Embedded Executive Podcast Embedded Executive: LE-UWB Touts Low Power Plus High Bandwidth | SPARK Microsystems
Feb 18, 2026
Frederic Nabki, co-founder and CTO of SPARK Microsystems, pioneers low-energy ultra-wideband wireless. He discusses LE-UWB’s higher bandwidth and microsecond latency compared to Bluetooth LE. Topics include energy-efficient radio design, robustness to interference, current transceiver products and real-world use cases like gaming, wearables, audio links and industrial low-latency applications.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Startup Origin And Ongoing IEEE Standardization
- Spark started the LE-UWB effort as a startup in 2016, opened standardization in 2019 and the technology is in IEEE draft for 802.15.x extension.
- That path aims to move LE-UWB from proprietary silicon toward broader ecosystem adoption.
LE-UWB Delivers Low Latency High Throughput And Efficiency
- LE-UWB targets data communications using the same license-free UWB spectrum but with a different waveform and architecture for four core benefits.
- Those benefits are ~100 µs data latency, 41 Mbps PHY, 1–2 nJ/bit efficiency, and high interference robustness across ~3 GHz of spectrum.
LE-UWB Beats BLE On Latency And Throughput
- Compared to Bluetooth Low Energy, LE-UWB reduces end-to-end audio latency from ~50–100 ms down to ~3 ms and data latency to ~100 µs.
- PHY throughput is ~41 Mbps versus BLE's ~2 Mbps, enabling near-wired experiences for peripherals.