Qualcomm has launched the ultra-low-power Bluetooth SoCs with Qualcomm TrueWireless Mirroring technology for True Wireless Stereo (TWS) devices. The Qualcomm QCC514X (premium tier) and Qualcomm QCC304X (entry/mid-tier) SoCs are designed to improve robustness and connectivity and increase battery life and comfort. The SoCs have integrated hardware for Hybrid Qualcomm Active Noise Cancellation (Hybrid ANC) and Voice Assistant support.
‘Customers rely on us to deliver premium sound with long battery life and robust truly wireless connectivity. This exciting new Qualcomm TrueWireless Mirroring technology is designed to deliver on those vital features when using wireless earbuds and headphones. We have added voice assistant support at all tiers as well as integrated digital Hybrid ANC without compromising power consumption,’ said James Chapman, Vice President and General Manager, Voice, Music & Wearables, Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd.
Qualcomm TrueWireless Mirroring technology: With Qualcomm TrueWireless Mirroring, one earbud is wirelessly connected to the phone while the other bud mirrors the connected bud. The second bud also has a rapid swap feature. If the user removes the first bud that is connected to the phone from their ear, the mirroring bud establishes the connection with the phone.
Hybrid ANC: The dedicated ANC hardware in the SoC enables super-low latency leak-through of the outside environment for better awareness of the surroundings. The QCC514x and QCC304x SoCs are claimed to deliver up to 13 hours of playtime on a 65mAh battery. The former offers dedicated support for Always-on Voice (wake-word) activation, and the latter offers push-button voice activation.
The news comes a day after Samsung launched all-in-one power management integrated circuits (PMIC), MUA01, and MUB01. They have been designed for the charging case and the earbuds and are one-of-a-kind fully-integrated solutions optimised for TWS devices. Samsung says that it combined several of the company’s in-house logic technologies to integrate up to ten discrete components into one, including switching chargers and discharge circuits.
This combination enables the PMICs to occupy less than half the space than what was required by the previous generations, which means that OEMs can now allot more room to the battery for longer playback time and enable more flexible designs. ‘Samsung’s industry-first, all-in-one power management solutions optimised for TWS devices will allow manufacturers to craft new applications with greater flexibility,’ said Dong-ho Shin, senior vice president of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics.
Samsung says that the MUA01 is also the industry’s first solution to support both wireless and wired charging in a single chip. It also has a microcontroller unit (MCU) and embedded Flash (eFlash), which will allow manufacturers to modify its firmware to support other applications. The MUA01 and MUB01 are currently in mass production and are featured in Samsung’s recently-announced Galaxy Buds+ TWS earbuds.
