Product Showcase: Synaptics’ SYN4778: Low-Power, Small, Accurate GNSS IC for IoT Devices

March 06, 2023

Sponsored Story

The IoT has required products to be developed in many ancillary categories, particularly when it comes to communications. For example, Synaptics recently announced the SYN4778, what it claims is the industry’s the smallest, lowest power, most accurate Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) IC.

The chip draws 80% less power than comparable devices, comes in a package that is 30% smaller, and provides a 50% accuracy improvement in advanced location-based services (LBSs) for IoT devices. Such devices would include wearables, mobile accessories, asset tagging and tracking systems, drones, and transportation navigation.

A GNSS receiver is typically a relatively power-hungry component in battery-powered IoT devices. The SYN4778’s advanced 7-nm semiconductor process and on-chip power management greatly reduce this power draw. In addition, the chip uses both the L1 and L5 satellite bands to reduce the GNSS chip’s time to first fix (TTFF) by 35% and the power consumed for first fix by 72%. In addition to reducing the power, this results in a better end-user experience. That gained power budget can also be used for additional features, such as biometrics and movement or ambient sensors. In addition, IoT device developers can now couple GPS with complementary localization features such as Bluetooth’s High Accuracy Distance Measurement (HADM).

Additional features of the SYN4778 include:

• Advanced multipath interference mitigation using L5 band signals from GPS, Galileo, BeiDou, NAVIC, SBAS, and Quasi Zenith Satellite Systems (QZSS)
• LTE jamming and signal filtering, and continuous—highly parallel—search and track of the complete GNSS channels (including the L5 band) for greater positioning accuracy for LBS applications, particularly in urban environments
• Support for multiple operating systems (such as Android, Linux, and FreeRTOS) and third-party software to enable a broader range of application-optimized IoT devices
• Low-noise, high-linearity RF front end makes an external LNA and second SAW filter optional to reduce BOM and increase layout flexibility
• Measures 2.4 x 2.7 mm (40-ball FCBGA package)
• 50% improvement in accuracy achieved in deep urban city environment

The SYN4778 is currently sampling to select customers.

The SYN4778 GNSS IC will be on display at embedded world in booth 4A-259. Stop by for a demo or to see Synaptics’ other wireless, Edge AI, automotive, and audio solutions.