Ultra-compact, dedicated electronics combined with the technological advantages
of industrial standards such as Bluetooth Low Energy.
Prevas incorporates Bluetooth Low Energy in the ongoing effort to minimize power
consumption.
“Expanding our range of ultra-low-power technologies by including Bluetooth Low
Energy in our existing designs is a natural step for us. Bluetooth has been
around since the last millennium, but only now with version 4.0 of the Bluetooth
core specification are we unlocking the real potential for ultra-low-power
designs. This latest update focuses specifically on minimizing the power
consumption in both idle and active mode, enabling even coin cell battery
powered devices to run for many months without recharging. Besides extending the
recharge interval for rechargeable devices, this offers the possibility to
completely abandon the recharge option in many cases, significantly reducing
material cost and complexity”, says Engineering Manager Jakob Koed Prevas A/S.
Bluetooth devices featuring the Low Energy version of the specification are
referred to as either Bluetooth Smart devices (typically sensor devices)
communicating exclusively using the low energy scheme, or Bluetooth Smart Ready
devices capable of both low energy and standard communication through a dual
radio design. A very long and growing list of Bluetooth Smart Ready devices
exist, including most recent smartphones, tablets and laptops. This means that
Bluetooth Smart devices are capable of communicating with a host of devices
right from product launch, avoiding the typical “the-chicken-or-the-egg”
syndrome.
Prevas’ experience from ultra-compact custom electronics, used for instance in
intelligent credit cards, goes hand-in-hand with the technological benefits from
industrial standards optimized for real-life applications. A recent example is
meeting the extreme energy saving requirements of our intelligent powered cards
in credit card format developed for Cardlab. In this application, Bluetooth Low
Energy is used for receiving wide variety of card data including financial and
access control data from a smart phone app.
“Using commercially available System-On-Chip (SOC) solutions is the optimal
approach for most of our designs, as the shortest route to the target, in turn
imposing the lowest risk in the development project. Several such solutions
incorporating Bluetooth Low Energy are available. For instance, we find that
SOCs are even applicable for our state-of-the-art compact electronics”, comments
Jakob Koed.
For more information and follow-up:
Jakob Koed, Engineering Manager, Aarhus, Prevas A/S
E-mail: jakob.koed@prevas.dk, Mobile: +45 2440 1476
Henrik Møller, President, Prevas A/S
E-mail: henrik.moller@prevas.dk, Mobile: +45 2949 9202
About Prevas
With cutting edge expertise in embedded systems and industrial IT, Prevas
contributes by providing innovative solutions that create growth. Prevas was
founded in 1985, and the company is the main supplier and development partner to
leading companies in industries such as life science, telecommunications,
vehicle, defense, energy and engineering. Offices are located in Sweden,
Denmark, Norway and India. The company has approximately 600 employees. Prevas
has been listed on the NASDAQ OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm since 1998.
For more information, see www.prevas.com.
