Xtendwave selects TowerJazz for next gen WWVB atomic timekeeping signal receiver products

ISRAEL & USA: TowerJazz and Xtendwave, a fabless semiconductor company focused on the development of physical-layer communication technologies, announced the selection of TowerJazz to provide foundry support for Xtendwave's EverSet radio controlled clock receiver products.

EverSet products will be capable of receiving the new WWVB atomic-timekeeping broadcast developed by Xtendwave under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a government organization responsible for the transmission of the WWVB time signal.

Xtendwave has designed radio receivers capable of receiving the WWVB signal with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) much lower than present designs. WWVB is the station that radio-controlled (atomic) clocks in the US use for synchronization.

The new standard is currently being tested for potential broadcast across North America by NIST from its facility in Fort Collins, Colorado. Xtendwave's EverSet® technology will provide orders-of-magnitude improvement in reception compared to existing products based on the current broadcast format. Xtendwave's design will be manufactured using TowerJazz's TS18SL process in its Fab 2.

EverSet ICs will be used in clocks, watches, small appliances, automobiles, utility meters, personal electronics and more, a market estimated at a total of about 200 million non-networked clock-enabled devices sold in the US each year.

Xtendwave's EverSet receiver technology provides manufacturers of clocks, watches, and other products with a cost-effective chip that can receive and decode the new WWVB broadcast and offers reliable timekeeping and ubiquitous reception across North America. The CMOS implementation of EverSet requires minimal external component count and also allows it to be integrated as an IP core into existing CMOS system-on-chip (SoC) solutions.

"By using TowerJazz's CMOS technology, Xtendwave can offer a high-performance, cost-effective receiver IC for the new WWVB broadcast standard," said Ilan Rabinovich, VP of Customer Support and GM of CMOS Business Unit.

"We are very pleased to work with TowerJazz on our next generation atomic timekeeping signal products, as we believe their process offers great flexibility along with cost effectiveness," said Dennis I. Robbins, president of Xtendwave. "We are thrilled to be at the forefront of technology for the next generation of WWVB atomic timekeeping as we continue to proactively address this growing market."