UWB (U1) Chip

The USI module shown below very likely contains the Apple U1 chip. Apple claims that its U1 chip uses Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology for spatial awareness, allowing iPhone 11 Pro to understand its precise location relative to other nearby U1-equipped Apple devices.

We are looking forward to hearing more about the capabilities and use-cases Apple has in mind for the U1 chip. And, with all the hype around IoT in the home, we imagine that TechInsights is not the only one interested in learning more about this chip.

So far we know the unlicensed UWB in the Apple iPhones transmits on two different frequencies - 6.24 GHz and 8.2368 GHz. Worth mentioning: the U1 chip can only communicate with other U1 chips. Hence, we expect to be seeing more of the U1 in upcoming Apple products. It would be very interesting if Apple managed to get a U1 chip into the restricted landscape of the Apple Watch Series 5.

UWB and in-room tracking is not a new concept, and has been on Apple’s agenda since before the first iPhone. Others have UWB devices, like the Estimote UWB Beacons TechInsights analyzed back in January of 2018. The Beacons used DecaWave UWB transceivers for precise location of other beacons and tags. For more information on the Estimote Beacon UWB and the Estimote LTE Beacons view a listing of the different reports we have on these parts here.

TechInsights previously completed a Basic Floorplan Analysis of the Decawave DW1000 UWB Radio IC. The report is one of the deliverables of the IoT Connectivity SoC subscription which covers Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, LTE-M/NB-IoT, LoRa, Sigfox, NFC, GNSS, UWB, etc.