[Overview and Design Intentions]
With the prospect that our Bluetooth® LE module customers will be applying silicone coating to their LE modules for dustproofing and waterproofing purposes, Hosiden flexibly offers Bluetooth® LE modules with customization for this specific application.
For general dustproofing or waterproofing measures, silicone coating agents are applied to the mounted substrates. However, if the antenna of a wireless module has the coating applied, this will cause deterioration of the antenna characteristics in the operating frequency range. This is due a change in the wavelength reduction ratio caused by the silicone (dielectric material). Accordingly, Hosiden is offering a customized Bluetooth® LE module with antenna characteristics that are optimized for such silicone-coated applications. Using the silicone coating agents specified by the customer, we can tune the antenna, so that stable wireless communication is assured while incorporating dustproofing and waterproofing throughout the module. As our first commitment to this service, we plan to release a Bluetooth® LE module which uses the nRF52832 (WLCSP package) manufactured by Nordic for SoC and has regulatory approval in Japan, USA and Canada.
Customization of Bluetooth® LE modules for use with dustproof and waterproof silicone coating
[Case study of Bluetooth® LE modules for silicone coating applications]
・Customer requirements:
Silicone coating is required for the entire board (including the Bluetooth® LE module) for dustproofing and waterproofing.
General-purpose modules from other manufacturers showed deterioration in antenna performance due to their silicone coating, causing reduced wireless communication range and unstable communication. In spite of silicone coating there must be stable wireless communication with no undue interference.
・Our solution:
We propose a module integrating an optimum antenna designed for the inclusion of silicone coating. We have assessed the quality of wireless communication with our modules assembled in customer products. Compared with the general-purpose modules of other manufacturers, Hosiden product increased communication range by a factor of three to four times, while]Hosiden offers not only general Bluetooth® LE module products, but also development and mass production of modules incorporating customization. According to customer needs, we can provide optimum modules backed by our expertise acquired through our development of Bluetooth® LE modules. In addition, we can also provide support for the evaluation of antenna characteristics as well as regulatory certification services.
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