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NXP’s Tri-Radio SoC Adds Matter to the IoT Connectivity Mix

Jan. 4, 2022

On top of support for Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and 802.15.4, the tri-radio SoC adds support for Matter, a secure and interoperable protocol for smart-home IoT functionality.

David Maliniak

Related To: Microwaves & RF

For further insight on the IW612 Tri-Radio Transceiver, check out Bill Wong's Q&A video with NXP's Larry Olivas.

Check out our CES 2022 coverage.

One of the bugaboos that has inhibited adoption of smart-home technology by consumers is the frustration of poor interoperability. There’s no guarantee that a device from one OEM will play nice with a device from another, which defeats the whole smart-home rationale. NXP Semiconductors hopes to address that frustration with its new IW612, the industry’s first secure tri-radio device to support the Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and 802.15.4 protocols.

Part of NXP’s new family of tri-radio products, the IW612 device enables seamless, secure connectivity for smart-home, automotive, and industrial use cases, and supports the new groundbreaking Matter connectivity protocol. The IW612 frees consumers from the restrictions of single-protocol ecosystems, allowing them to enjoy seamless interoperability across different ecosystems and wireless network technologies. Additionally, developers benefit from NXP’s state-of-the-art coexistence capability, which enables simultaneous support of three radios on a single device, reducing costs and development time.

In a bid to reduce that interoperability frustration found with disparate smart-home devices, NXP has endowed the IW612 with support for Matter. This new standardized, IP-based IoT connectivity protocol, designed by a consortium of industry leaders including NXP, unifies how devices communicate, independent of the manufacturer or wireless technology. The protocol creates more connections between more objects thereby simplifying development for manufacturers and compatibility for consumers.

To support a new era of interoperability, the IW612 integrates three of the industry’s leading connectivity radios onto a single device for the first time, delivering robust radio performance and integrating a high-performance RF front end that includes low-noise amplifiers, high-power amplifiers, and switches. This technology combination enables true interoperability in the smart home, significantly reducing development time, simplifying design, and reducing costs. The highly integrated solution overcomes hardware co-existence challenges that developers face today, while also enabling advanced security protocols to help thwart the ever-increasing number of security threats faced by the IoT. The IW612 offers secure boot, debug, and over-the-air firmware updates for ongoing protection, as well as WPA3 security and hardware encryption engines.

The IW612 is a great fit for border routers, bridges and gateways in the smart home that require connecting Thread or Bluetooth devices to the cloud using the integrated Wi-Fi 6 radio. Additionally, the IW612 enables communication between Matter devices regardless of whether the devices use Wi-Fi or Thread. This allows Matter-over-Wi-Fi products to control and monitor Matter-over-Thread devices, and vice versa, for seamless interoperability.

In providing tri-radio integration, the IW612 serves multiple needs. Wi-Fi 6 serves to reduce network congestion, extend range, improve robustness, and lower power consumption. Bluetooth 5.2 provides for audio transmission (A2DP and LE Audio) and network commissioning. The 802.15.4 radio serves the Matter protocol with Thread mesh networking.

The IW612 is sampling now and will be demonstrated live at CES 2022 in NXP’s booth CP-18 (LVCC, Central Plaza & Silver 3).

About the Author

David Maliniak | Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF

I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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About me:

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.