Monarch complies with the ultra-low-power and reduced complexity requirements of the 3GPP release 13 LTE Advanced Pro standard, according to Sequans.
LTE chipmaker Sequans Communications has rolled out what it claims is the world’s first LTE-M chip for the Internet of Things, the Monarch.
Built on TSMC’s ultra-low-power (ULP) technology, Monarch is a highly optimised LTE-M (Cat M1) and NB-IoT (Cat NB1) capable chip targeting narrowband IoT applications, including sensors, wearables as well as other low data, low power M2M and IoT devices.
Monarch complies with the ultra-low-power and reduced complexity feature requirements of the 3GPP release 13 LTE Advanced Pro standard, defining narrowband, low data rate LTE technology for machine type communications, according to the Sequans.
The chip provides full support for Power Saving Mode (PSM) and extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) to enable the long battery life needed by many IoT use cases, and it provides the enhanced coverage modes defined in the standard that extend coverage for deep-indoor and remote deployments. Monarch comprises baseband, RF, power management, and RAM, all integrated into a single, 6.5mm x 8.5mm package. In addition, Monarch supports advanced features such as programmable RF filtering for global band support in a single SKU, and proprietary dynamic power management technology enabling battery life of 10+ years.
Monarch has already been designed into numerous LTE for IoT devices, including devices recently announced by Gemalto, NimbeLink, Link Labs, Encore Networks and PyCom.
