Ultra-Low Power Bluetooth

There are over 2 billion devices in use today that are Bluetooth capable.  These devices are used in a wide variety of applications, from the standard wireless earpiece for the cell phone and wireless connections for gaming devices, to healthcare and wireless security applications.  As with every wireless industry, however, battery life is a big issue.  Out of the desire for greater battery life, Ultra-Lower Power (ULP) Bluetooth was born.

The main differences between classic Bluetooth and ULP Bluetooth are distance of transmission, latency (time to connect to a Bluetooth device), data delivery time and active data scanning circuits.  By shortening the distance of transmission and the time for latency and data delivery, as well as having no constantly active data scanners, power consumption can be cut down by a minimum of half.  By cutting power consumption by that much, battery lifetime is extended ranging from months to years.

ULP Bluetooth is the fourth release of Bluetooth technology.  The goal of each of the previous releases was higher data rate capabilities (standard of about 2.1 Mbps for most applications in third release); however, with a higher data rate come power efficiency and shorter battery life.  The fourth release (ULP) is limited to a 1 Mbps data rate, but the slightly smaller data rate is easily made up for in battery life and a wider range of uses.

The market for short range wireless technologies has no device that is really a universal solution to a wide range of problems.  Many of the current technologies are made for specific applications and are not cross compatible.  ULP Bluetooth has dual-mode functionality, meaning it is compatible with classic Bluetooth, as well as new ULP applications.  This gives the market the closest thing to a universal fix (device compatible with the current 2 billion+ products), while giving birth to new and better solutions to current problems.  Learn more about high tech electronic technology at Matrix’s blog.