integration of ultra-wideband (UWB) sensors in consumer electronics like Samsung phones or Apple watches, UWB technology is poised to take over the localization market. Beyond consumer electronics, what are the advantages of UWB for industrial or retail applications? How can ultra-precise indoor positioning through cost-efficient UWB solutions like the KINEXON X‑Tag optimize supply chains, material flow, or industrial automation? Find out here.
What Is Ultra-Wideband Technology (UWB)?
Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a radio-based communication technology for short-range use and fast and stable transmission of data. Thanks to its unrivaled precision, transmission speed, and reliability, UWB is often the technology of choice for indoor localization of moving assets in complex and space-sensitive environments.
UWB is considered the gold standard of indoor localization technologies thanks to its numerous advantages over comparable technologies such as RFID, BLE or WiFi. It is an ideal solution for location-based automation.
Why UWB? A Localization Technology Comparison
Price Revolution in the UWB Market
With the X‑Tag to the Smart Factory: The world’s most cost-efficient UWB sensor now enables location-based industrial automation.
Advantages of UWB as a Localization Solution
High Transmission Speed
Guaranteed Reliability
High Accuracy
Secure Against Interferences and Interception
Parallel Operation with Other Technologies
Low Power Consumption
Large Bandwidth
Spotlight: Industry Challenges UWB Helps Solve
High Search Times and Inefficiencies
Explore the KINEXON X‑Tag, the world’s most affordable UWB sensor for indoor asset tracking, track & trace, and material flow automation.
Lack of Documentation and Sustainability
Explore the KINEXON ePaper-Tag for a full digital thread to satisfy quality assurance and sustainable, paperless production.
Error-Prone Manual Processes
KINEXON’s RTLS solutions and its powerful location-based automation software allow you to fully leverage the benefits of UWB.
Current News: UWB Today
KINEXON & UWB-Standards
Pioneering UWB-Solutions
KINEXON is a proud member of FiRa Consortium, UWB Alliance and Omlox, who promote the use of UWB and create standards for the technology.
UWB in Detail: Technical Specifications
From the first attempts to transmit messages wirelessly to the invention of the “telemobiloscope” in 1902, today’s UWB technology looks back onto vast utilization for localization.
Despite its long history, there are still countless of opportunities to leverage the technology’s potential. Unlike other technologies, it is not tied to any frequency. In addition, UWB can transmit data over an extremely wide frequency spectrum and can utilize unused frequency capacities. The UWB frequency range is at least 500 MHz. For comparison: WLAN channels are only about 1/10th as wide.
Facts & Figures
- Frequency range: 3.1−10.6 GHz
- Propagation speed: linear speed of light (0.3 m/ns)
- max. data rate: 480 Mbits/s
- max. transmission power: <1 mW
- range: 10 – 200 m (32.8−656.2 ft.) (depending on application)
- Localization accuracy: 0.1−0.5 m (0.33−1.64 feet)
- low susceptibility to interference (no interference with WLAN and ISM channels)
- Localization via transit time procedure (ToF, “Time of Flight“)
4 Ways to Locate via Ultra-Wideband
UWB combines very short impulses that move at the speed of light. The arrival time of the signal is measured precisely over a high bandwidth, thus determining the position of the transmitter with high precision. If there is visual contact, distances of up to 250 meters (820.2 feet) can be achieved. Depending on the requirements, one of the following methods for position calculation is used:
