Bruce Krulwich

A new market is emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic for systems that enforce social distancing regulations and trace who was in contact with people later found to be infected. These systems will be needed by sites open to the public, such as malls, stores, airports, hospitals and museums, as well as private sites such as offices and factories. The challenge in building such systems is that GPS, commonly used for location awareness, only works outside and not indoors.

For sixteen years Decawave, based in Ireland, has been developing, promoting and selling chips for ultra-wideband, also called UWB. After years of trailblazing the UWB market as a small privately held company, it was announced Wednesday that Decawave will be acquired by Qorvo (QRVO), a major American chipmaker focusing on RF (radio) solutions. UWB is a radio technology that can measure distance and location very precisely.