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LSR, a Laird business and a global leader in certified modules and design services for wireless product development, is introducing two new solutions that help companies design and certify wirelessly-connected products quickly and successfully.

Practical applications might include security and building automation, making enterprise or personal devices “wireless” to connect to the internet, medical devices, M2M applications, vehicle telematics, smart gateways, and other uses to provide wireless connectivity to a multitude of devices and equipment.

These new solutions, based on Cypress Semiconductor Corp. radios, expand LSR’s Sterling family of Wi-Fi + Bluetooth multi-standard modules, joining the popular Sterling-LWB 2.4 GHz certified module, which is ideally suited for adding wireless connectivity to products employing a microprocessor with a LINUX operating system (see photos below).

The two new solutions, which are an extension of the current Sterling line, are:

• The Sterling-LWB5 certified dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi®, Bluetooth®, and Bluetooth® Smart module. Like the Sterling-LWB, this module enables companies to easily add wireless capabilities to electronic products typically running Linux, with the Sterling-LWB5 offering the additional capabilities of dual-band Wi-Fi with full support of the IEEE 802.11ac standard.

• A new Sterling-LWB for WICED reference platform provides electronics developers everything needed to add both embedded Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity in one device where a [microprocessor is not needed or used. This comprehensive reference platform and documentation enables engineers to use the popular Cypress WICED software development kit (SDK) for Internet of Things (IoT) development for microcontroller-based applications.

Both the Sterling-LWB and Sterling-LWB5 utilize latest-generation silicon technology that Cypress acquired from Broadcom in July 2016. The Sterling-LWB5 uses the powerful Cypress BCM43353 chipset to create one of the very first commercially available certified modules that offers IEEE 802.11ac capabilities for ultra-high data rate 5 GHz band Wi-Fi connectivity.

The Sterling-LWB5 is one of the very first certified module solutions to meet the growing demand for IEEE 802.11ac capabilities, while also offering classic Bluetooth and BLE connectivity. Much like the Sterling-LWB, the Sterling-LWB5 offers significant value to developers by offering more options, more certifications, and a greater variety of antenna choices, which altogether provides greater flexibility to meet their specific design requirements. Additional features of the Sterling-LWB5 include:

• The Sterling-LWB5 will be offered in three different configurations to best meet the needs of a specific application, each boasting an industrial temperature rating of -40° to +85° C.
• For designs where space is a premium, a small footprint system-in-package (SiP) version is sized at just 10 mm x 10 mm.
• To significantly reduce design time and risk by simplifying antenna implementation, the Sterling-LWB5 will also be available in two 15.5 mm x 21 mm configurations featuring a choice of either an on-module chip antenna or U.FL connector for an external antenna.
• The chip antenna and U.FL connector variants of the Sterling-LWB5 will be pin-compatible with its Sterling-LWB counterpart. That means a customer could offer both single- and dual-band Wi-Fi product versions with just a single shared PCB layout design.
• The Sterling-LWB plans to support an unmatched breadth of certifications with numerous antenna options for use in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

Product samples and development boards with an SD card form factor will be available by the end of 2016. Pricing for the Sterling-LWB begins at just $16.99 in 10K unit quantities. For more information about this new module, go to