NXP targets medical market with wireless communication partnership

Medical electronics is one of the fastest growing areas of semiconductor development and is becoming increasingly important for NXP, according to the company's CTO.

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- Electronic News, 11/26/2008

NXP Semiconductors has formed a partnership with Phonak to develop a single chip, ultra-low power radio for use in hearing systems.

The radio is currently being integrated into Phonak's portfolio of CORE-based hearing systems and wireless accessories.

“Medical electronics is one of the fastest growing areas of semiconductor development and becoming increasingly important for NXP,” said Rene Penning de Vries, NXP's CTO, in a statement today. “At NXP we value customer engagement and working with the leading players in their field to use technology innovation to help develop new insightful and engaging technology. Our ultra-low power solutions, based on magnetic induction radio technology and CoolFlux DSP, were the cornerstones for this breakthrough project.”

NXP's chip supports data rate of up to 298 kbps and bi-directional communication, which the company said allows novel applications such as stereo audio streaming and binaural processing.

"Within this particular project, miniaturization was a key requirement and we worked closely with Phonak’s engineers to develop a highly integrated solution, utilizing embedded non-volatile memory, and supporting direct operation from a single battery,” said Antoine Delaruelle, NXP's senior director and manager of ultra-low power solutions, NXP, in the statement.

Phonak is headquartered near Zurich, and has developed, produced, and distributed hearing systems and wireless devices for more than 50 years.