Compact low-power GNSS receiver module extends runtime by 500%

Antenova Ltd is releasing the GNSSNOVA M20071, a brand new GNSS receiver module, with power consumption lowered five-fold to allow smaller tracker designs and trackers that run five times longer.

The module is suitable for small tracking devices that function from Li-ion batteries, where a lower power need is a clear advantage. These are generally small mobile trackers, personal fitness devices, pet trackers, and location trackers for bikes and e-scooters.

The device simultaneously tracks the GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou constellations, enhancing position accuracy, particularly in urban environments. Based on the newest generation chip from Mediatek, it draws 17mW of power when receiving GPS only and 21mW receiving all constellations.

GNSSNOVA M20071 measures 9mm x 9mm x 1.8mm. Pairing this with one of the company's compact SMD antennas makes a compact RF solution and a way to realise slimmed-down tracker designs. It offers several GNSS antennas to enable a compact RF product to be developed – particularly the low-profile Sinica chip antenna and the Bentoni FPC antenna.

Michael Castle, product marketing manager at Antenova, says, "Designers using M20071 and our low profile GNSS antennas can specify much smaller designs than with the usual patch antennas."

The module incorporates an integrated SAW filter and LNA, TCXO and RTC to improve performance and speed up first position fix.

The device incorporates EASY (Embedded Assist SYstem), which speeds up TTFF. It generates synthetic ephemeris data instead of downloading it from the satellite, decreasing power consumption. The warm start time using EASY is around 2 secs compared to 25 secs without it. It further lowers total power consumption for applications that wake up periodically to get a position so that a smaller battery can be specified. The device also includes EPO, which is Assisted-GNSS. EPO receives assistance data from a website to speed up the TTFF.