NXP and Widex Bring Industry’s Most Power-efficient, Wireless Audio Streaming Hearing Aids to Market
July 06 2017 - 2:00AM
NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ:NXPI) and Widex, one of the world’s
leading hearing aid producers, announced that they have
collaborated to develop, test and integrate NXP’s NxH2003 Bluetooth
Low Energy (BLE) audio streaming SoC into Widex BEYOND™ hearing
aids. The two companies worked closely together throughout the
product development cycle, merging the best of hearing aid
engineering and wireless audio streaming semiconductor technology,
to deliver hearing aid devices that can stream wireless audio from
an iOS device, consuming only 2.8 mA current at 1.2 Volts, which is
best in industry. This allows end users to enjoy music directly
from their personal devices for prolonged periods of time.
“Widex has always been well-known in the industry for low-power
consumption,” said Widex CEO Jørgen Jensen. “Integrating NXP’s
NxH2003 means we are able to live up to that reputation while still
supporting power-hungry Bluetooth streaming applications. We use
less power when streaming 25 percent of the time than any of the
comparable hearing aids. Our competitors can’t match that even when
they don’t stream.”
“This announcement reinforces our leading position as a trusted
supplier and innovator in the hearing aid industry,” said Chae Lee,
senior vice president and general manager of NXP’s secure interface
and power solutions business. “Our hearing aid customers demand the
lowest energy consumption and smallest footprint while adding
wireless streaming and increasing processing power. The NXP NxH2003
meets these conflicting requirements. As NXP has proven with Near
Field Magnetic Induction (NFMI) technology, and its MiGLO solutions
that enabled truly wireless stereo audio streaming, NXP expects to
deploy its industry-leading, low-power BLE audio streaming
technology in the adjacent hearables market as well.”
NXP’s state-of-the-art BLE 4.1 certified solution measures only
7.25mm2 and has industry-lowest receive and transmit power levels
of 4mW and 7mW respectively. The NxH2003 forms a total solution for
ultra-low power wireless audio streaming as it embeds both an M0
microcontroller (running the protocol stack and application), as
well as an embedded CoolFluxTM DSP (running all of the required
audio processing including sample rate conversion and audio
[de]compression). Furthermore, this advanced IC is highly
integrated and can run directly from a Zinc-Air battery as
typically used in hearing aids, which minimizes the number of
external components and consequently reduces the volume of the end
product.
Technologies and solutions for hearing aids and consumer
hearables are converging as both markets share closely related use
cases while at the same time facing similar end-user requirements
and technology barriers. Both markets strive to design smaller and
more comfortable end devices exhibiting longer battery life.
Additionally, both hearing aid and consumer hearables companies
recognize that users desire more functionality from their devices,
ranging from the ability to sync with their phones, for calls,
music, and games to biometric measurements for health
monitoring.
NXP offers solutions for both markets. NXP has been providing
proprietary NFMI (Near Field Magnetic Induction) technology to the
hearing instrument industry for nearly a decade. And at CES earlier
this year, the company debuted its NFMI-based MiGLO solutions with
several OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) in smart consumer
hearables. The NXP MiGLO platform is designed to enable long
battery life, exceptional audio quality and reliable wireless
experiences while enabling the development of smarter, smaller and
comfortable truly wireless earbuds or hearables.
About Widex At Widex we believe in a world
where there are no barriers to communication; a world where people
interact freely, effortlessly and confidently. With sixty years’
experience developing state-of-the-art technology, we provide
hearing solutions that are easy to use, seamlessly integrated in
daily life and enable people to hear naturally. As one of the
world’s leading hearing aid producers, our products are sold in
more than a hundred countries and we employ 4,000 people worldwide.
Read more at www.widex.com.
About NXP Semiconductors NXP Semiconductors
N.V. (NASDAQ:NXPI) enables secure connections and infrastructure
for a smarter world, advancing solutions that make lives easier,
better and safer. As a world leader in secure connectivity
solutions for embedded applications, NXP is driving innovation in
the secure connected vehicle, end-to-end security & privacy and
smart connected solutions markets. Built on more than 60 years of
combined experience and expertise, the company has 31,000 employees
in more than 33 countries and posted revenue of $9.5 billion in
2016. Find out more at www.nxp.com.
NXP, the NXP logo, and MIGLO are trademarks of NXP B.V. All
other product or service names are the property of their respective
owners. All rights reserved. © 2017 NXP B.V.
For more information, please contact:
NXP Semiconductors
Tate Tran
Tel: +1 408-802-0602
Email:tate.tran@nxp.com
Widex
Andrew Arnold
Tel: +45 44 35 56 51
Email:aarn@widex.com
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