Overview

WiQuest’s Wireless USB PCI Express® (PCIe™) half mini card Reference Design is the smallest wireless USB solution on the market today based on Certified Wireless USB from the USB-IF.

It provides an efficient means of upgrading traditional PC’s to incorporate wireless USB 2.0 high-speed connectivity by using the PCIe half mini card (H2) form factor. Since communication is handled through USB, it does not require an additional PCI Express lane for communication. The end result is a more efficient design.

The Wireless USB PCIe half mini card enables manufacturers to build more than just a standard Host Wired Adapter (HWA). When coupled with WiQuest’s Wireless USB Adapter, Wireless USB Hub or another Wireless USB PCIe half mini card on the device side, the hardware and software provides a complete, highly-integrated, end-to-end solution.

The reference design is shipped as a complete, hardware and software package. The hardware package includes schematics, layout source files, a detailed bill-of-material, design manual, user’s guide, and a quickstart guide. The software package includes a Host Wired Adapter (HWA) and Device Wired Adapter (DWA) driver/firmware; also included is a Windows utility which supports auto-discovery, multiple association options, and field upgrade functionality

The Wireless USB PCIe half mini card is designed around WiQuest’s WQST110 and WQST101 chipset. The WQST110 device includes a full ultrawideband (UWB) media access controller (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) baseband processor. It also includes a fully-integrated USB 2.0 sub-system. The WQST101 device is a direct conversion UWB RF transceiver. These two devices and related components easily fit into a standard PCIe half mini card form factor.

A complete, Wireless USB solution is possible using the same chipset. Utilizing the same hardware and software baseline means that the WQST110/101 chipset can be used for both ends of the solution (host and device). WiQuest provides the total solution.

WiQuest’s Wireless USB PCIe half mini card supports all standard WiMedia data rates from 53 Mbps to 480 Mbps. In addition, WiQuest has extended the WiMedia standard to include 1 Gbps data rate. WiQuest's advanced Forward Error Correction (FEC) techniques allow higher data rates, improves the performance of the lower data rates, and enables a more robust overall solution.

Reference Design Highlights

Contains a complete design implementation


• WiQuest high-speed UWB chipset
• Printed circuit board
• Enclosure assembly
• Passive components
• UWB antenna
• Firmware
• Drivers and utilities
• Manufacturing diagnostics


Includes supporting documentation

• Schematics
• Detailed layout
• Bill of material
• User's guide
• Quick start setup

Wireless USB PCI Express Half Mini Card Usage Scenario

System Features

UWB Wireless System

• Uses WQST110/101 high performance UWB chipset
• WiMedia-standard PHY and MAC
• Supports UWB data rates from 53 Mbps to 480 Mbps
• Supports WiQuest extended data rates from 640 - 1024 Mbps
• Includes built-in encryption engine
• No external memory required

USB Interface

• Fully-integrated USB 2.0 subsystem includes high-speed USB transceiver
• 480 Mbps high-speed mode
• 12 Mbps full-speed mode
• 1.5 Mbps low-speed mode
• Bulk, interrupt, and isochronous data transfer capability

Software Support

• Wireless USB
• Host wired adapter (HWA)
• WiQuest Control Center application
• Customer-configurable details
• Device auto-discovery support
• Initial setup wizard
• Multiple association options
• Automatic, pop-up, manual
• Field upgradeable
• Loads from host or EEPROM Diagnostics

Diagnostics

• Interface routines for standard I/O
• Calibration and compliance testing
• Functional system tests
• System rate, range, and throughput performance

Board Specifications

• Size: PCIe Half mini card (H2) form factor
  • 30.0 mm x 26.8 mm
• Focus on lowest cost BOM
• Antenna connector
• Key components include antenna, EEPROM, oscillator, and power regulator

Design Kit Contents

• Complete PCB and assembly
• Schematics
• Layout details
• Bill of materials
• Documentation
• Characterization, and certification results

Wireless USB PCI Express Half Mini Card Block Diagram

Product Benefits

• Enables rapid development, manufacturing and production of end equipment designs
• Accelerates customer UWB expertise through turnkey system design approach
• Contains an integrated suite of development, manufacturing, testing and support tools
• Reduces development costs, design risks, and need for extensive internal R+D resources
• Delivers a competitive advantage by improving product time-to-market