Netherlands-based, Qualinx has developed a new radio chip that can receive geo-positioning info from the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) (which includes GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo & most other constellations). Qualinx patented core innovation is based on advancements in RF CMOS tech; in essence, “Qualinx managed to digitalize most analog building blocks in a GNSS receiver”. Otherwise said, “Qualinx’s GNSS engine uses a novel digital baseband, enabling parallel digital processing instead of current sequential processing”. To achieve this, “a digital phase-locked loop (PLL) has been used to reduce power consumption, whilst reducing the total area of the system & enhancing total radio performance”. In fact, the chip (which will be controlled by an ARM Cortex CPU) is said to have 10x lower power consumption, be smaller in size & cheaper than existing solutions (which, taken as a whole, opens it up to new use cases – e.g. “battery life in wearables & asset/fleet/livestock trackers can be extended from hours to several days”). The new funds will be used to launch Qualinx “QLX300+” system-on-a-chip (SoC), hailed as “the world’s smallest & most power-efficient GNSS sensor”, which it aims to mass produce by 2024. Afterwards, the startup plans for “QLX400” to combine the GNSS sensor with an IoT radio, said to addresses the need for monitoring goods “without breakpoints in connectivity”. Design & manufacturing partners include South Korea-based SemiFive & India-based VVDN Technologies. Quanlix was founded in 2015 as a spin-off from Delft University of Technology by Massoud Tohidian (CTO) (prev. CEO), Iman Madadi (CIO) (prev. CEO) & Amir Reza Ahmadi Mehr (SVP Engineering), and led today by Tom Trill (CEO). <Source: siliconcanals.com, bits-chips.nl, newelectronics.co.uk>
