Renesas has teamed up with consultancy Altran to develop a social distancing wearable platform based on ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology – earlier this year Renesas licensed UWB technology from fabless chip firm 3db Access.

3db-Access-UWB-LRP
Physically, it is a band worn like a wristwatch, combining Renesas’ S128 MCU with secure ranging based on 3db Access’ 3DB6830 UWB chip.
It is a message-and-reply system, with both/all participants needing to wear the band. 
“Unlike other social distancing wearables based on technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy [BLE], Renesas’ UWB chipset can measure distances with an accuracy [error] of 10cm or less, the precision necessary for social distancing applications.”

The wearer is alerted by LEDs and haptic feedback when a second device is detected within a set range – the wearable’s trigger distance is user-configurable.
The company is also claiming low power consumption through using UWB ‘low rate pulse’ (LRP) operation.
“After months of global pandemic shutdowns, people will want to feel safe when they return to work, school and social settings in close proximity to others,” said Renesas MCU business head Roger Wendelken. “I’m pleased our collaboration with Altran is about responding to the Covid-19 pandemic with the first LRP UWB social distance wristwatch solution. Renesas plans to expand to more use cases in the future such as access control, asset tracking and geo-fencing.”
As co-developer and system integrator, Altran will add the UWB-based platform to other internal assets to develop wearable solutions for social distancing as well as related location-based applications.
“This has been a unique and rewarding project, collaborating with Renesas to bring the first LRP UWB-based social distancing wristwatch to market,” said Altran president Scott Houghton. “We’re excited to introduce this platform to other markets; its form factor, power efficiency and accuracy make it an excellent fit in both Covid and non-Covid applications across our vertical industries.”
The social distancing wristwatch will be showcased in Altran’s innovation lab.
Renesas will begin sampling the UWB chipset during the second half of 2021.
3db Access’ 3DB6830 chip works at 6-8GHz (following the 802.15.4z frequency plan) and is IEEE 802.15.4f compatible. It includes a purpose-built MAC layer for secure distance bounding, and has been designed to counter logical-layer and physical-layer distance modification attacks.
Nanosecond long UWB pulses are used (compliant to IEEE 802.15.4f) and time-of-flight is measured using out-and-back timing. Energy per measurement is 10μJ.