LTE for IoT chipmaker Sequans Communications S.A. announced that Korean telecommunications device maker, Aprotech, has adopted its Monarch LTE-M/NB-IoT chip technology to develop new LTE IoT devices for worldwide markets, beginning first with Korea.
The first device to come to market under the Sequans/Aprotech agreement will be an IoT kids and pets tracker that Aprotech is designing for operators in Asia. For this, Aprotech is using Sequans’ CLOE (connecting and locating objects everywhere) IoT tracker platform, which integrates Sequans’ Monarch technology with the GNSS technology of STMicroelectronics, for best-in-class location accuracy.
YongNam Jung, CEO, Aprotech, said:
“Sequans is the leader in LTE for IoT technology and we selected Sequans because of the best-in-class power consumption they’ve demonstrated in both the Monarch chip and the CLOE platform.”
“We were also impressed with Sequans’ worldwide single SKU capability and their success in getting Monarch certified with leading operators worldwide—this is very important to our global deployment strategy.”
“Aprotech has quickly become a valued supplier to leading companies in Asia, and we are excited that new Aprotech IoT devices based on Sequans’ Monarch are coming to market,” said Danny Kedar, VP of Sequans IoT Business Unit. “We are sure that our Monarch, the most highly optimized LTE-M/NB-IoT chip in the world with Single-SKU, worldwide deployment capability, will help Aprotech deliver new devices quickly in Korea and Japan and other parts of the world.”
Sequans’ Monarch LTE Cat M1/NB1 Platform is the world’s most highly optimized LTE-M/NB-IoT chip. It provides full support for power saving mode (PSM) and extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) to enable the long battery life needed by many IoT use cases, and it provides the enhanced coverage modes defined in the standard that extend coverage for deep-indoor and remote deployments. Monarch comprises baseband, RF, power management, and RAM, integrated into a single, tiny 6.5 x 8.5 mm package. Monarch also supports advanced features such as programmable RF filtering for global band support in a Single-SKU™, and proprietary dynamic power management technology enabling rock bottom low power consumption of 1 micro amp for long battery life.
CLOE is a turnkey IoT tracker solution for OEMs and ODMs. CLOE integrates LTE with GNSS, a power management unit (PMU), memories and a microcontroller in a very small 30 x 40 mm package. CLOE is intelligently engineered to address multiple tracking applications with best-in-class battery life, location accuracy, reachability, mobility, and reporting periodicity. Designed with separated GNSS, LTE-M, and application domain power systems, CLOE allows its GNSS subsystem to continue to track while other domains are shut down, allowing rock-bottom power consumption.