Date: 27/03/2017

India semiconductor news: IoT radio by Aura uses Bluetooth IP from Mindtree

Bengaluru, India based semiconductor company Aura semiconductor has launched a IOT radio solution supporting Bluetooth low energy/82.1 5.4 radio targeting the growing market of Internet of things. The specialty of IOT radio block from Aura is, it offers transceiver performance of 96dBm RX sensitivity, 0dBm TX output power with an option of +6dBm output and also the best RX blocker performance on all channels of BTLE, all this in a tiny 0.5 mm2 silicon area, as per data-specs shared by Aura. To expand the specs further, Aura’s Bluetooth IOT radio features receiver-peak- current of 5 mA and a transmitter-peak-current of 5.4 mA from a 1.1V rail in TSMC 40nm fab node.

Aura has partnered with another Bengaluru-based leading semiconductor design services company Mindtree to use its latest Bluetooth IP for Aura’s IOT radio. Bluetooth IP expert Mindtree is a long-time leader in Bluetooth IP and has actively participated in creation of new version of Bluetooth specifications. Mindtree says it is the first company in the world to qualify its Bluetooth 4.2 IP. Mindtree's Bluetooth IP Product Portfolio covers Bluetooth low energy 5 and 4.2 Bluetooth Controller and Digital PHY, Bluetooth 5 and 4.2 Dual Mode Stack and Profiles, Mesh over Bluetooth low energy, IPv6 Stack over Bluetooth low energy or 802.15.4, IEEE-11073 Personal Health Device IP over Bluetooth low energy and USB.

Aura has also partnered with ARM suggesting SOC chip designers a combined solution of ARM Cordio radio IP and Aura’s RF transceiver gives a better choice in process nodes and foundry support.

Srinath Sridharan, the CEO of Aura claims the RF transceiver by Aura is the best in the market offering the lowest power consumption but takes only one third of the silicon area compared to its competitors. This combined solution is already licensed by some of the leading semiconductor companies.

The other semiconductor IP/products from Aura includes Low Noise Fractional-N PLL Technology, speakerphone amplifier, and headphone amplifiers.

Aura's board of directors include semiconductor industry veteran Lip-Bu Tan, founder and chairman of Walden International, a leading venture capital firm for semiconductor startup companies. Lip-Bu Tan is also CEO of leading EDA vendor Cadence Design Systems. Ganapathy Subramaniam, the founder of analog IP vendor Cosmic Circuits which was sold to cadence in 2013, is also a member of board of directors of Aura. The other three members in the board of directors are Srinath Sridharan, Kishore Ganti, and Shyam Somayajula, who are all senior VLSI experts earlier worked at NXP and ST Ericsson.