NXP's Trimension SR250 Offers UWB Radar and Secure Ranging with On-Chip Processing

NXP Semiconductors has announced a new entry in its Trimension family, the Trimension SR250 — the industry's first single-chip solution, it says, to ultra-wideband (UWB) short-range radar and secure ranging with on-chip processing.

"The Trimension SR250 represents the next generation of NXP's advanced UWB solutions, delivering a giant leap towards a world that anticipates and automates," claims NXP's Philippe Dubois of the new chip. "The precise, secure and energy-efficient detection of presence, motion or location enables an almost unlimited number of new user experiences. Our customers across the consumer and industrial IoT will benefit from the reduced power consumption and the streamlined design process enabled by this industry-first solution."

The Trimension SR250 is a 6-8.5GHz UWB radar chip with two operating modes: in the the first it acts as a straightforward short-range radar for detecting human presence, location, and motions as fine as breathing; in the second, two or more Trimension chips or other compatible UWB implementation work in tandem to offer active ranging. Unlike dedicated sensor chips, though, it's also an all-in-one system: NXP says the new model include on-chip radar processing, which can detect motion without involving an external microcontroller or microprocessor.

On the software side, NXP promises full support for the SR250 with firmware, middleware, and sample applications, including easily-accessible application programming interfaces (APIs) for the UWB command interface, a C-language API for radar operation, and example radar applications and algorithms.

The part is sampling now, with general availability expected in the fourth quarter of 2024; more information is available on the NXP website.