www.elektroniknet.de, Jul. 11, 2024 –
Nordic Semiconductor is well known for offering highly energy-efficient ICs for wireless communications. But the company is now taking a much broader approach. According to Kjetil Holstad, EVP Strategy and Product Management at Nordic, the company is now able to take on many more roles in systems.
Markt & Technik: Nordic is well known for its Bluetooth LE ICs, but the company has significantly expanded its range in recent years...
Kjetil Holstad: Yes, starting from a very well-established base with Bluetooth, we have also established other connectivity protocols such as cellular IoT in recent years. In addition, by taking over the entire development team for Ensigma WiFi IP from Imagination Technologies, we have established a position for ourselves within WiFi. However, we also see newer protocols such as Matter and Thread on the rise. We are working on covering these new technologies with a clear product offering, combined with the known benefits of Nordic. To put it simply, you could say that we have evolved from a Bluetooth company to a wireless company.
However, we are now also dealing with completely different topics. Because we want to solve our customers' problems, not just in terms of connectivity, but for the entire system.
What does that mean in concrete terms?
For example, we have started to look at the problems from the battery to the antennas. That's why we have developed our own power management ICs to complement our wireless communication ICs. Because if you really want to achieve low power consumption in the system, you have to think from the battery to the antenna.
In addition, technologies such as mobile communications and WiFi naturally have a cloud component too. Accordingly, we also have a cloud-based offering in our portfolio that can be used to perform over-the-air updates and things like that. This means that we don't just supply a chip, but an entire solution.
This expanded approach has come about as a result of requests from our customer base, who have presented us with problems that require far more than just the sale of a chip. It's about selling a solution, an ecosystem around the software, a development platform, and so on.
Power management ICs are offered by many companies, how can Nordic differentiate itself here?
Our power management ICs are important for customers who really need very low power consumption, because in this case power management also plays a big role. Our radio ICs are designed for the lowest possible power consumption, which is what we are known for, but you have to look at the entire path to minimise power consumption.
Of course, our customers can also use power management ICs from other suppliers, such as TI or Analog Devices for our communication ICs, but if they use our power management ICs, the power consumption will be lower.