Haier uses Nordic chip for connectivity

Qingdao Haier Intelligent Electronics Co., Ltd, of Shandong, China, is using wireless technology from ultra low power (ULP) RF specialist Nordic Semiconductor ASA in its advanced QWERTY keypad-equipped RF/Infrared (IR) remote control. The remote handset utilizes a Nordic nRF24LE1 System-on-Chip (SoC) 2.4GHz ULP transceiver running Haier’s own RF protocol software. An nRF24LU1+ System-on-Chip (SoC) 2.4GHz ULP transceiver and USB 2.0 compliant device controller, incorporated into a compact USB dongle, plugs into the host device (the product to be controlled) to form the other node of the wireless link. The Nordic RF technology enables a bi-directional communication link with sufficient bandwidth for rapid screen refresh and seamless navigation. “The general trend for consumer electronics is for them to become ‘smart’ and customized,” says Lily Huang, Haier’s Marketing Manager. “Our company wants to tap into this market trend when developing new products. For remote control applications such as web browsing on smart TVs, this means upgrading from IR to RF. Having worked with Nordic Semiconductor before, we knew that the company’s RF transceivers offered the low power consumption, low latency and bandwidth we needed for the wireless link in our double-sided RF remote control. “Nordic’s nRF24LE1/nRF24LU1 has been used in millions of wireless desktop peripherals so is a proven solution. Moreover, as Haier excellent new product confirms, it is particularly suitable for RF remote controls,” says Ståle “Steel” Ytterdal, Director Sales & Marketing – APAC, Nordic Semiconductor. “Better yet, Nordic’s proprietary chips, and supporting tools like reference designs and development kits, are readily available today allowing manufacturers to develop a commercial remote control ahead of the wide availability of standards-based ULP wireless technology.”