Nordic Semiconductor, a global leader in low-power wireless connectivity, has developed the world's first silicon-to-cloud positioning solution using Wi-Fi, cellular IoT, and GNSS, offering a unique balance between power consumption and positioning accuracy.


Nordic announced on the 16th that it has recently launched the nRF7000 Wi-Fi companion IC.

It also said that this makes it the world's first sole provider of a complete silicon-to-cloud positioning solution based on Wi-Fi, cellular IoT and GNSS.

Nordic's single-vendor solutions are delivered with world-class technical support to simplify and accelerate product development for Wi-Fi location applications.

The new nRF7000 companion IC is a uniquely low-power Wi-Fi 6 chip optimized for Wi-Fi network scanning in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands.

The nRF7000 supports Service Set Identifier (SSID)-based Wi-Fi positioning together with Nordic's nRF91 Series cellular IoT System-in-Package (SiP).

The nRF7000 IC is an ultra-low-power Wi-Fi SIt is highly optimized for SID scanning and does not support data communication via Wi-Fi.

These optimizations enable Nordic's Wi-Fi positioning solutions to deliver a unique balance between power consumption and positioning accuracy.

Nordic's SSID-based Wi-Fi positioning solution uses the nRF7000 IC for Wi-Fi scanning and the nRF91 Series System-in-Package (SiP) for cellular communication with Nordic's nRF Cloud.

Unlike conventional methods that use cell towers or satellite signals, SSID-based Wi-Fi location detection accurately identifies the tracker's location by scanning the signals of nearby Wi-Fi access points.

The positioning accuracy of these solutions is lower than that of GNSS, better than that of cellular-based solutions, and the power efficiency is better than that of GNSS and almost similar to that of cellular-based solutions.

“Nordic’s focus on low-power wireless technology already enables us to deliver highly efficient solutions for numerous IoT applications. Building on this strength, we were able to deliver a best-in-class solution that combines the Wi-Fi positioning capabilities of the nRF7000 with the cellular and GNSS functionality of the nRF91 Series SiP,” says Kjetil Holstad, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Product Management at Nordic Semiconductor. “Customers can now get this comprehensive low-power positioning solution, along with world-class technical support, from a single vendor. This simplifies the process and saves significant time and money.”

The nRF7000 Wi-Fi companion IC and nRF7002 evaluation kit are available now from Nordic's distribution partners.