Startup prepares UWB competitor for market

Peter Clarke, EE Times
(02/02/2006 9:48 AM EST)

LONDON — Startup company xG Technology LLC is preparing to bring to market a proprietary technology which it claims offers competition to ultra-wideband (UWB) techniques and can more efficiently use wireless spectrum and support more efficient communication over wireless of wired links than other technologies.

The company announced Thursday (Feb. 2) that it had appointed the London office of Credit Suisse as a strategic advisor, according to a Reuters report. Credit Suisse had been retained to help xG approach vendors of telecommunications infrastructure and boost xG’s presence around the world, the report said.

The company is adopting a licensing business model for its technology and said that first products would be ready for market by the end of the second quarter of 2006, the report added.

The technology patented by xG Technology (Sarasota, Florida) is known as xMax, which the company describes as a novel modulation and encoding technology that allows broadband signals to be transmitted at low power on already used parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The company claimed that xMax can boost the data rates of all wired and wireless communications: “It is not a compression technique, but rather a synergistic mix of two well-established communication approaches that dramatically improves spectrum utilization,” the company said in a section on frequently asked questions at its website.

The company also refers to xG Flash Signaling as a “micro power wideband signal” used by xMax to convey information. xMax uses xG Flash Signaling to transmit wideband data at power levels well below the static noise found in the atmosphere. In addition, xMax uses an encoding system, called Index-N, to reduce sideband emissions while multiplying the data throughput rate. The xMax Variband feature can be used to adjust data rates on-the-fly, xG claimed in the FAQ.

The modulation and demodulation circuitry can be integrated into an FPGA or ASIC for deployment within computers, TV’s, cell phones and basestations, the company said.

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