January 11, 2006

World's Smallest GPS Receiver

You want a GPS in a small device? Well here you go, the world's smallest GPS receiver. The company is Rakon and they are out of New Zealand, and from the looks of things, it's pretty small. Rakon has just developed a module, as tiny as a baby's fingernail, and is already fielding calls from GPS manufacturers looking to imbed the product in their own new developments.

Brent Robinson, Rakon's Managing Director, says the tiny radio receiver is a complete 'plug and play' unit, which makes it uniquely simple for GPS designers to embed into their devices.

"It will mean GPS manufacturers can meet market demand to miniaturize devices, while offering improved capability." says Robinson.

"Our R&D team has come up with a high sensitivity unit that can enable quite weak signals to be received, which is a real breakthrough in an industry that needs to have products that will function in urban environments with very high interference."

He says the company is now further developing the unit to provide up to three times greater sensitivity in its next generation, even before the first development is out the door.

Brent Robinson says the miniaturization of the GPS RF module is strategically very important for Rakon as it provides more value-add on its core technology. He says it has the potential to provide between 20-30% of the companyâ€™s revenue over the next two years.

Rakon produces high performance crystals and oscillators and the company is regarded as a world leader in the field. Currently over half of all GPS products manufactured today have a Rakon crystal or oscillator driving them.

All GPS receivers use quartz crystals in the decoding of satellite positioning data by oscillating at very specific frequencies; Rakon was the first to develop temperature-controlled crystal oscillators that were small, inexpensive and yet still precise enough under the dynamic temperature changes that GPS systems experience.